Little tin gods?

My life with the church has been a 24-hour-a-day marriage. In spite of what the time management experts keep saying, I've never had a vacation from being a pastor. Most of the time I have loved it; other times I've hated it; a few times I have thrown up my hands in despair. I have dreamed of retirement, when it wouldn't be so everlastingly there; but I always awaken to realize that it will continue to be until I slip into a terminal coma.

I've lived with it. I've slept with it. It seems that I've hardly eaten a meal when it didn't interrupt. Would you believe I've actually been making love to my wife when the phone jangled off the wall and I was left with a guilty feeling that it might have been an emergency? Of course you can believe it, because it's happened to you!

I've asked myself, Why have I even stuck with it this long, and why do I intend to stay with it? Answering these questions hasn't been easy. It has some thing to do with my relationship with the One I'm working for. It also has some thing to do with those for whom I'm working. It relates somehow to David's answer to his brother Eliab, "Is there not a cause?" (1 Sam. 17:29).

But then, how do you explain God's hand on your shoulder? There's this compulsion to answer a call, to fill a need, to give yourself to the great Advent cause. And there's the divine imperative brought through the apostle: "Shepherd the flock of God that is your charge" (1 Peter 5:2). The word is not really "feed," as the King James Version has it, nor is it "tend," as in the Revised Standard Version. Strictly speaking, it is "shepherd" a much broader concept than either of the other two. The shepherd's one business is the welfare of his flock. His heart holds something that the hired hand does not share.

My free translation of this second-person plural aorist imperative runs like this: "As long as you have a flock placed within your oversight, you are under orders to shepherd them." Notice now, it is not the church— it is "the flock of God." Peter nowhere used the word church. His pastoral heart is looking at individual people rather than organized bodies. Evidently, when Jesus commissioned him to "shepherd my sheep" and "feed my lambs," this apostle learned his lesson well.

Peter seems both idealistic and realistic in his view of God's flock. "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9, RSV).

Peter's idealism sees each member as God's priest, all of them building bridges for others to find the way to God; all of them telling others what Christ has done for them personally and what He will do for them. And in this he is appropriating the ancient covenant given to Israel in Exodus 19:5, 6 and applying it to the whole Christian flock.

This still remains the ideal—every member a minister and priest for God! But Pastor, never for a moment think you can build your church program using that as your practical, working assumption. Israel never realized that ideal; and while we keep praying for it, we yet have to see it happen in our churches. There are but few members who see themselves in that role.

So Peter's realistic view is that the flock—far from being a tower of strength to the unbelieving world—is itself weak, easily misled, vulnerable and dependent, and in need of organized, sympathetic shepherding. Hence the imperative: "Shepherd the flock of God."

Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying, but your shepherding work must come even before your evangelistic ministry! Not to eclipse it, nor to exclude it, but to preserve the flock and to prepare for evangelism.

Changing world challenges pastoring

The post-World War II era has not been the most tranquil period for this shepherding. I find little similarity between the pastoral world of the 1940s and that of the 1980s. Change has been the distinctive hallmark of these years, and these dramatically changing times have contributed much to the stressfulness of our ministry.

One of the changes that has come with these years is the call for relevance. Of course, we all believe that we must be relevant, but the insistence on it has had a rather tricky influence on our preaching. The trend says that guilt-producing sermons are out; building self-esteem among the congregation is in. Some good has come of this I think life-centered preaching has its place. But is the Word of God still our authority or have the insights of psychotherapy tended to take its place? I'm afraid the Word may have suffered some in our push for relevance.

Another change that has come since the 1950s is the growth in impact of the parachurch organizations, such as the Voice of Prophecy, Faith for Today, Breath of Life, Adventist Development and Relief Agency, Concerned Communications, Maranatha Flights, Amazing Facts, Hour of Prophecy, The Quiet Hour, the Student Missionary movement, etc., etc., etc. Valuable as these all are, pastors increasingly have found these parachurch organizations competing for the loyalties, to say nothing of the dollars, of their flocks. And this at the very time when divisive issues have been pressing in and local church budgets are being strained to the utmost.

Also among the changes of the period is the pastor's emerging role as a church executive. While on the one hand the trend toward specialization has accelerated the rate of pastoral dropouts, on the other the pastor's managerial responsibilities have multiplied.

In our larger churches we hear of the "senior" pastor, whose days of shepherding have virtually ended as administering and directing consumes his time. He is caught up with his staff responsibilities, committees, seminars and outreach classes, and his preaching. And pastors of smaller churches must not only do all this, but they must raise the finances and lead out in the whole church program as well.

Management by objective, too, has dropped like a cloud over some of us who hadn't been trained in those lines. Pressures to accommodate the swelling costs of local outreach are intense. In both large and small churches, motivating lay involvement, a matter of little concern in the past, weighs heavily upon us to day. Even though I still aim to touch my people through daily personal visitation, I find myself having to struggle to find the time to do so.

In the face of all these developments, the apostle's imperative still stands: "Shepherd the flock of God." Don't spend your whole time managing! Don't spend your whole time in outreach per se! Look to your flock! They need it, and your own spirit needs it. Keep the foundation of your ministry strong.

Peter pictures perfect pastor

Peter not only holds us to this, but he counsels us on the kind of shepherds we should be. He says that our work with the people is to be done not by constraint, but willingly (see 1 Peter 5:2). The word translated "constraint" was commonly used of methods of handling slaves and also of forcible conscription of men into military service. This shouldn't be necessary for one with the heart of a shepherd.

Who in the flock needs this shepherding? The alcoholic? The pregnant single woman? The youth caught up in drugs? The man who has lost his job and might have to give up his house? The nonattender? All of these, of course. Then add the sick, the bereaved, the youth who needs to catch a vision, the distraught mother with an unbelieving spouse, the young family, the single members, the aged ones, and yes, even the successful ones.

And doesn't your flock include the whole community? Are you not God's messenger for your town? At this point we begin to see a blending of the pastoral and evangelistic emphases. A pastoral approach to your community contacts can't help enhancing your evangelistic efforts too.

Though the pastor may feel inundated with the multiplicity of his responsibilities, it is this involvement with people that Peter says should be done willingly, even eagerly. Fordyce Detamore spoke of how depressed he used to feel in the morning when he pondered the multitudes without Christ. But all that would lift when he got out and began to minister to people in their homes or at their jobs, and joy would fill his soul. I too have found that to be true.

There are many ways to be self-serving in the ministry, but the apostle says there must be none of that! "Not for shameful gain, but eagerly."

I wonder how often personal ambition has tainted our response to the work or to the calls we have received. Scripture says, "A man's gift makes room for him and brings him before great men" (Prov. 18:16, RSV). Is that really enough for us or do we need a little extra string-pulling just to be sure?

And what of competition and empire building in our districts the spirit that makes people their fellow pastors' rivals rather than teammates ? I know of a pas tor who was noted for carrying on a running pitch inviting the members of neighboring churches in a multichurch metropolitan area to transfer to his! And we have all seen examples of pastors who were unwilling to publicize another congregation's events in spite of the obvious fact that people do find out what is going on and will attend wherever they wish.

Sometimes we are reluctant to join in area-wide projects, lest our own not stand out so sharply. I wonder if the apostle would style these as examples of "shameful gain"?

Verse 3 touches on our style of leader ship in the church: "Not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock" (RSV). Evidently shepherding requires a gentle touch. The methods of military commanders or worldly employers or even of ancient prophets do not fit well on a man or woman who is a shepherd. The one who has to "pull rank" on his members to bring them into line has misunderstood his calling.

The warning against domineering over those in our charge includes those of us who think we have the mind of God, yet are so inflexible that we have room in the flock only for mindless followers or those who happen to agree with our own ideas. This point seems to be an important one to J. B. Phillips. His translation reads: "You should aim not at being 'little tin gods' but as examples of Christian living in the eyes of the flock committed to your charge."

The big fisherman seems to sum up his answer to all these problems of leading the flock in verse 5: "Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one an other, for 'God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble' " (RSV).

Humility doesn't come naturally to any of us. But Peter uses a word that literally means "put it on." Take humility and consciously tie it on as a slave ties on his apron or a nobleman his robe of honor.

How do we tie on humility? Perhaps we can learn from John Bunyan, who told how he cured himself of pride: "I was proud of my godliness," he said, "and indeed I did all either to be seen or to be well-spoken of by men." This he over came by taking a long, hard look at him self and the cross of Christ. He discovered thereby that he was the chief of sinners. Once he realized that, he found peace through a new birth of humility and love. *

Adventist ministry excites and concerns

Yes, the pastorate has come a long way since the 1940s, and the pastor's career has been subjected to many changes. To day I find many things in the Adventist ministry that both excite and concern me.

I am excited about the pastor's freedom to pursue relevance; but I am concerned that that pursuit may lead to a style of life and thought that loses the vital element the apostle Paul called godliness.

I am excited by the enormous advantages the education and methodology available today offer; but I am concerned that we not become overloaded with scholars who are not shepherds, managers who are not leaders, or communicators who do not have the unction of the Spirit of God.

I am excited by the pastoral challenge for soul winning; but I am concerned that it may take such a dominant role as to displace the building up of the lambs of the flock, whatever their chronological age, to maturity in Christ.

I am excited by the possibilities afforded by pastoral specialization; but I am concerned about the disappearing general-practice pastor, and the increasing number of those who are dropping out from the pastorate in favor of so-called higher responsibilities.

I am excited about our better under standing of biblical hermeneutics and eschatology; but I am concerned that we may be losing our sense of the imminence of what Peter called "a living hope, ... a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1:3-5).

And finally, yes, I am still excited by this frustrating, confusing, burdensome, impossible challenge to "shepherd the flock of God." But I am concerned that I, or perhaps many of us, may not be willing enough, compassionate enough, self-denying enough, or humble enough to keep the Adventist movement from squandering its hour on the stage of world recognition and need.

Without question, the pastor's job is chancy and a bit lonely. But this is one job that God has decided He can't do without. And I, for one, am not inclined to trade my calling for that of anyone else. I don't understand it it seems in credible yet God needs me to be a shepherd of His flock!

Someone put these lovely words in the mouth of the famous old maker of the world's finest violins:

"When any master holds 'twixt hand and chin

A violin of mine, he will be glad

That Stradivari lived, made violins,

And made them of the best. . . .

For while God gives them skill,

I give them instruments to play upon,

God using me to help Him. . . .

If my hand slacked,

I should rob God,

Leaving a blank behind, instead of violins.

He could not make Antonio Stradivari's violins

Without Antonio.

Are there some things God can't do or some people He can't reach without you? Is God's hand still on your shoulder? Fel low pastor, is the drive for pastoral excellence still alive in your soul, and does it drive you to be out much among the flock ? Has God laid on your heart that He needs you?

Then I, for one, will not fear for the Advent cause in the 1980s. Our moment in history will not be lost. Our Father's kingdom soon will come and His will be accomplished, as the flock of God are safely gathered into the eternal fold of the Divine Shepherd.