ShepherdLeader.com

Tim, here is one of the places where I think the shepherding metaphor may break down a bit, or at least need some nuancing. One of my frustrations as a shepherd was seeing people church-hop, complaining that they weren’t “getting fed.� I am sure that does happen as not all pastors are skillful feeders, but in my experience there are also a lot of lazy sheep out there, sheep who for whatever reason refuse to feed themselves, who excessively look to their pastor as the sole source of their spiritual growth There’s an old saying about being able to lead a horse to water but not make him drink. I’m wondering if the same principle applies to sheep also? Once the shepherd has done his job of leading his sheep to the green pastureland, is it unheard of for them to refuse to eat?
I think another way of what I’m asking here is, “Is it really possible for a pastor to truly be responsible for someone else’s spiritual growth?� I think that’s the expectation we place on ourselves (and others place on us also). But the more I think about it, that just can’t be right. Yes, I can do my dead-level best to rightly divide the word and help people apply it to their lives, yes I can try my hardest to create a healthy, Christ-centered community where people love and are loved, etc., but the bottom-line is I cannot make anyone grow spiritually, no matter how well I feed them. Ultimately, they must choose if/how they are going to respond to the seed of truth. The soil of their hearts is everything. (Mark 4) We do our people a disservice when we set ourselves up to be the primary agent of their spiritual growth. I’m not suggesting you’re implying that here, it’s just something I think we need to watch out for with the shepherd/sheep metaphor.

Jamie, I thought the same thing as I read this chapter. This culture in which we minister is increasingly one where (literal) food is pre-pared for them - not only in restaurants but even frozen foods. It's a culture that is conditioned to have someone else do the work so that they/we can get maximum benefit with the least effort. As a pastor, I'm not really sure what to do about that. I was trained to provide "application" to every lesson and sermon, but I now feel that's a form of spoon-feeding. The Bible itself doesn't provide "application" on every page or in every story. Sometimes we need to put the raw ingredients out there and wait while people go hungry if necessary until they are willing to do the work of self-feeding. And, like you say, Jamie, this is where the sheep/shepherd analogy breaks down.

Jamie and Bob are dead on with this line of thinking. The "junk food" and "fast food" culture doesn't just affect our stomachs but our heads and hearts.

One of my frustrations with the "seeker' church phenomenon is they cater - another food analogy! - to this. Most of the time they never move beyond it. In the name of accessibility, they "put the cookies on the lowest shelf." My questions back are, "Do we really want cookies to be their diet? Wouldn't it be good to show them how to stretch up and down, search out nutrition, etc.?" They begin to subsist on pre-chewed food - a gross idea but true. Someone else has taken all the bulk out and they simply swallow gruel that has no lasting nutrients of value.

Jesus never gave out feel good or easy to follow sermon outlines. He was tossing substantial teaching to a people starving for authoritative teaching, hard sayings with gentleness. He did not worry if the crowds fell away - He was about feeding God's flock. Like Jamie and Bob noted, the ones who chose not to eat, did not.

Of course, there is the issue that many shepherds cannot feed substantial, solid food because they haven't tasted it either. I am saddened to find so many pre-chewed foods for leaders and preachers, available for purchase or download.

There is truly a famine in our land for the word of God.

All this talk of what we ought to be feeding the flock and the fact that in so many 'seeker' churches the 'food' is easy to reach and partly digested, and the problem with getting people to reach for and seek the food that is nutritious reminds me of what Jesus said in John 6:53-58. His words drove many away. But better to go away hungry than feed on junk (as in some 'seeker' churches) and be deceived into thinking you have been fed.