Name: JOHN YATES
Topic: PARTNERING - FOSTER SHEPHERDS IN THE MARKETPLACE
Content:
Some years ago I was in Argentina attending a conference on evangelism with delegates from around the world. As part of the conference we traveled by bus or air to various towns and cities to assist the local church in ministering to their community. It was a great time of blessing, miracles were experienced, people saved and lives changed. One morning however God lead me to read Matthew 9:38 and it wasn’t until later in the day that I realized the import of what he was saying. As a group of us traveled by bus to the city of Rosario we enjoyed fellowship and encouragement together anticipating what God was going to do, but as we approached the city the bus rounded a bend and came upon what can only be described as a slum. The contrast between the green fields, comparatively affluent travelers, the luxury coach and the slum and its inhabitants was stark.
God reminded me of the passage I had read that morning. These verses relate the activities of Jesus as he traveled through towns and villages preaching the gospel, healing the sick and teaching in the synagogues, all of the things we were doing on our conference. But the significant thing that God lead me to in this passage was that Jesus stopped what he was doing and saw the people. Depending on the version of the Bible you use, this verse may be translated slightly differently, but in any event – he saw the people. What God was saying to me at that time was ‘don’t get so caught up in your agenda, the things you are doing and even the miracles and the blessings that you fail to see the people’. At that time I was a ‘full-time pulpit minister’, by that I mean I was employed to be a pastor in a local congregation, and I confess that there were many times that I got so caught up in the next part of the church program, the next activity, conference, spiritual retreat or evangelistic endeavour that I failed to see the people. In fact sometimes the whole thing would have gone a lot better if there weren’t any people, especially those with needs. God was very clear, I had to stop and see the people; this is what it is all about.
A little while ago I was getting ready to attend a breakfast with a visiting Christian politician from Asia and once again God drew me to this passage. In the past I had been ‘full-time’ in the pulpit and worked in the secular world in order to pay the bills and fund the ministry, but now I was ‘full-time’ in the business world and pastored a church ‘part-time’ – these descriptions are all wrong – but you know what I mean! Now I saw my primary place of ministry as the marketplace I was engaged in, but God brought me back to this passage of scripture. What he told me was ‘the message I gave you in Argentina when you were a pastor, is the same for you in the marketplace – in other words stop what you are doing and see the people’. God was telling me that my primary role in ministry whether it was in the pulpit or in the marketplace is to see the people.
In business it is very easy to get caught up in making profits, increasing sales and reducing costs so that the people become a commodity or a resource. In fact the language we use reflects that – we don’t refer to our employees as people but human resources. As a minister in the marketplace our primary responsibility is to care for the people that God has given us responsibility for, of course we need to make a profit, otherwise we won’t be in business very long – but we must not get so caught up in our agenda that we fail to see the people and their needs. We can start by learning their names and finding out a little about them. We may discover their needs and probably also their strengths. Once we know them and the things that are important to them we are better able to pray for them and on their behalf and start to fulfill our pastoral responsibility in the marketplace to which we have been called. This week as you go about your day-to-day business in the marketplace remember to stop and see the people, and have compassion on them.
As the people of Israel came to the end of their wandering through the wilderness God spoke to Moses and reminded him that he would not be the one to lead them into the Promised Land. Even though Moses tried he could not change God’s mind so his concern immediately transferred to the people that he had been leading. These people had given Moses a lot of grief, they had been stubborn, disobedient, had argued and complained, had threatened to kill him and more than once rebelled against his leadership, but even now as he was facing his own death his prayer was for them.
Moses asked that God would appoint a leader for these people, someone to teach them what to do and where to go, otherwise they would be like sheep without a shepherd. This same thought was reflected in Jesus’ words in Matthew 9. Whether Jesus voiced his cares aloud or in private conversation to Matthew is not stated but we do know that he had compassion on the people because they were like sheep without a shepherd, distressed and dispirited. He was presumably thinking back to the request of Moses many years before. The people that Jesus saw were poised to enter the Promised Land but they didn’t know what to do or how to get there. The Promise for these people was not a geographic locality but eternal life in the Kingdom of God, and the entrance was through faith in Jesus Christ, but they needed a shepherd to show them the way.
Jesus said that the people were distressed and dispirited because they had no shepherd. He saw the people and he had compassion on them, they didn’t know where to go or how to get there, how would they without anyone to lead them? As you look out at your marketplace what do you see? Do you see people who are lost and lonely and do you have compassion on them? The people in your world need shepherds; they need men and women who are called by God to lead the sheep into good pasture and to protect them against wolves. As Jesus looks at these same people what does he see? Does he see sheep without shepherds or does he see faithful men and women caring for the sheep that have been entrusted to them?
Ed Silvoso writes that the conditions are right for revival in a community when every sheep has a shepherd. In other words when every man, woman and child has someone looking out for and caring for him or her. Revival actually comes when these people know who their shepherds are. Wherever you have been placed in the marketplace you have been given sheep to care for. Not all of these sheep are in the fold yet, some are still wandering the hillside waiting for someone to find them and lead them into safety. The first step is for you and I to take seriously our responsibility for the spiritual well being of the sheep in our care. We do this by praying for them and meeting their needs when we can. You don’t need to go and announce to your workmates and associates that you are their shepherd, just start bringing them and their needs to God. After a while your compassion will be obvious and so will the answers to your prayers and at the right time God will let you lead the sheep into the fold.
Sometimes your ‘sheep’ will give you grief, in the workplace you will probably have to exercise discipline and that may even result in an employees dismissal, but it is essential that just like Moses, you continue to pray for them and seek their welfare. You are their shepherd and it is your responsibility to ‘lead them out and bring them in’, pray that God will give to you, just as he gave to Joshua, the empowering of his Holy Spirit so that you can accomplish the task.
The words spoken through Ezekiel are very harsh; they make for uncomfortable reading for those who consider themselves to be shepherds. And of course this means you and me. God condemns the shepherds of Israel for the things they had not done and finished up by telling them that he had rejected them. We must remember that the things that apply to shepherds apply to all of us in our responsibility to the sheep in our care, whether this is in ‘pastoral’ ministry, the workplace or as mothers and fathers.
The shepherds are first of all condemned for feeding themselves while not looking after the flock, they had not only provided for their own basic needs but in fact had lived luxuriously while failing to care for those in their charge. For those in business this is a serious message, how dare we live in luxury while denying reasonable income to those who work for us? How can we enjoy the pleasures of life while those from whom our profits are derived struggle to make ends meet? The judgment goes further, these shepherds had failed to look after the sick, bind up the broken, bring back those that had gone astray or seek for those that were lost. In fact their severity had caused some of the sheep to go astray and become prey to those that would feed on them.
From this list of offences it becomes clear what sort of things that God expects of his shepherds. They are to look after the sick, help to alleviate emotional and practical needs, assist some to find their way and provide help to those in need. They are to do this in the context of justice and mercy. The shepherd was to care for his sheep before he looked to his own needs. A good shepherd would not go to sleep at night until he was certain that all of his sheep were safe and in the fold. And if there was danger, he may not go to sleep at all.
God looks out at our communities and marketplaces and he expects to see shepherds caring for the sheep. I suspect that too often he will see pastors who are more concerned about their personal needs, salary levels and creature comforts than the lives of the people they are responsible for. And while I do not refer only to paid ‘pastors’ I do not exclude them either. Too often pastors in congregations are more concerned about their budget, buildings and the numbers who turn up on Sunday than they are the personal and spiritual needs of the people in their charge. They work ‘business’ hours and surround themselves with the trappings of office that often make it difficult for hurting people to even get an audience. Pastors in the marketplace do likewise. They are so consumed about the bottom line that they fail to see the hurt in their employee’s faces. The size and furnishing of their offices reflects their image and position while the workers struggle for reasonable facilities to eat in. The manager’s office is air-conditioned but the factory staff swelter in unrelieved heat, dust and dirt.
God demands better from his shepherds. He has appointed them to lead his sheep into good pasture and to keep them safe. Whether those sheep are in the congregation, the community or the marketplace it makes no difference, the shepherd’s responsibility is the same. Who are the sheep that God has entrusted to you? Start with your family, then your neighbourhood, the part of the marketplace you are engaged in, either at work or as you carry out your day-to-day activities and if you pastor a local congregation, then those as well. But remember not all of the flock are in the fold, some are outside and need to be brought in, others have gone astray and need to be brought back. Wherever you are you have sheep to care for, their needs are greater than yours, God has given them to you because he trusts you to look after them – but if you don’t he will take them from you and give them to somebody else!
The great example to shepherds, as in all things, is the lord Jesus Christ. He is the model on which to base all that we do, and this is no less so with his role as chief shepherd. Jesus combines the role of shepherd and Great High Priest in a way that we cannot because it is he who became the sacrifice that satisfied God’s demand for justice and took away the penalty of sin. It is in his role as High Priest that he mediates this sacrifice and secures salvation for all those who exercise faith in him. But we are all called to be priests and to exercise this office in a pastoral way.
A priest makes representation to God on behalf of those that he or she is responsible for. This applies especially to those who are not yet in the fold. In other words those people that have yet to come to faith in the lord Jesus Christ do not have access to the father and they need someone to pray on their behalf. The priest also speaks to the people on behalf of God. In this way the priest mediates between God and his people. The writer to the Hebrews explains that a priest was ‘taken from among men on behalf of men in things pertaining to God’. It was their responsibility to take a stand for those who did not have access to God and to act on their behalf. In your part of the marketplace there are many men, women, boys and girls who have not yet come to faith in the lord Jesus Christ, they need someone to intercede on their behalf. More than that they need someone who understands their needs and their weaknesses, someone who is just like them.
When the person who prays for someone else comes from the same circumstances and background as they do they understand and can treat them and their needs gently. The priest that is taken from among men can ‘deal gently with the ignorant and the misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness’. As a priest in your part of the marketplace you are God’s representative – it is your responsibility to speak on his behalf to those in your care. You are to extend his mercy and love to those who stand in need, offering healing and relief to the broken and sick and giving guidance and direction to the lost. But you are also the representative of the people. It is up to you to bring the needs, hurts and burdens of the people to God and ask on their behalf. You stand in the gap between God and them.
God has chosen you because you understand the needs of those in your community; you have suffered the same pain and frustration. You know what it is like to be rejected and hurt. You have experienced lack of direction, confusion and loss. You have faced similar temptations and trials and you can empathise with those around you. Because of this you can treat them gently and pray on their behalf. You will not be quick to judge because you know that except by God’s grace you would be in the same situation. God can use you because you have experienced his mercy, love and grace and now you have hope you can offer it to others. God also depends on your ability to make his word clear to those you care for and he places confidence in your ability to make his good news plain.
This is why you are in the place you are, as a shepherd of God’s sheep he has given you a priestly role. He has chosen you to act on behalf of the men, women and children in your world and to speak to them on his behalf. He has appointed you to intercede for them so that they will receive mercy and help in their time of need. You are there by Divine appointment, God knows that you are able to be a witness to his grace and is relying on you to make him known in you marketplace.
In the days that the gospel was written the role of the shepherd was different from what it is now. In Australia today sheep stations can often be more than a million acres in size and the shepherd carries out his duties by motorbike or even helicopter. A flock of sheep consists of thousands of animals, but in Jesus’ day a flock was small enough that the shepherd would know everyone of them and they would recognize his voice. The sheep got to know the voice of the shepherd because he spent every waking minute with them; he fed them, led them to water, protected them from harm, attended their needs and even assisted in the birth of lambs when necessary.
Jesus was able to claim that his sheep would know his voice and would follow him anywhere. He was so intimately acquainted with his flock that they could tell his voice from others that might try to steal them or lead them astray. He was so concerned for his sheep that he was prepared to lay down his life for them. These are the same examples that we should follow.
Of course this suggests a number of things, in the first place the flock that we minister to must be small enough for us to know intimately. In these days of mega churches where the emphasis is often on numbers rather than intimacy of relationships the congregational pastor is more like a modern day rancher than a shepherd. He attends the needs of the sheep by remote control and calculates what are the acceptable losses that the business of sheep farming can bear. The idea of leaving 99 to fend for themselves while going to search for one that is missing would be laughable. What a far cry from the shepherds of Jesus’ day.
You are not called to be the shepherd of every sheep, just those that the father has given to you. There is a flock that you are responsible for and it is these sheep that you must answer for. Jesus was able to say that no one would ever snatch his sheep from him because he carried the authority of his Father in heaven and he is greater than any who would try to snatch his sheep from him. While you are not responsible for the salvation of the sheep in your care, or their eternal destiny, you do carry that same authority from your heavenly Father and you are expected to care for and protect them. Do you know who your sheep are? Paul instructed the elders at Ephesus to take heed to the condition of their flocks, what’s the condition of yours?
As you show compassion to the sheep in your flock, praying for them, meeting their needs when you can and extending mercy and grace out of the treasury of God they will come to recognize your love and genuine concern for their welfare. They will begin to recognize your voice and will follow you when you lead. There is an old adage that a shepherd leads the sheep, but a butcher drives them. A butcher is not concerned for the welfare of the animals he is about to slaughter; they are just a means to an end for him. They are the stuff of business, the more he kills and processes the more profit he will make – so he drives them to the slaughterhouse. On the other hand the shepherd is concerned for his sheep’s welfare, it matters to him if they get sick or lame. He leads them gently along the way that they should travel; he feeds and nurtures them. The sheep in our care need to be led, not driven. Their welfare is important. Do you drive your sheep so that your profits increase, or do you lead them into good pasture?
Do your sheep know your voice? Do they trust you to care for them even more than you care for yourself? Will you put their welfare beyond your profit margin; will you put aside your busy program to meet their needs? If you do, then God will enlarge your flock.
While it is true that not all sheep are in the fold, or indeed any fold, this is the ultimate purpose of seeking them out. The fold that the sheep need to become part of is God’s fold, and Jesus is it’s chief shepherd. The fact that he is chief shepherd suggests that there are other shepherds of less authority; that’s where you and I come in. All of those who come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ can be said to be part of God’s fold and under the care and protection of the Good Shepherd, but this fold is made up of smaller folds scattered throughout the nations all of which have shepherds or pastors to care for them. Some folds are known by church names, while others are formed in households or business places, still others may be made up of groups that share a common identity such as surfies, bikies or athletes but they all have some things in common.
A fold that belongs to God will always have Jesus at its centre. It may assemble in different places and conduct itself in different ways, but Jesus will always be the focus. There is no right or wrong way that determines how a fold should organize itself, there are certainly some Biblical principles but they stop short of giving a prescription that has to be followed. What is certain however is that all sheep need to be brought into the fold. They need the protection and guidance that comes from God appointed shepherds. Predators easily pick off a sheep that does not have the security of the fold; those that wander the wilderness alone are obvious targets.
As you minister to men and women in the marketplace, it will be your desire to bring them into the fold and it may be that there is readily available a group of like minded people that will accept the new sheep. Unfortunately however this is not always the case and you might experience difficulty in finding a ‘fold’ that is right for them. Of course like any metaphor we can push the sheep and the fold illustration too far. You and I suffer something of an identity crisis in that we are both sheep and shepherds at the same time. We identify with fellow sheep and may enjoy the company of others in the same fold as them, but at the same time we are fulfilling our role as shepherds to the sheep God has made us responsible for. We are part of a fold, and indeed we must be if we want to flourish in our Christian life, but those we shepherd may not become part of this fold, what then should we do? Should we start new little folds wherever we go or do we take the new believer into an established fold somewhere else, often uncertain about how they will be treated? This is a tough question and there is no easy answer.
It is certain however that the sheep must be in the fold and it may be that in the short term (or even longer term) that the fold they become part of is a small group with you as the shepherd leading them along the first steps of their Christian life. This group may form in your workplace, your home or amongst other like minded people in some other place but like the first believers after Pentecost you will want to enjoy fellowship, learn together from the Word of God and worship. Your role as a shepherd in the marketplace will include bringing the sheep into the fold. It is possible that you are part of a worshiping community that your new sheep will comfortably fit into and your task will be simply to make the connection, but increasingly it seems that this is not the case and there needs at least to be a place of transition for the new believer. As the shepherd of these sheep you will lead them into good pasture and keep them safe from the wolves that will try to devour them.
God does not intend that his sheep be scattered on the hillside, he wants them safe in the fold. He has appointed shepherds in the marketplace to lead and care for them and this is the ministry to which you have been called.
In many of today’s farms sheep have become little more than a commodity. They exist merely for the purpose of making a profit and while their health is cared for it is more to do with ensuring a good return than it is out of genuine concern for their welfare. Without stretching our metaphor too far, it is sadly true that we can make a comparison between the sheep of the modern farm or station and the sheep of God’s pasture. Whether these ‘sheep’ are in the congregation, workplaces or elsewhere in community they are often perceived as a means to an end rather than the end in itself.
What church pastor isn’t asked ‘how big is your church’ at gatherings of other pastors? Which businessman doesn’t evaluate his or her employees on the basis of their utility value to the company? Where is the football or sporting club that isn’t concerned with the number of its supporters, irrespective of their individual need or circumstance? In each of these examples the sheep have become numbers or commodities, they cease to have any value except in so far as they provide some sort of return. It is true that pastor’s measure themselves and their success on the basis of the number in their congregation, the bigger the flock – the more effective the shepherd. The sad fact is that while the number of sheep that come into the gate of the fold may grow it is often at the expense of those who have gone over the back fence. Many of these sheep have become lost and once more wander in the wilderness.
Recently I sat with a lady on an international flight, in the course of conversation she mentioned that she used to attend a church in the city in which she lived. Unfortunately she found the style and emphasis of the pastor difficult to accept and so she had left. Since she had gone no one had visited her and probably were not even aware that she was no longer there. She is not an isolated case. Everyday men and women are leaving congregations because they are not cared for, and many of these are no longer part of the fold. In Jeremiah’s day the shepherds were condemned because they had not tended to the sheep, instead they had caused them to scatter. In our program driven society it is difficult to remember that the fundamental task of the shepherd is to care for the sheep, our own driven ness in achieving the goals we have set for our congregations and ourselves has all too often driven the sheep away. This is true too in the workplace, our drive to succeed, to make more profit and achieve our goals sometimes causes us to see our employees as a means to an end, just another resource to be used in filling our business plan. Employees performance may deteriorate because of personal issues but because we are so preoccupied with the bottom line we fail to notice and do not stop and care for them.
God is raising up a new generation of shepherds. He will place them in congregations, businesses, community groups and politics. These shepherds will have compassion for those in their care. They will remove fear and give a sense of security and they will be genuinely concerned for the welfare of those that God has entrusted to them. The day is coming when God will raise up elected officials who will shepherd their nations, business leaders who will put the spiritual welfare of their employees above their profit margins, community representatives who will genuinely look after the needs of their community and pastors who will know the names and condition of their sheep and who will commit themselves so fully to their God given call that not one will be missing.
God has promised he will do this, and by his grace will you be one of these new breed of shepherds? Will you declare today that you will fully commit yourself to the sheep that he has entrusted to you and trust him to give you the grace, favour and strength you need?
Prayer Points:
