Equipping Series – Part 2: Pastor/Shepherds

“Ephesians 4” Call To Equip The Saints For The Work Of Service As A Pastor/Shepherd:

I believe the five fold passions and points of view are in every believer in Jesus Christ since the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ indwells them.  So how do we allow the artesian well of the Holy Spirit to surface the pastoral spirit and gifts that are in all believers?  That is the calling of the five fold ministry of the Church.

If it weren’t for the spiritually birthing process of the pastor/shepherd, most of us would never have grown in Jesus Christ with the goal of “maturing into the image of Jesus Christ.”  We needed “a spiritual mommy or daddy” to model and guide us through this new walk of faith in Jesus.  That pastor/shepherding spirit is in all who believe in Jesus Christ as their savior and Lord.  How can we, the 21^st century Church allow the creative pastoral spirit to arise in believers, aid in nurturing it, caring for it, developing it, and then releasing it to produce fruit for the Kingdom of God?

I certainly don’t have all the answers, but encourage you to ask the creative Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ to give you “revelation” of who He is and how to show that to others.  I only offer a few suggestions:

Begin With The Gift Of Hospitality:  Just open up your home and practice the scripture, “I was a stranger, and you invited me in…”  (Read my book I Was A Stranger And… Get out of print copies on Amazon.com for pennies!) When you make people feel like part of the family, they become comfortable. If they are new converts, you can model the Christian walk, help them practice their new faith, walk out spiritual principles in their daily lives, and build a bond that is special in the Family of God.  I opened my apartment when I was single and got results!  Just as your home may be a comfortable atmosphere to share the gospel, your home is an excellent atmosphere in developing a walk in faith with  “new” family members.

Hanging Out, Listening, Caring, & Empathy Makes A Good Bar Tender: Often I think of Bars as “secular churches” and bar tenders as their “pastors”.  Bar tenders don’t judge; they will sell a beer to anyone.  While wiping glasses they are great listeners, showing empathy, often very caring.  When you cry in your beer, they listen, nod, showing care and concern. They only give advice to those who seek advice. Those who frequent the bar become like family.  The old TV sitcom Cheers so effectively showed that aspect as its viewers were drawn into their family, knowing the characters as if friends.  When someone comes to your home do you stay nonjudgmental no matter what or who they are, listen, show empathy, care, and concern, and only give advice and opinions when asked? We, as pastor/shepherds, who to have more to offer than bars must impact our culture.  Ask the Holy Spirit how you can be hospitable to everyone and anyone.

The Pastoral/Shepherding Spirit Is In Investment: As a public school teacher, I look at every student as an investment in the future of America, the future of our local community, and the future of each and every life of every student that comes under my care and influence.  The Church must look at each new believer as an “investment” in the Kingdom of God.  Your nurturing, caring, counseling, talk with, listening to, aiding, and developing of every believer placed into your care to help grow into maturity, that is in to the fullness of Jesus Christ, is a monumental calling of time, patience, sacrifice, and care that only one with a pastoral/shepherding spirit can handle through the leading of the Holy Spirit. The Price: Time!  Being there 24/7, when needed, is a demand that new Christians pose.  Jesus spent 3 years teaching pastoral skills to his disciples by walking with them daily. Most of the time they fumbled, fell, look like men lacking faith, fighting amongst each other, yet Jesus knew what he was doing “in their development”, for he “nurtured” and “developed” them into becoming the pillars of the Kingdom of God.  They were quite an investment! If you are a Christian, take time to thank those “spiritual parents” who helped you are your spiritual journey, your faith walk, for they were truly five fold pastors/shepherds.

Practicality - Being Real Rather Than Religious:  Being an effective pastor/shepherd is one willing to drop their “religiousity” to become “real”.  Changing a flat tire without swearing is more effective than quoting scripture to the tire.  People want “real” faith exemplified through “real” people, not through people with religious facades.  Some of the best ways to disciple someone is by just being practical.  Help someone learn how to get a job, write a proper resume, and practice an interview.  Teach males in their 20’s how to properly respect women, do the right things to impress them, serve them, show care for them, not dominate and be macho about it.  Teach females in their 20’s how to be attractive physically without being provocative or a stumbling block, how to take care of their home and later possibly a family, how to develop self worth, etc. These are good pastoral skills. Just be real and practical.

Release The Pastor/Shepherd:  The worst thing to do after training or equipping someone is then to stifle their vision, their enthusiasm, their drive, their passion, and just let them sit back. RELEASE THEM TO SERVE!  You have equipped the pastor/teacher for the “works of service”, so let them serve!  Let them do what drives them: Nurture, develop, care, aide, basically serve others in an effort to help them mature into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Don’t place restraints on them that the other four in the five fold could do for them.  They need not have to birth, teach, give prophetic insight, or see over new converts.  The passions of the others can aide them in the development of these baby Christians.  Release them.  Will we ever think one is “ready” for ministry? Probably Not; will they make mistakes? Yes, of course, we all do, but the evangelist will energize those with pastoral callings through their excitement for birthing, the teacher to teach truth into the pastor/shepherd’s life, the prophet continually refreshing the pastoral/shepherding spirit, and the apostle to give proper oversight, “seeing over” what and how the Holy Spirit is doing in the pastor/shepherd’s life.  The pastor/shepherd will submit to the ministry of the other four as they minister to him bringing proper accountability in his/her life.

Church, let equip, nurture, care, then release, while continuing serve the pastor/shepherd bringing accountability, and we see a “new day” in a “new way” that the Church does church!

Social Networking: Needs A Pastor; Needs A Savior?

Intrapersonal or Interpersonal Skills?

I’ve marveled when standing on the bus ramp at our Middle School, student’s texting and tweeting each other while standing only 10 feet apart!  One girl bawled out a guy for not answering her texts even though she sat only two tables away from him in the cafeteria.  There is prestige to having a huge following on Tweet or have hundreds of “friends” on Facebook.  What has happened to the eye to eye oral communication skills?  How many friends of bf’s, best friends, can one have on Facebook?  We can know a lot about somebody through social networking, but how much of them do we really know?  How long will it be before someone “proposes” marriage through a Tweet or Text or Facebook entry? How many tweets would that generate?  How many replies on a Facebook strain would it create?

The pastoral/shepherding aspect of the five fold is getting to be more and more needed to teach “caring” and “nurturing” skills to people who chose communication on an intrapersonal level.  “Being there for someone” is important to the 20-somethings, not only on a communications level, but on an emotional level.  Social networking allows 24/7 access to communicate, but lacks eye to eye, physical touch, oral communications and body language that makes communications personal and intimate.

How does a person know that you really care for them unless you are physically present at the moment?  Everyone needs a shoulder to cry on at times.  Physical shoulders are not available on social networking.   Women love a “good cry” where they don’t want verbal communication or even someone to solve their problems.  They just want another human to “feel their pain”, empathize with them, just “be there” for them.

With a culture that is getting more physically detached from one another, how will that effect the mental health of individuals when in need?  How will it effect the hurting when the physical or mental pain is beyond strain? 

Because of the mentality of 24/7 communication needs, how will the spiritual shepherd have to change his mentality of availability to a generation that demands 24/7 availability?  What does “being available” even mean to this generation?  How is “fellowship” being redefined? 

“In the beginning was the Word….” Christian spirituality has always been around the “Word”, alias communications.  How is the “Word” to be communicated to this generation? The rolling 3 point sermon resonating in a Southern Billy Graham style is being replaced by what? His message of a broken relationship with God can still resonate as this generation looks at salvation as restoring that communication that was lost because of sin.  How is the evangelistic message to be communicated to this social networking generation?

To my generation, Peter, Paul, & Mary sang, “The Times They Are A Changing” accusing parents for not understanding the new language, the new communications of the youth and their movement.  With a new generation comes new forms of music, new forms of speech, new forms of messages or communications around old themes and new ones.  We, the Church, need to acquire new mindsets, new avenues of communicating age-old messages:  Jesus, salvation, the gospel, sanctification, etc., particularly if we are to reach, nurture, care, equip, train, and release this generation for Jesus.

Spiritual Parenting

An Analogy: The Five Fold To Parenting

I believe the five fold is in each of us!  We possess the ability to birth, to nurture care and develop, to teach, to bring life, and to oversee.  This is most evident in parenting.  No one ever realizing what parenting is until they are in it and faced with its challenges.  One also doesn’t realize that parenting becomes a life long ambition though its roles may change with the aging of their children, but once a parent, always a parent. So it is also with the five fold.

Parenting doesn’t begin until there is a birth.  Without a birth, there are no parents.  You don’t even think like a parent until a birth occurs.  The birthing process is a joy, but the work of parenting begins when you bring the newborn home and witness long hours without sleep, endless diaper changes, changes to your life style, your feeling of privacy, and trying to figure out who really controls your life, your children or yourself. Parental supervision implies the proper protection of those under your care.

Parenting becomes pastoral as the rest of their childhood lives are under your care to nurture, develop, and keep up with their developmental stages as they work toward maturing as an adult. This is when one realizes that parenting is a life long calling, a life long commitment.

Parents are natural teachers, because little children “imitate” their parent’s behavior.  We learn best by experience. We say we will never “be like my mother/father”, but when we become parents we are shocked to see our parents in our life’s mirror of ourselves, because one of the most effective ways of being a parent is being taught to be one by example.  That is usually why one puts away their wild single searching lives, hopefully not to be dug up by their children when they reach that stage in an effort to “settle down” and be responsible.  Hopefully a “teachable” spirit can be instilled in a child through proper nurture, care, and above all earned respect by what we did as a parent.

Parenting requires a prophetic spirit, a spirit of bringing life into situations.  Parents lay down the law, establish rules with their children, but unless they bring love and life into what can be teachable life situations children only remember the law, not the reason for laws to protect and bring life.  You invest your “life” into your children to bring “life” in them.  Cat Stevens song Cat In The Cradle exemplifies what happens when life is not invest in your children. They give back your investment in them when you are old and they take or don’t take care of you!

Parenting requires over sight.  “Seeing over” what your children are doing is the key to their success.  Parents need to know that their children are doing, thinking, and acting.  If you ignore your children, then proper and effective parenting ceases. If you ignore a garden, weeds take over and the garden becomes nonproductive!  When I first needed a username for my first email account as instructed by my tech-savvy children, I chose “popnozall”, for “pop knows all” so my children were aware that where ever they went on the internet or used the computer, pop would find out, because he knows all.  They believed it when I had to practice it!  Over sight, properly seeing over your children, is monumental in the proper growth and development of your children.  Neglect proves disaster.

So it is with the Church!  Spiritual parenting cannot begin without a birth, a new birth, a spiritual birth of one accepting Jesus as their savior, king, personal, hopefully, best friend, confidant, etc. Without a new birth, there is no need to parent.  The pastoral role is the nurturing, caring, developing role of parenting, the day to day living out of one’s spiritual walk.  Parents need help from their families in this walk, and what better family than the family of God, the Church, to aide in proper parenting spiritually and physically in everyday living!  Although the Church can supply spiritual teaching, it is still the individual parent’s responsibility to teach their child how to read the Bible on their own, how to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, how to trust the Holy Spirit, how to walk out one’s faith journey, etc. by example, but the corporate body of Christ, the Church can aide in that walk.  The Church should be prophetic, applying the living out of the principles that are taught.  With out this prophetic spirit, this walking out physically what truth lies spiritually, there will be only limited spiritual life if a believer.  The Church should also provide oversight, the “seeing over” what the Holy Spirit is doing in the lives of its children, its believers in Jesus.

So the five fold is natural in the parenting in life, and natural in the parenting spiritually.  I will continue to challenge you and encourage you to embrace the five fold in your spiritual life and in the life of your church.

Evangelism: The Challenge of Releasing the Pastoral Spirit

Discipleship Vs. Developing Maturity, “Attaining To The Whole Measure Of The Fullness Of Christ”

Let’s challenge the traditional mindsets we have towards “discipleship”, and ask the Holy Sprit to reveal some truths about the pastoral passion of the five fold as a new mindset to the way the Church is to think.

Rebirthing:  If there are spiritual births, then we need spiritual nurseries!  The pastoral spirit of the five fold is needed for this mindset to be addressed.  Is the goal “discipleship”, making “followers” of Jesus, or it to help believers in Jesus Christ to “become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ”? (Eph. 4:13)  There is a vast difference between just “following” someone and “maturing into their likeness”. When people see a Christian, he/she should see Jesus Christ. That is the goal of pastoral development. If this is truly the goal of the Church, then it needs a “rebirth”, a “renewal”, a “new mindset” toward the way it thinks of caring, nurturing, and developing the “Gods people, for works of service.” (Eph. 4: 12) This may cause the Church to shy away from current mindsets of discipleship programs, mentoring programs, big spiritual brother or sister programs, etc. and begin thinking of ways to personally one-on-one development one’s spiritual life by sacrificing one’s own time to “invest” in the kingdom of God by “investing” in helping another fellow believer mature more in the likeness of Jesus Christ. Development takes time, the one thing Americans do not want to sacrifice.  In a fast pace internet world, Americans want instant “now”.  Speed is the key to accessing information, but now in the kingdom of God.  God has taken centuries to prepare for his Son, Jesus, to come as a sacrificial lamb for the sins of mankind, and is still taking centuries for His return to a Church without spot or wrinkle.  God is allowing “developmental” time for His Church in preparation for His Son’s return.  If God is taking His time to develop his Church into the image of His Son, maybe we, the Church, must recognize too that development takes time.  For most of us Christian it will be an earthly lifetime. We live on promise that after death when we go with Him, Jesus, we will be like Him, in his fullness!  The Lord’s prayer states, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” so it is the will of the Father to “develop” His people into the likeness of His Son both here on earth and in heaven.

Of course here is where we begin to ask questions:  How do we develop Christians into Jesus’ likeness?  The answer is: WE CAN’T!  Only the Holy Spirit can, for he has been called to draw all man unto Him, Jesus.  He knows what the “likeness of Christ” is in its maturity being part of the Trinity.  We need to ask the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the evangelistic spirit of “rebirth”, “renewal”, and “revival” for ways to bring life, Rhema life, the Living Word, into the spirit of every Christian believer, so that the written Word, the Logos, becomes alive in us.  The gospel of John begins explaining that Jesus is the Word from the beginning and that “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”  Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Christian faith believes that today God’s Spirit through Jesus is not only among us, but in us when we chose to accept Jesus into our lives. Our bodies become the “temple of the Holy Spirit”, the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

To develop into the maturity of being Christ like, we must put the written Word, the Logos Word, within ourselves by personally reading our Bibles. Then we have to allow the Holy Spirit to activate that Word to become the Rhema Word, the Living Word, so we become little “Words”, little “Jesus’”, little “Words in the flesh” because the Spirit of Jesus, His Holy Spirit is in us, now his temples. 

Becoming “Words” in the flesh, living “Words” in the Spirit gives a new dimension to how we need to develop Christians in becoming “mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”  This is why my prayer is for me and you to look at the pastoral passion of the five fold in different ways than we have in the past as the Holy Spirit instructs us in the process of growth, caring, nurturing, and developing into the “fullness of Christ”.

The Cross: From Pain To Gain; Evil and Judgment to Goodness and Mercy

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XVI

From Accusation, Persecution, Judgment, and Death to Resurrection Power

In past blogs I have shown that when the natural, our everyday routine life, is intersected by the supernatural, that intervention by God, we experience the Cross.  I call those moments “God Moments” because He intervenes into one’s life.  What I have forgotten was the cross is also a place of pain.  Jesus faced extreme pain on the Cross.  At Gethsemane he saw beforehand the reality of what he was about to face and knew it would be painful, yet he proved to be obedient. 

The Cross is a place of death.  Romans used it to torture, for sheer cruelty. When we take something to the Cross, we are taking it to a place of death, but with Christianity, we take things there because we know that the lying it down at the Cross will produce only one thing, a resurrection with power.

I like the promise of the Resurrection, the power, the life, but the pain of the Cross is totally against my flesh and desires.  I wish there was a spiritual “pain killer”, but I do not know of any.  Jesus said to “take up your cross and follow me.”  The “following” I want to do, but counting the cost, facing the pain is difficult.

If we wish to retool the Church for the 21^st Century, we need to realize that everyone/anyone who has a pastoring/shepherding spirit will help people to face their painful Crosses.  Psalms 23 states, “Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil. Thy rod and thy staff will comfort thee.”  The rod and the staff is that of a shepherd. The Valley of the Shadow of Death is the foot of the Cross, the place of pain, but the place one can travel with a pastor/shepherd.  The rod and staff is for protection, direction, and support.

The believer with the passion to care, nurture, and develop is not afraid to “walk through” trials, no matter how dark with another person.  It takes a special kind of believer full of faith to take this walk, this passion, this drive, this desire to reach out to the hurting, the confused, the lost.  “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.”  One with the pastoring/shepherding spirit majors in “goodness and mercy”.  While rest of the world judges when facing the Cross, the pastor/shepherd extends “goodness and mercy”.  Where there is no “mercy”, there is no resurrection power.

What is the secret of the Cross is that God can take what seems to be the “ugliest”, “cruelest”, most “unjust” scene in the history of mankind, and transform it into a resurrection beauty with compassion and justice.  In spite of the pain, the Cross always leads to gain, because the mercy of God takes us through it, and I thank him for giving the church the gift of a believer who cares, nurtures, and develops His sheep.

Retooling: Caring, Nurturing, Developing Is Never Ending

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XV

Pastoring, nurturing, developing, and caring for someone is a process; something that continues in time with a relationship.  When one first becomes a parent, he/she does not realize that they are now a parent “for the rest of their lives”.  One’s roles may change during the process, but those they are parenting will always look up to them for what they have done and are doing.  It is continual, often seeming never ending!

The way parishioners have been wired to think of pastors and pastoring throughout the last couple of centuries must be revamped, retooled.  Our mindset of a “pastor” has been one of a paid professionally trained man of God who tends to his/her flock. Their assumed and unofficial job description is to care for the flock. Because of their title, we expect them to be and do all things: an evangelist, an orator, a Biblical scholar, a counselor, a person to perform life cycle services like christening, weddings, and funerals, a business man, a director, a teacher, a person always in touch with God, an overseer, etc., etc.  I have no idea how a person can be gifted and prepared for all those areas and do them effectively alone, but that is the assumed job description, plus more.

I believe we need to have a mindset change. That is why I would rather refer “pastoring” as “shepherding” so the stereotype mindset disorder will not interfere with what we all should be doing, and some with passion.  Every believer should help nurture those younger than themselves in the Lord, who are less fortunate, or in need, for there are times we fall in and out of all those categories. Printed on our Statue of Liberty is “No Man Is An Island; No Man Stands Alone.”  If the secular world knows that principle, the Christian world needs to understand and practice it as the “Body of Christ”, and pastoring/shepherding is a key component of that principle.

The Christian community, the Body of Christ, has always been a caring, nurturing, developing community when the “pastoral/shepherding” spirit is alive, recognized, supported, and active.  It is a community of “grace”, “mercy”, extending “forgiveness”, and providing “protection”.  When you remove the “pastoral/shepherding” spirit, this same community can become accusatory rather than a listening ear, vindictive rather than giving goodness, judgmental, shooting their wounded rather than providing healing.  Many Christians who church-hop have been victims of an environment that lost its “pastoral/shepherding” spirit.  Other Christians, who place their hope in the new “pastor” who is only short term, or who falls, or who does not meet their unrealistic expectations, also become hurt because of the loss of the “pastoral/shepherding” spirit.

So what should our mindset be?  What retooling needs to be done?  Of course with any revival or reformation, it begins with “me”, my recognition that a pastoral/shepherding spirit resides in me because the ultimate Pastor/Shepherd, Jesus resides in me.  I, as a believer in Jesus Christ, a Christian, need to realize that I am my brother’s keeper. I am to “love my neighbor as myself.”  I, like Jesus, “cares” for you, me, my neighbor, even my enemy.

With that comes the recognition that there are those who have a passion, a desire, a drive to serve through caring, nurturing, developing one into Christ likeness through compassion and love.  These believers in Christ we need to learn to release in their passion of caring, nurturing, and developing with encouragement and support any way we can.  Shepherding can be a Body ministry of many individual believers pouring the love of Christ into a person in many ways as they develop and grow in Christ. Pastoring/Shepherding is all about relationships, so the more healthy relationships one can develop in Jesus, the healthier we will be physically, psychologically, and spiritually.

When the Church retools its craft of Pastoring/Shepherding, it will be done through relationships: caring relationships, nurturing relationships, and developmental relationships. Wow, a challenge for the Church and its mindsets as the Holy Spirit retools.

Retooling: Pastoral Gift “Sent Out”, Not An Invitation to “Come In”

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XIV

Pastoring, or shepherding, should not just be done in a church building setting.  The Great Commission is a call to “Go Out” into the world.  Those hurting in the world need someone to care for them, to nurture them, to help develop them; someone just to love them.  We, the Church, need to provide that “sent out” pastoral touch to the world.

The elderly couple next store still strives for their independence, but during poor weather and visibility with the fear of driving in the dark; they need pastoral care, so go to the pharmacy, grocery store, etc. for them.  The single guy across the street is often home alone most week day nights, probably lonely; take some snacks and go spend sometime with him or invite him over to your house.  The couple that has toddlers spends 24/7 with the kids, give them two prepaid movie tickets and babysit their kids so they can have a night out. The stay at home mother spends all days with children; she craves for “adult conversation”.  Women, make her part of your day by walking with her and the kids, having tea or coffee sporadically with her, calling her on the phone.  These are just a few practical examples of “pasturing”, “shepherding”, taking care of others.

In a five fold setting a pastor/shepherd and an evangelist are indispensable for each other. If a believer cares for unbelievers, those they care for are more likely to receive the evangelistic gospel message with less resistance.  Pastoring cultivates or prepares the ground, plants the seeds of faith, service, and care, so the evangelist can reap the harvest easier.  Also those that the evangelist births, needs a spiritual pastor to nurture them.  The purpose of the five fold is to “equip” the saints for the “work” of the “service”.  

Pastoring/shepherding is “work” for the purpose of “serving”.  The more you serve; the more productive you become.  My question is how do we “equip” a person with a pastoral passion to be “sent out”? Today the church would say with proper Bible training, probably several years of formal Bible School or Seminary.  No, my question wasn’t how do you make or develop a person to become a professional pastor, but how do you “equip” a person with a pastoral passion to be “sent out”? 

You “equip” him with those things he needs to “care” for others, those things needed to “love your neighbor as yourself”.  If it isn’t good enough for you; it isn’t good enough for your neighbor.”  Why do we give our left over clothes to those in need that aren’t good enough for ourselves any more, rather than giving our best. We need to give as “unto the Lord”. Are we to give only “what’s left over” to Him, or do we give our best? One year, when reaching out to two families we fellowship with who were in need, we gave every person in our group new, fresh, whitey-tidies, alias underwear and under clothes.  It was one of the neatest Christmas parties that I have been a part of!

“Equipping the saints” also means giving other believers, my brother and sister in the Lord, my gifting to aid their effort. That is why a pastor needs an evangelist, a teacher, a prophet, and an apostle around him/her to help “equip” him in a joint “body” ministry, where the church is not an individual but a body, a group of believers pulling for the same common good, the kingdom of God.  The pastorally gifted believer CAN NOT nurture, disciple, develop, or care for the sheep ALONE! He needs the teacher to teach “how to walk this walk of faith practically, not how to talk it without walking it. The teacher needs to be part of this pastoral endeavor. The prophet needs to get their head out of heaven all the time, and recite “thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven”.  Helping the pastor nurture these infants in the Lord in how to listen to the voice of God and be obedient is aiding in the pastoral role.  The apostle “covers” these infants, coordinating endeavors to make sure the toddlers in Jesus are fed physically and spiritually, nurtured and developed properly physically and spiritually in their growth into the likeness of Jesus.

Pastoring/Shepherding CAN NOT BE DONE ALONE, it needs a five fold ministry team or effort to effectively care for, nurture, and help grow a sinner into a saint, and a saint into the image of Jesus!  God bless a person with a passion to pastor/shepherd.

Retooling: Taking the Pastoral Gift Out Side The Church Walls

The 21st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XIII

Pastoring or shepherding is the point of view or passion to care for, nurture, disciple, and develop someone toward maturity.  It is the true form of parenting.  As a new born, humans are totally helpless. The only things we can do is breath, sleep, poop, and pass gas.  Often a newborn has to be taught how to eat, what to suck in order to be nurtured.  A newborn has to be diapered, bathed, rolled over, burped, etc.  As it is growing it has to be taught how to walk, talk, eat with a spoon, communicate, dress itself, and be potty trained.  Later it has to be taught how to read, draw, write, and develop one’s thinking process.

In the Christian world one is taught, “You must be born again,” alias the salvation message.  If you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior, your are considered a new born, for “behold the old has passed away, the new has begun.” As human beings, spiritually we need to be “taught” how to walk, talk, and believe in faith. We need to learn the Word, be taught how to listen to the Holy Spirit’s still small voice, how to be disciplined, obedient to the Word, the Bible, and how to live out that Rhema Word in our daily lives.

I contend that we can also pastor out side our church walls.  We can help care for, nurture, and develop one to be a successful, loving, positive, caring person, and hopefully then lead them into the Presence of God by having them accept Jesus as their Savior.

In my forty years as a public school teacher, I have tried to pastor the faculty, my peers.  I turned what I called the Den of Iniquity, the Faculty Room, which was a haven of complaining about students, staff, and administration, a gossip center, into an area of encouragement, support, and laughter, but it has taken years.  I headed the purchasing candy, crackers, snacks, soda, coffee, etc. as a service to them. Profits afforded us to send flowers when a peer was hospitalized or severely ill, purchase personalized coffee mugs with a picture of the staff or building with their personal name on the back in an attempt to bring unity.  Profits were also used to finance events to bring our staff together in purely a social environment, building friendships.  Transforming this environment changed the entire educational climate of our building positively.  It took a lot of work, time, and sacrifice, but the dividends have produced positive fruit.

We all can be positive role models sharing a pastoral spirit to those around you.  I have taken new teachers under my wing to praise, to listen to, and to encourage instead of criticizing and gossiping about them, spent time with discouraged teacher helping them through their dark days, sent encouraging emails to a stressed faculty in an effort to make them laugh, popped my head into as many of my peer’s room in a day as possible just to give a positive greeting to get them out of their protective, secluded world of just their room.

Pastoring, or shepherding, should not just be done in a church building setting.  The Great Commission is a call to “Go Out” into the world.  Those hurting in the world need someone to care for them, to nurture them, to help develop them; someone just to love them.  We, the Church, need to provide that “sent out” pastoral touch to the world.

Retooling: The Broken Heart Of A Family Facing Mentally Illness?

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XII

My heart goes out to Jo Anne & John Hinckley, Amy and Randy Loughner, or the parents of Seunge-Hui Cho because their sons all faced mental illness and performed horrendous acts of violence placing them in the annals of American history: John Hinckley for attempting to assassinate President Reagan, Jared Laughner for the recent shooting of Congressman Gabriella Giffords, and Seunge-Hui Cho for the largest single mass shooting at Virgina Tech University.   I cannot even imaging the emotions, the feelings, the shock of hearing how your son released his inward maelstrom of darkness, confusion, and pain, called mental illness, violently on others.  I can hear these parents questioning themselves, “Where did we go wrong?”, “Could I have done more as a parent?”, etc.

Both the Hinckleys and the Chos were church attending families at the time of their son’s shootings, but I have never heard what their churches did for them prior or after the fatal events caused by their siblings?  Just like questioning, “What could I have done to prevent this?” was asked by the parents, the church also needs to ask that question.

When it comes to Mental Illness, the church faces quite a dilemma: on one hand it believes in healings, citing physical healings in the past, but I have never personally met nor heard of a healing from a severe mental illness.  This challenges my personal faith as a Christian.  When my wife was in the midst of the darkness of her major depression she had a simple prayer, “Father, You are faithful and will always be faithful; by Your faithfulness heal me.”  That prayer still haunts me, for even I question why a faithful and loving God did not immediately respond to His child’s request.  That is one question I will be asking Him when in heaven. The church also has to face a history of failure in addressing how to minister to mental illness with a track record of supporting the practice of throwing the mentally ill in prisons, institutionalizing them, and also infamously condemning them as “witches” in Salem, Mass., hanging them or burning them at the stake. 

The church can respond with a loving, caring, pastoral touch to the victims of mental illness and their family members engulfed in all that swirls around mental illness.  Pastoral/shepherding care could help identify problems before they explode, seek help, prevent withdrawal, encourage treatment, support one during treatment, and stand beside the families of those whose loved ones face mental illness.  If parents, family members, loved one come to the church asking questions or seeking support, what does the church have to offer?  That is a serious question the church must face if it is to be effective in American society today?

When my wife was swallowed in the maelstrom of darkness, confusion, and doubt caused by major depression she questioned her religious teachings of salvation, wondering about the condition of her darkened soul at that time and its out come in eternal perspectives.  How do we as a church respond?  Sitting through church services and long sermons has not been the answer, nor being in touch with the church’s people only once a week, if that, because of the urge to withdraw.  The “reaching out”, the “sending out”, the essence of “The Great Commission”, the gospel, is often lost to even those within the church to each other.

If the Church is to retool for the 21^st Century, it must re-examine its views on pastoral care to its parishioners, its family, those who make up the local Body of Jesus Christ called the local church, especially when facing challenging situations like severe physical and mental illness.  The church must ask itself, “Who Is My Brother’s Keeper?” before it can begin to redefine the “pastoral” or “shepherding” role of the Church in American society and the world in the 21^st century.

American history is proving that when the Church loses its “pastoral role” of caring for its people as well as those outside its family, then Americans look to their secular government to do what the Church has failed to do.  Instead of tithes and offerings in the Church financing pastoral ministries, we, the Church, are forced to look at secular tax payer dollars to finance secular pastoral efforts, usually in the form of governmental programs, and are the first to criticize those programs for doing what we have failed to do.

Church, it is time to pick up our pastoral role and be effective!

Retooling: Who’s My Brother’s Keeper If He Is Mentally Ill?

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part XI

When the shooting of President Reagan, the student killings at Virginia Tech, and the recent shooting of the Arizona Congresswoman was first announced, my heart sank.  Even before the news outlets began to try to dig into the background of the shooters, I sensed what was happening:  a victim of mental illness must have gone over the edge, and I was right.  The news media had their headline story, a shooting, and a chance to bring to light a dilemma America faces in the way we view mental illness, but they shied away again from the latter. Why?

In light of my series on Retooling the Church and looking at the role of a “shepherd/pastor”, I am asking the Church of America, “Who’s My Mentally Ill Brother’s Keeper”?  Because of its stigma, the misunderstandings of the disease, and its effect on victims and family members, as well as the unscientific diagnosis of the disease in a very modern medically conscience society, America and the Church have failed to come to grips with this issue of mental illness although the outcomes of its tragedies have effected our nation.

Politically: America is in a heated debate over this pastoral question of “Who Is My Ill Brother’s Keeper”.  Democrats say “We the People”, the American government is by advocating health care reform for all Americans, including the unstable mental health population.  The Republicans say “We the People”, the government should stay out of it, let the public sector prioritize it, finance it, let “them”, whoever that is, take care of it because we aren’t going to touch it.  Amazingly a Republican President and a Republican Congresswoman have been struck down by it, yet Republicans, like most of us in America, just wish that it would go away rather than face it because we don’t know what to do about it.

Church:  How do you take care of something you do not understand? Although the Church knows about “grace”, “mercy”, “forgiveness”, having heroes like Mary Magdalene, the ultimate adulteress before meeting Jesus; the demoniac that had schizophrenic tendencies cast into a herd of pigs, who sits quietly by Jesus’ side begging to be a disciple of his after his deliverance, and the healings of “multitudes” of people mentally and physically in the New Testament, they often are still the ones who throw stones of “condemnation”, “judgment”, and “non-forgiveness” at the mentally ill because of lack of understanding.

When my wife went through a severe episode of mania followed by major depression, I asked during that time, “Where is the Church?”  Not only did my wife need a shepherd, but so did I, the hurting family member, but none came.  I cried out for help, but no one responded.  At first I became critical of the church for their lack of response, but now I understand that it was because of the stigma of mental illness and lack of understanding about the disease or how to face it.  One feels awkward when they do not have answers to your many questions about what they do not understand themselves.

I have written a manuscript called Stripped, about my walk as a care taker through mental illness, discovering that not only the victim of mental illness but also every member of their family gets stripped of their dignity, their worth, their hopes, their visions, their dreams, their sense of belonging to a “normal” society, or group, or Church.  Because of its “limited audience” on the topic of mental illness, no publisher will touch my manuscript.  Again the stigma of mental illness surfaces, even in the publishing world.

The person with a caring heart, a nurturing heart, a parental heart, a compassionate heart has the passion and point of view of shepherding, a pastoral calling. The Church needs to allow this person to arise in its midst to reach out to all who are hurting , for that is the gospel.  One of the biggest “red flags” that someone is getting close to the dangerous edge in mental illness is their withdrawing.  If the Church had a “pastoral” arm of the five fold ministry active in their midst, it would identify the problem in its early stages, seeing this withdrawal, and move forward with help, thus preventing many of the “extreme” tragedies we have read about with mental illness.

“Who’s My Mentally Ill Bother’s Keeper”?  It is easy to push it off secularly and say the government’s, or push it off religiously and say the Church’s.  The American government and the Church are “we, the people”, so let’s not forget that maybe it is “our” personal responsibility to get involved, get educated, break through the stigma, and reach out to those who struggle physically and mentally. We should be our brother’s keeper!

Retooling: From “Acts Of Kindness To Institutions” – How Did We Get There?

The 21^st Century Retooling of the Church – Part X

Today my blogs in this series shift from the evangelist to the shepherd/pastor in the five fold ministry.  A shepherd majors in “acts of kindness”, nurturing, caring, disciplining, developing, sustaining, maintaining, actually walking the walk of faith in daily life.  The evangelist births the “new born” in Christ; the shepherd nurtures and develops that “child of God” towards the likeness and image of Jesus Christ.  He walks out the spiritual walk with this new toddler in everyday practical terms.  Bottom line: he is “there” for them.

We, who have been Christians for quite a while, can look back at those “spiritual” mothers, fathers, and mentors who have profoundly influenced our spiritual lives with great gratitude.  Their “sacrificial acts of kindness” exemplified the Christian walk in Jesus.

I truly believe that “shepherding” is a calling and gift from God. It is instilled in the believer in Jesus Christ.  Jesus, the ultimate shepherd, even when suffering on the cross made sure he told John to take care of his mother.  He was putting in line the Church’s role to take care of the widows in his day. “Caring” is the heart beat of the shepherd/pastor.

I cannot stress enough how we, as believers in Jesus Christ, should be caring for one another in the Body of Christ, older men mentoring young men in the faith, older women mentoring the young ladies, reaching out to one another to meet needs, sacrificially.  That is what “body” ministry is all about, and a shepherd’s passion, desire, and point of view is to meet the needs of members of the Body, the Family of God, and nurture the young in the faith toward maturity in Christ.  Shepherding is the backbone to spiritual development in Jesus.

The “acts of kindness” by people who “care” are powerful tools of ministry whose fruits are life changing.  Physical and mental development is central to my teaching as a public school teacher at the Middle School level. The giggly, hyperactive, braces wearing 12 yr. old girl proclaiming “he’s so cute” turns into a 14 year old girls who just stares at guys in awe, speechless. It is developmental.  A Shepherd majors in “developmental” strategies to help a young believer in Christ “develop” into the likeness of Christ, such an important cog in the five fold ministry.

I wonder how Church who allows their influence of developing people for Jesus to slip through their fingers when they begin to “institutional” their efforts.  In an earlier blogs I have shown how the “C” in YMCA has been lost and has been replaced as a place where you can hang out if you’re gay as portrayed in the Village People’s song “Y.M.C.A.” which is played at sporting events all across America. Many hospitals carry the names of their “religious roots and founders” only to have lost the “religious” influenced that birthed them.  We have become accustomed in allowing institutions to take care of our widows (nursing homes), our homeless (shelters and Rescue Missions), our sick (huge health care systems), our poor (State welfare systems).  The church as an institution has reneged its influence to social and government institutions thus forfeiting the Christian influence that was the backbones of many of these institutions when first conceived.

How does a ministry become an institution?  When it looses its influence of “personal care” for “efficiency”.  As an institution gets huge, its quality of personal care diminishes.  I have seen it in institutions in and out of church across the world.   How do we keep a ministry from becoming an institution? Simple, by allowing the “shepherding” or pastoral component of the five fold ministry to come back to the Body of Christ as it was originally intended.  Just as one-one-one evangelism is the most effective form of evangelism, so one-on-one personalized ministry is still the most effective form of shepherding or pasturing.

Today’s church “pastor” (office, profession) can’t be the proper shepherd it flocks needs if he/she is to be all things to all men.  The person filling the office or profession can’t be an evangelist, shepherd (counselor), Bible teacher, spiritual prophet, and apostolic over seer all at the same time to everyone.  That produces burnout, frustration, and hurt.  We need to allow the five fold back into the make up of the body of Christ.  We need the “shepherd” to return to shepherding its flock.

What In The World Does “Equipping The Saints” Mean

A Challenge to the Church and Its Believers

Does the Church take Ephesians 4 seriously?  I do not know of a local church where I live that takes “equipping the saints for the work of the service” seriously.  There are courses, books, tapes, messages, etc. on “discipleship”, but what does the Church do to actually equip those in their local body of believers? 

Does “equipping the saints” mean “educating them”?  Do the saints need courses and degrees, educational academia, or constant Bible studies to be equipped?  It is easier to “equip the staff for the work of the service” than the saints.  Why?  In public education, we are always faced with “professional development”, and I guess the church has bought into that mentality too in its institutionalizing of clergy & staff.  Years ago we called that process for believers, the saints, “sanctification”, growing in the likeness of Jesus Christ, but “sanctification” had nothing to do with formal education, nor with “professionalizing” Christianity.

So if “equipping” doesn’t mean formally educating the saints, what does it mean?  What is the Church suppose to be doing if it is “equipping the saints for the work of the service”? 

“Engagement” may be the answer, the buzz word, but what does “engagement” mean?

Maybe we should be asking who or what are we serving, who are we to “engage” with?  What is “the service” we are equipping the saints for?  Are we to serve “the system” or the “institution” or the “tradition” of the established church?  For what reason, or what result?  Are we serving “the lost” in an effort for them to be “found”? Are we to serving the unchurched, the nonChristian, those living in their communities that don’t go to church in order to bring them into our community of faith? 

I propose that seminaries, Bible colleges, and Bible schools basically teach “how to equip the church to maintain itself”.  Often they teach church lingo or linguistics, church manners, church laws of does and don’ts.  We do not necessarily teach how to “go into the world”, but we teach how “not to be part of the world”, how to be “set apart”!  Jesus sent out 70 as recorded in Luke 10:1-23, giving them specific directions before releasing them, (like vs. 9: Heal the sick who are there and tell them ‘the Kingdom of God is near you’), then rejoicing at the out come of their endeavors (vs. 21 “At that time Jesus full of joy through the Holy Spirit said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of the heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure’).  Jesus didn’t equip the wise and learned, he equipped God’s children for the work of the service. He never founded a Rabbinical School of Learning or a Bible College, he just hung out with “the people” in small and large groups.

In up coming blogs, maybe we can look at this “phenomena of equipping the saints”, but the Church must define what “equipping the saints” actually means in practicality before it can move ahead with actually “equipping”.

Vision Series: Part II – The Pastor/Shepherd “Sees the Needs”

The Vision of a Pastor/Shepherd

“Without Vision The People Perish”

One of the major premises of my study of the five fold ministry in the Church is that the five fold is not necessarily offices, but passions, or points of view.  What passion drives a person in his love in and for the Church?  Through what glasses does the believer see things? What is his vision?

The pastor/shepherd driven believer rejoices with the evangelism over the “new birth” of a person into the kingdom of God, but becomes heavily burdened by the need for the nurture and the care of this new babe in Jesus Christ in his development, his life’s journey now as a Christian, his becoming “mature” in the “fullness of Christ”.  It is a tall order.

The pastor/shepherd is driven to establish a “spiritual nursery” for this “newborn” in Christ.  Early childhood growth is developmental. We rejoice when our own children first “roll-over, or talk, or take their first step to walk.  Humans are helpless at birth. They total rely on their parents, particularly their mother, for nourishment, diaper changes, caring, cuddling, etc. in their early stages of life.  Why should we not expect the same from a “new born” in Jesus Christ. 

This “new life” is just that, “new”!  There is a turning from the old to the new, but the question is how to do that in one’s daily life, one’s daily walk while making daily decisions.  How do you “walk out your faith daily”?  That is the passion of a pastor/shepherd who “sees the needs” of new believers in their development of growing into the mature image of Jesus Christ, and does everything within their physical and spiritual grasp to meet those needs to help this spiritual newborn to take their first steps of faith, learn verbally how to share their faith, and continually grow.

The pastor/shepherd has to teach practical everyday applications of this faith walk in Jesus: To teach the newborn the power of prayer, the foundation of reading the Bible, the need for intimacy in their relationship to God, to Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, total reliance in a practical way on their new found faith in Jesus Christ, and so much more.

Without a pastor/shepherd driven believer who seeks out these new believers and sees their needs, that new believer will be dumped at the doorstep of the world and will not survive. Many a newborn has “back-slidden” or gone back “into the world” because that is where they were dumped after their “new birth” because a pastor/shepherd did not rise from the body of Christ to walk by their side relationally in their every day life to nurture their care in their new faith walk journey. 

That is why it is so important to have a pastor/shepherd and an evangelist side by side in their ministry. The evangelist “sees” the needs of the lost; the pastor/shepherd “sees” the needs of the new believer.  The evangelist “sees” and quotes John 3:16 while the pastor/shepherd “sees” and quotes I John 3:16. How often have we alienated these two passions, these two different points of view, dividing the Church rather than unifying and strengthening the body of Christ?  That is why the five fold ministry and the “laying down your life for your brethren” is so important in not only developing the individual believer, but developing the entire “body of Christ”.

Without the evangelist there is no birth; without the pastor/shepherd there is no development.  Both of their “visions”, their points of view, their passions are needed in the nurture of the Christian and the Church.

Peter And The Five Fold

 

Experiencing/Example Of All Five

Evangelist: Peter before Pentecost denies Jesus in the temple fulfilling personal prophecy Jesus proclaimed over him. This new transformed Peter now returns to the temple and boldly preached the evangelistic message. Acts 4 records his evangelistic dissertation. Result, 3000 join the ranks of believers.

Shepherd/pastor: In the twenty-first chapter of John this same Peter who denied Jesus three times faces a resurrected Jesus who asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” Upon Peter’s confirmation of his love, Jesus replies then, “Feed my sheep.”  Shepherding became so overwhelming that one of the first delegation of responsibilities from the Apostles to other believers is recorded in Acts 6.  The Apostles elect seven men “filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom” to become the Church’s first official shepherds/pastors.

Teacher: Stick your foot in your mouth Peter, now after Pentecost, speaks with authority in the temple teaching about Jesus’ mission to earth and the implications of that event as recorded in Acts 2.  Untrained academically, without any higher educational degree, a fisherman by trade, Peter amazes the leaders in the temple because he teaches with authority.  The results: The Apostles Teaching.  The same principles taught by Peter in Acts 2 in front of the Sanhedrin are the same principles taught by Stephen in Acts 7 before his being stoned to death.

Prophet:  Peter just wanted to be a good Apostle and pray, but while praying he has a prophetic experience as recorded in Acts 10. He has a spiritual vision of sheets, pigs, unclean creatures dropping out of heaven and realizes the message of the vision, what was once unclean is now clean. This vision tested his obedience to go to the house of Cornelius, a non-Jew to proclaim the message of Jesus. The results: Breaking down the barrier between Jew and Gentile allowing all to be saved, come into the kingdom of God, and setting up the Church’s first battle recorded in Acts 15 at a council in Jerusalem, where in UNITY the Church settles the issue for all centuries.

Apostle:  Peter goes from being a brash, bumbling, big mouth, bull headed, believer in Jesus, to a man who is granted the vision of seeing the birth of the Church as a whole and its implications.  He is to proclaim the gospel, to nurture the new Church, to desire a more intimate relationship with the resurrected Jesus, and is granted the vision to see the Big Picture.  He becomes the point man of the Church in Jerusalem with the other eleven as in unity they lead this new Church in physical and spiritual growth, through joys and persecution, needs to fulfillment, pressing on in vision. The book of Acts records the “acts of the apostles”.  After Pentecost Peter and the other eleven were forced to put their faith into “Acts”-tion.

The Five Fold Point Of View

It Is Just The Way You See It!  

I truly believe that the five fold is basically passion and point of view.  When you are passionate, that passion drives you.  I was passionate to get a room in my house built from scratch to finished project. Because of that the dry walling and sanding, the tedious cutting in for painting, etc. were not so bad.  I was driven to get it done the best of my ability.

The beauty of the five fold is “vision” and “Point of View”. The way one perceives his world and his place in it is his passion and point of view. It is no different for the five fold. Let’s briefly look at these “points of view”:

The evangelist is driven by the desire to see birth and rebirth, taking the lost (those not knowing Jesus) to becoming found (finding Jesus as their Savior). General Booth of the Salvation Army is an excellent example. Winning the lost became all consuming to him, thus he founded an army to proclaim salvation to the lost. Unfortunately, when the lost is found, a new birth or rebirth proclaimed, nurturing their growth is not the evangelist’s top priority, for he/she is ready to move on and win yet more for Jesus.

The pastor/shepherd is driven to care for the sheep. Shepherds nurture, feed, and care for their sheep, which becomes a tedious task, for they teach a believer how to make their new found faith into a lifestyle. A pastor’s vision is to hear the words of Matthew 25:35-36: “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you invited me in, needing clothes and you clothed me, sick and you looked after me, in prison and you came to visit me.”

A teacher’s passion is to validate the Word of God, the written Word, the Logos Word, into the lives of every believer.  They want to validate the believer’s walk with the Word.  The teacher wants to validate this new found faith and lifestyle through the Logos Word, making it a Rhema, or living Word. John 1 says the “Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The teacher wants that word, now in Spirit, that dwells in each believer to teach that believer the truth and fulfillment of the Logos Word through faith.  Study the scriptures is powerful, but dangerous, for if it is done without the Holy Spirit, believers can become Pharisees, those who knew the Word in Jesus’ time, but opposed the truth and spirit of his teachings.

     If a prophet had his/her way, they would spend all day in worship, in reading their Bible, in intercession and prayer, in intimacy with God the Father, His Son, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.  Adam and Eve lost their intimacy with God when they sinned, but Jesus’ death and resurrection restored the intimacy lost through sin. Sin has been conquered, death defeated.  A prophet is trying to make up for lost time. Their drive, their passion, their point of view is to be intimate with Jesus. Nothing else matters to them.

An apostle has experienced the pain of seeing the lost and the passion to win them to Christ, has experienced the over whelming passion to feed the sheep physically and spiritually to have them walk the walk in their lifestyle, has experienced the power of teaching with authority the Word of God, has experienced that intimacy with his/her God through Jesus, but unfortunately can not to all of them himself unless he wants to get burned out, which happens to many a man of God who takes on more than he can handle. An apostle’s point of view, his vision, his sight is seeing the Big Picture, the Church as a whole.  Since he cannot do it all himself, he is commissioned to encourage others who have the other four passions and “prepares God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph. 4)  His job is to “see over” the Big Picture, not “oversee” it, for that is the Holy Spirit’s job, and to prepare God’s people for the works of service.

     The five fold is five distinctly different points of view that can divide the Church if not led by the Holy Spirit, or be the very tool to unify it.

Relationship To Religion!

Sunday School Orchestra of the early 1900's.Increase To Decrease

Several years ago I attended a Law Witness Mission at a church that once boasted a “Sunday School Orchestra” of 90 members! That was just the orchestra.  In their “Sunday School Section” there were balconies so that several classes could be held in one general area.  Today there is less than 90 members in the entire church.

Once a local church boasted of over a 1,000 who crammed into their service and even had Billy Graham in his early days preach there.  Today they are less than 200.

 Today, I attended church in a huge sanctuary that use to host hundreds on a Sunday morning, but today they have three services, two with only twenty-five each attending, and one with ninety!

So what does this say about the lasting power of large churches with great numbers in the wake of the mega-church movement?  Many questions rise instead: Why the incline?  Why couldn’t these churches maintain the numbers they had? Is church life “cyclical”?  Did the buildings that housed the masses become the albatross to maintain in later years? These are all questions needing to be asked in an age where the number of people attending a church defines their “success” to many.

New churches feature relationships when they are infants, but as churches grow in numbers, it is easily to get lost in the crowd unless there is a “pastoral”, or “shepherding” component in the church’s ministry.  Often churches that were evangelistic at birth grow quickly in numbers, wane when unable to nurture the new babes, this is why having a “shepherding” ministry is so crucial.  If we do not learn lessons from history, we are doomed to repeat it.  We need all five of the five fold ministries. We need the shepherd no matter how small or how large the congregation is.

Shepherding

     The Glue To Community

On a Dr. Phil Show recently there were women talking about today’s woman who said they need a “village”, their word for community.  Years ago one lived near parents, near to the place of their birth, in the town or community that they were raised, around people they have known most of their lives.  No necessarily so today.

Today’s generation is more transient, moving five to ten times during their adult lives, changing jobs, not staying in one career, thus creating a need to continually make new friends while hoping to stay in touch with old ones, thus the social media craze of My Space, Face Book, texting, twittering, and blogging.

What was interesting was listening to one young woman tell who comprised her village since parents and family did not live close by her: Day Care Center attendant, Public School Teacher, baby sitter, friends also with children, etc. I stopped to think, “How about the Church?”  As a kid, the church was central to my family’s social life as well as spiritual life. What has happened to create this detachment as part of an American’s life?

In terms of the “five fold”, if a pastor is an evangelist by passion, or a teacher by gifting, or a prophet, or acting as an apostle as Senior Pastor, the passion, calling, and influence of a “shepherd” is missing.  Mega-churches don’t have enough staff to facilitate their large numbers individually. The small community pastor who was a part of everyone’s life seems to be a phase of bygone days.

The Church needs their shepherds to bring the flock together, take care of the flock, lead the flock, allow the flock to graze, grow, and give. I’ve gone to a church where I felt I had to call during “office hours” to get to the pastor, and felt guilty if it was in the evening when I knew he needed to be with his family. Shepherding is a tough “calling”, because availability is a key to their service, yet it is one of the most fulfilling because of the relationships that are built for life. “Caring” is central to the “calling”, and caring becomes reciprical.

If you are fortunate enough to have a pastor, elder, leader, of fellow believer whose passion is being a “shepherd”, honor them, respect them, and take “care” of them too!  You are fortunate!  You know how shepherds keep the flock, village, community together.  The Church needs the shepherd in the five fold ministry.

Pew Accountability to Leadership

The "Calling"

How accountable are we in the pew for what goes on in church?  We hire people to do the work (alias a pastor and staff).  All we need to do is show up on Sunday and sing along with them, listen to them teach, and financially support them; thus they wonder why the laity is lethargic. As long as we meet budget, everyone is happy. What would happen if the laity would be thrust into leadership instead of a professional staff?  Seems like a novel, rebellious idea, but it isn’t. It already exists, and I was at a 100^th Anniversary under this system just last week.

I grew up at New Fairview Church of the Brethren where they still practice a “free ministry” of pluralistic leadership of “elders”.  They have as many as five to seven “elders” who get ordained and lead their congregation for the rest of their lives. By the way, they do not get paid, thus the “free” ministry; they do not have salaries. Who are these elders? They are magazine editors, publish school administrators, contractors, butchers, and farmers who worked their “day job” to support their family and minister in shared leadership.

How do they get these elders? They have a “calling”.  During one of these “callings” the congregation meets, and a visiting minister goes to a back room.  Each member of the congregation, one by one, goes into that room and tells him who they think would be the best man to lead them.  Every man of God who has faithfully served that congregation is in fear and trembling, for the people of their church community, of their faith, may deem them as a candidate worthy of their trust in leadership. 

It is a principle of raised leadership from within the congregation to lead that congregation as a lifetime commitment while sharing leadership and replenishing leadership as needed.  You don’t have a change of clergy or pastors every so often, but have a thread of stability of existing leadership as well as new blood with young leaders or elders. 

But can you imagine yourself one Sunday sitting in the pew during a church service, only to be placed in the chair of leadership next week?  Because of your walk with Jesus, those around you who have seen Jesus exemplified in your life now want you to share your faith walk in leading them down the path, your Road to Emmaus, with them? Under the system of most churches this cannot happen because you would have to leave your congregation to go to college, and/or seminary for several years to be trained.  The odds of coming back to your “old” congregation to be their pastor is minimal, at the least, and to be a “tent maker”, like Apostle Paul, rather than a salary is unthinkable.

But I do not have to worry: the offering plate just passed by, I sang the psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, and all I have to do is make it through the sermon now!  As Alfred E. Newman of MAD magazine fame would probably say, “When little is required, little is given.”

Nurturing: The Reward

Thanks

As I conclude this segment of blogs on nurturing I got the most encouraging emails from a beautiful young lady who was one of our “young’uns”.  I would like to share some of her encouragement to my wife and me. She wrote.....

“I just wanted to take time to thank both of you for such an amazing amount of love you gave me as a teenager.  I don't know if you realize how tremendously you impacted that part and time of my life.  In a time when I felt worthless and hopeless, you loved me and treated me as part of the family.  I treasured the times I spent at your house, never wanting to go home.  I didn't want to leave a house so full of Jesus…..   A (family member of yours) invited me to church, and here I am still apart of that church today.  I don't know where I'd be without Jesus!  Deb always answered any questions I had and helped me understand things I didn't understand.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, Thank-you for accepting me just the way I was!  Thank-you for loving me and caring for me and always having an open door!  You'll never know the impact you've had on my life.  I hope you'll experience it when the day comes for you stand before God and He allows you to see how amazing you were to me!”

Wow! I am speechless!  Nurturing one toward Jesus is rewarding!

Nurturing: Availability

 

Any Time; Any Place

One of the greatest assets in being an effective shepherd is availability.  To help someone grow, one needs to be available: to be there when needed no matter what time of day, to be a listening ear when it seems no one is listening, to have unconditional love when the conditions seem grave, and to have access to breaking through the screens that keep us separated.

In a day when “Caller I.D.” helps screen calls, it needs to be the key to availability.  When the person you’re nurturing calls, you need to answer. To avoid control, a good shepherd knows when to give space and when to be near, when to lend a hand and when to allow one to be independent, when to encourage and when to be a straight shooter. 

Sheep love to wonder and explore but need guidance.  A shepherd cannot stand beside each sheep when many are wondering in different directions. Sheep love to graze; they are not force-fed.  Sheep know their shepherd’s voice and know the tone of that voice.

Much goes into the art of shepherding for there are many demands, but the rewards can be eternal.