A Major Shift

Shepherd or rancher? I hadn’t thought in those terms before hearing the speaker at a church growth conference for pastors in Charlotte, NC.  He said, “One problem with pastors is that you think of yourself as a shepherd with a little flock of sheep. However, I encourage you to adopt a new picture for your life and calling. I am encouraging you to begin picturing yourself as a rancher. Instead of the guy out on a hillside with a few sheep, I want you to begin to see hundreds and thousands of cattle. And as the rancher, you have many hands helping you by personally caring for those steers. Our problem is that we have been thinking too small, and a big part of the problem is that word, shepherd.”  

That statement, heard by hundreds in the 1980s, didn’t seem as impactful as movement-defining rhetoric, but it captured a mood with a yeast-like effect. It began in the 1950s with successful Sunday School enrollment programs, bus ministries, and specialized ministries for children and youth. But I recall that “everything” seemed to change during that period. The church was on a roll, pushed along by televangelism and its dazzling array of stars. Bob Harrington, the chaplain of Bourbon Street, as well as Jimmy Swaggart, Oral Roberts, Rex Humbard, Robert Schuller, and Kathryn Kuhlman, seemed to usher in a new era for the American church following the West Coast Holy Ghost revival. They extended the Jesus Movement into the mainstream evangelical church life. They got a newly accessible enthusiasm, even if you didn’t have the privilege of baptism into the cold waters of the Pacific by a hippie preacher. 

This “word” from the Texas Evangelist was tinkering with what was under the hood. Cows were present in ancient Israel’s history. They were signs of prosperity. “The cattle on a thousand hills” described Jehovah’s riches. Yet the story was always Father and son, sheep and shepherd, temple and priesthood—never cattle and rancher. Yes, Abraham was “very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold,” and Solomon sacrificed 22,000 bulls for the dedication of the temple; however, these riches are described and do not imply a relationship. Our extensive and legendary relationship with the Lord God is that of Shepherd and sheep. David epitomized this in his wonderful psalm, which we call the Shepherd’s Psalm, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” 

The Rancher desires herds too numerous to be counted, the shepherd knows his sheep by name, and they know him. The cattlemen drive their cattle, the shepherd leads. Shepherd and sheep lie down to rest and rise to find water and grass. While the rancher’s strength is found in the riches of numbers, the shepherd's is in the intimate bond forged between him and those over whom he watches. The rancher sees thousands, as the speaker said, the shepherd misses the one. These observations are not casually connected to who we are; they are an essential part of who we are.

Hidden within the word rancher as proclaimed by the conference speaker, is the CEO/Entrepreneur model that has taken ministry by storm under the label of leadership. Pastoral gifts have essentially become forgotten as churches, all hoping to become mega, look for ranchers/leaders, not shepherds.  A generation of young pastors looked to Eugene Peterson for reminders of a role that had largely been forgotten. The vocation of pastor has been replaced by the strategies of religious entrepreneurs with business plans. The result is bloated churches that lack depth beyond the constantly evolving marketing platforms used to attract them, and a clergy that has become adept at giving them what they want —a church in which they can take pride. Due to its size and apparent success, the ranch/church holds a prominent standing in the community, alongside other institutions of power and prestige. In America, we often look for the number of cars in a parking lot to decide whether to eat at a particular restaurant or attend a church service.  Eugene Peterson wrote, “I was astonished to learn in one of these best-selling books (on church life) that the size of my church parking lot had far more to do with how things fared in my congregation than my choice of texts in preaching. I was being lied to, and I knew it.”   I recall sitting in several pastors’ meetings through the years when the parking lot size, location (preferably within sight of a street or highway), and designated areas took a significant part of the agenda, and I, along with others, listened intently. We took notes and applied that knowledge because we did not think improving earthly tabernacles was wrong, and we could not see far enough down the road to ask hard questions. 

Holy men and compassionate shepherds stepped aside for men and women who knew how to get things done quickly and, above all else, with excellence. It wasn’t that those who rose in the ranks were less holy or dedicated to the Lord; it’s that they mixed the medium of ministry to get water from the rock. Closely following cultural trends, the medium has overwhelmed the message. Hence, the message is more human and less divine. It is of such a mixture that our churches are becoming sterile, birthing people into a relationship with the vision and mission of the church. 

Jeremiah prophesied:

 "Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!" declares the Lord.  Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: "Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done," declares the Lord.  Jeremiah 23:1-3

I pray shepherds will be restored to the church once again.

Appropriate Smallness

Samuel said, “Is it not true, though you were little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed you, king over Israel’   1 Samuel 15:17

THE CHURCH MUST ONCE AGAIN ADOPT HUMILITY AS A KEY VIRTUE in the KINGDOM of GOD. The “pride of Life” is stalking every believer in a society baptized in social media, which creates a false reality. This unreal reality wars against everything that is a natural expression of the kingdom, especially the appropriate smallness of the prayer closet where Jesus calls for us to:

But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:6

We are guilty of trading the smallness of the prayer room or closet that brings great victory for the vastness of social media, which yields little. In our pursuit of success, it’s much easier to announce it to the world rather than whisper it to God, which undermines the principle illustrated in Johnathan’s life that “the Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few.” 1 SAMUEL 14:6

This shift has caused major havoc in the church, as sheep no longer find rest in this sacred shepherd/sheep relationship, while “ranchers” are vaunted into stardom and then broken after a swift descent.  The close familial bond broken, the sheep are further victimized as Jeremiah describes, “My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill   and forgot their own resting place.” Jeremiah 50:6

Return

Once, you were like sheep who wandered away.

But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls. 1 Peter 2:25

 

God’s sheep have been scattered. Many of them wandered away because their shepherd became a rancher and didn’t realize they were missing. Others fled because of attacks from predators and the ranchers who monetized and, at times, abused them.

How will they come back to the fold and enter again into peaceful pasture?  

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