Doom to the Shepherds

Scripture Jeremiah 23:1-4 "Doom to the shepherd-leaders who butcher and scatter my sheep!" God's Decree. "So here is what I, God, Israel's God, say to the shepherd-leaders who misled my people: 'You've scattered my sheep. You've driven them off. You haven't kept your eye on them. Well, let me tell you, I'm keeping my eye on you, keeping track of your criminal behavior. I'll take over and gather what's left of my sheep, gather them in from all the lands where I've driven them. I'll bring them back where they belong, and they'll recover and flourish. I'll set shepherd-leaders over them who will take good care of them. They won't live in fear or panic anymore. All the lost sheep rounded up!' God's Decree." The Message

Observation: Those who have been chose to be the shepherds of the sheep of God have an incredible responsibility to take care of those sheep. Misleading, scatering and driving them off is not what God has called them to do. He even ranks this as criminal behavior. God cares so much for his sheep that he will bring them back where they belong and nurse them back to health and recovery. All the lost sheep rounded up!

Application: I can't help but to think of the current situation in our denomination when I read this. In our conference there are 863 and it is my understanding that over 200 of those churches have less than 20 people. I believe there are 3 kinds of people. 1. Those who are on the discipleship path. They are growing in their faith, have a group of people who love and care for them and are being trained, encouraged, and empowered to reach others for Christ. These people go through tough trials of life and suffer but they have an excellent foundation of faith and also of faithful people who love, care and hold them accountable.

2. There are those who go to church, sit on the pew every Sunday, but are not growing. Those who will tell you they have faith, but you can't see it anywhere. Some have no passion for any growth and some have a desire for more, but in their faith infancy, they don't know how to get it and the church they are attending is not teaching them in a way that impacts their life. There is little accountablity, caring as long as it doesn't involve more than a covered dish, and belonging as long as it is never gets beyond social.

3. There are those who don't go to church at all or at the most on Christmas and Easter. Most have a somewhat elementary understanding of the Gospel, but have not made it applicable to their life. The are wandering and struggling through this life often times wondering if this is all there is. In many cases, these people have been hurt by organized religion and washed their hands of it. Often, they have at one time in their life truly been on the path to discovering what God had in store for them but were turned away by a "mature Christian".

In this passage, there is a warning to those of us how are shepherds (pastor's, laity, and all those in between). We have a responsibility to take care of our sheep. Taking care of our sheep means helping them to get closer to God as they travel down this road of life. It means giving them the tools they need, encouragment, accountablility, mentorship, be an example so that they can become all they can be (sanctification). It also means reaching out to those who don't know God and even harder to those who have been hurt by the Church.

Our membership in the United Methodist Church has been on the decline for way too many years. Why? The sheep are not being taken care of. We have been more worried about keeping our members happy and liking us than we have their spiritual growth. Thus we have church full of people who live in "fear" and/or "panic" because they are not prepared to deal with the stuggles of the world with God and God's people.

Prayer: Almighty God, we have not done a good job of being shepherds. We have allowed our own agendas, our own pleasures our own desires to be liked to over rule what you would have us to do. I ask for your forgiveness and I ask that you place in me and other shepherds a passionate desire to re-create churches that are more than just social clubs but disciple making factories. Amen