Preaching sermons and raising church goals is not the only work of the pastor. His greatest work is shepherding. Eloquent preachers, detailed organizers, and business executives all have their place. But the church grows in grace and Christlikeness under the gentle touch of the shepherd. There is an enormous pastoral work to do today. Never was there greater need of stronger, wiser, more sympathetic shepherds. Our great need is for men who can understand, men who can love the wickedness out of hearts, men who can untangle individual and community problems, shepherds who sense the need of the sheep.
The exalted office of the pastor is not recognized as it should be. Often a worker who has had no previous experience is called to pastor a church or supervise a district. He may be a tired evangelist, or a none-too-successful executive or departmental head, but he drifts into this delicate work, feeling that it is something that a semiretired man can do. The result is often tragic. Unqualified by both experience and temperament, such a minister finds it difficult either to lead or to feed the flock of God.
Shepherding is a specialty. And for that a man needs training. The word "shepherd" is a scriptural term found in both the Old and New Testaments. In Bible lands a shepherd was a man of courage, a watchman, a guard, a guide, even a physician. But most of all he was a companion to the flock. He loved his sheep. He knew them all and they knew him. If one strayed, he rested not till it was found and returned to the fold.
The church needs such shepherds today. A pastor may be a brilliant organizer, or a pulpit orator, but if he would be a true shepherd be must be a great lover of the flock, a sympathetic savior, expert In rescue work. Sheep have a propensity for getting lost. They wander so easily.
It may be sheer stupidity or downright heedlessness, but they are often lured away from the pasture. That is why we need shepherds.
The shepherd's greatest work is rescue work. Rescue work, however, is hard work, and rarely is it spectacular. It is easier to sing with the crowd, "Rescue the Perishing," hoping, perhaps, that someone else will accept the unpleasant task, than it is to brave the night, bleak and cold, and diligently search over hill and dale. But that is what it takes to be a good shepherd. He "giveth his life for the sheep," are the words of Jesus. A good shepherd is always thinking what he can do for the sheep. The hireling's chief concern is what the sheep will do for him.
Straying Sheep Become Lost Sheep
A sheep is never lost suddenly. Before he is a lost sheep be is a straying sheep. That is when he needs help. Warm, friendly, sympathetic understanding will often win him and prevent the loss of a soul and the loss of a church member. This is something we should take seriously. Saving a soul from apostasy and keeping him in the church is surely as important a work as bringing someone in who has never before belonged to the church.
The unfortunate thing is, of course, that we have no conference report sheet that records the number of members saved to the church, unless they are rebaptized. Rebaptism usually presupposes some grave lapse of Christian experience. A prayerful, consecrated pastor can often prevent such a tragedy. It is for this kind of shepherd that we are asking. True, one might work day and night for weeks or months to prevent a careless member from taking the final step which would make rebaptism necessary at some later time. Such efforts may take more out of the shepherd—more time, study time, and prayer—than is required to bring some new sheep into the fold. But is it not as important to keep our old members as it is to make new ones?
There being no way devised to measure the pastor's work accurately, his service rarely comes into the limelight. He may be doing equally as much to build the kingdom of God as another minister whose whole time is given to dealing with those who never knew the truth, and still his work goes unnoticed. The work of evangelism is important. We need more evangelists, but every evangelist hopes and prays that when he is called to leave those he has brought into the fold, some kind, sympathetic shepherd will care for those he has left behind.
Some have a passion to save the lost, but only the lost who have never belonged to the church. We perfect all kinds of devices to attract and bring men and women into the truth, but once they are in, our interest in them almost ceases. We feel that "black" sheep, who are openly and notoriously lost—drunkards, thieves, and the heathen—are worth working for' so we compass land and sea to bring them in. When they come in, we rejoice, and a report is made of our success. But once they become members, they are supposed to keep themselves within the fold without further effort. If, later, one of these, a sheep or a lamb, begins to stray, no sympathy is awakened in the heart of the hireling. Instead he takes it as a personal affront. He may even console himself with the thought that roving sheep are hardly worth the time and care required to keep them. It may be he is even glad they are gone. Thus the wandering sheep hear no tender voice calling them back to the fold, and they are lost.
No Task for a Novice
Some loss is inevitable. Christ Himself lost one. But His attitude, His longing, His burdened heart, His effort to shield Judas, His love for His betrayer right up to the very last, are lessons we need to study again and again. As watchmen we need vigilance, prudence as guardians, wisdom as guides, skill as spiritual physicians, but rescuing is a work of love. Of the heavenly Shepherd we read, "He loved them unto the end."
Dealing with the human mind is no task for a novice. It is a delicate and difficult work. To be' a physician or a surgeon requires both skill and thorough training. And if one elects to become a specialist in some field he must do a thorough piece of graduate study in addition. Shepherding is a specialty. Many situations could be handled and members saved to the cause if only the shepherds had been better prepared. Removing the cataracts of sin from eyes blinded by self-will and pleasure, requires the touch and skill of an expert. There is no more delicate work than soul surgery. But too often we thrust a worker into a community without either the training or the experience necessary to meet the need, and tragedy results. Neither the sheep nor the shepherd are happy.
We all recognize that an evangelist needs specialized training. No reasonable expenditure is thought extravagant that will help him to become a more efficient soul winner. Sometimes we arrange for a man to spend weeks or even months in association with an experienced, successful evangelist. But too often our attitude suggests that pastoring a flock, or several flocks, requires no particular training. Too often the pastor is the forgotten man.
Many of our pastors would find difficulty in taking special studies in pastoral psychiatry. But some excellent books in this field have recently come from the press. These, together with some outlined studies from the inspired counsel of the Spirit of prophecy, would do much to help our pastors become qualified in this field. More skilled shepherding will mean more sheep saved to the fold.
Our losses every year are appalling. Much of this could be averted. Even if we saved twenty-five per cent of our apostasies, it would represent a marvelous gain. Some of us are convinced that more than twenty-five per cent could be saved. But it will not be done by a mere resolution. It will take consecration, determination, and application. If we inaugurated a five-year plan, and were courageous enough to put some things into action, we could, by preventing a fourth of our losses, save to this cause not less than 15,000 to 20,000 members—a worth-while saving indeed. And we would not necessarily need any additional workers to do it. Our evangelists could still remain in the field, working for the unwarned. But more, our churches would be happier and healthier for the effort.
To do this, some things would need to be adjusted. We need a new emphasis on feeding the flock. Sheep expect to be shorn, but the yield is better if they have been well fed. We need more diligent, painstaking care on the part of every shepherd for the welfare of every individual member of his flock.
The physical death rate has been greatly reduced by more careful nursing and more skilled physicians and surgeons, as well as a nation-wide effort to reduce infant mortality, and the average length of life has been increased. This was not accomplished by wholesale methods or by some particular campaign. The results could not have been attained without the loving care of each patient or each baby, without which many more would have died.
As Adventist leaders and lay workers, we can greatly lower the spiritual death rate among us. We can do it by demanding greater skill on the part of our spiritual physicians, and more faithful and loving care on the part of our spiritual nurses. If all our churches were spiritual hospitals and dynamic centers of healing, where wounded and weary, broken and bruised souls could feel that here was health and restoration, how wonderful would be the result !
We should eliminate from our churches the spirit of competition. All too often, in order to establish some new record, we destroy the very spirit of worship. The Sabbath morning service, which should be one of reverent praise and communion with God, virtually assumes the air of a salesroom, and the members, instead of being inspired with a spirit of oneness, all having the same care one for another, are launched into a program in which each is struggling against the other in an effort to be the greatest. If such things as these could give place to the true spirit of shepherding the flock, and more care could be given to the building of barriers against the wolves, then only the heavenly Shepherd Himself could foresee the glorious effect in His waiting church.
Something like that surely must happen before the end. Why not let us begin now ? It will take courage, but it will be worth it. If every pastor and every conference worker and every local elder will determine to shepherd every struggling sheep, giving more faithful care to each individual member, we can save thousands from apostasy this very year. Remember, it is love that conquers indifference. It is love that seeks the lost, for love has farseeing eyes and cannot sleep while the one it loves is out on the mountain in the storm.
