It’s easy to get caught up in the details and miss the big picture. Feed the sheep what? What’s a “green pasture”? Elders are to be examples of what?
I think the answer — or the most important part of the answer — is found back in Ephesians. The goal of the work of a shepherd is to help the members become like Jesus.
Let’s see what else Paul said in Ephesians —
(Eph 4:20-24 ESV) 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ! — 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:24 is a reference back to Gen 1:26. “Created” in the New Testament is always a reference to Genesis 1, and man was made in God’s image.
What does it mean to be like God? Well, to be like Jesus.
(Col 1:15 ESV) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
(2Co 4:4 ESV) In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
If Jesus is the image of God, and if we were created to be in the image of God, and if we’re to be equipped to be like God, then the goal is for us to be like Jesus. Which Paul says in —
(Eph 5:1-2 ESV) Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Here’s the key thought: For us to be like God, we must walk in love “as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.” That is, the goal of it all is for the members to become like Jesus — hanging on the cross. Because it’s on the cross that Jesus most truly reveals the heart of God.
Why “sheep”?
Think about this: What does a good Jew do with the sheep in his flock? The very best of the sheep? The most perfect?
He sacrifices them to God. The image of “sheep” for church members fits because sheep are sacrifices. Like Jesus.
Shepherds prepare sheep to be sacrificed.
Water, grass, sustenance — these are all Jesus. We eat and drink Jesus, because we cannot survive a day without Jesus.
To feed the sheep is to lead them to Jesus.
The “doctrine” that Paul teaches is the gospel of Jesus.
And while we teach ecclesiology (how to worship, how to organize the church), soteriology (how to get saved), and maybe even eschatology (where we go when we die), we don’t teach Jesus. Indeed, we manage to teach the “Five Steps” and not even once mention the name of “Jesus” or our faith that he is the Messiah!
And we so parch our teaching of Jesus that our doctrine seems nothing like food and water. Worse yet, even when we do preach Jesus, we preach him as the Christian Santa Claus who gives salvation for nothing but the low, low price of immersion and confession (On sale today! Get it before you’re run over by a train on the way to the baptistry!)
And therefore, we never, ever get around to teaching what it means to feed on Jesus. Indeed, we never teach what it means to become a living sacrifice — like Jesus.
What does it mean to be a sacrifice?
(Phi 2:1-8 ESV) So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
The foremost goal of a shepherd, I believe, is to develop the heart of Jesus in the members. This means they must learn to empty themselves, to become nothing. To be servants. [“Slaves” is more literal.]
Paul explains it plainly enough in vv. 2 – 4. If Christianity — indeed, if Jesus — means anything to our members, we are to implore them to empty themselves in submission for one another.
What are elders to be examples of? Living like Jesus. We lead by emptying ourselves. How do we do this?
How do we do this?
Teach Jesus. Jesus is the missing piece. Teach Jesus as our ultimate example, as our model, as whom we were meant to be like.
John Howard Yoder demonstrates in The Politics of Jesus
Rather, read what the Scriptures say about what it means to truly follow Jesus —
(2Co 4:8-10 ESV) 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
(Phi 3:8-11 ESV) the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith — 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
(John 13:14-15 ESV) 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
(1Pe 2:21 ESV) 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
(1Jo 3:16 ESV) 16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
(John 13:34-35 ESV) 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
(Rom 6:6-18 ESV) 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves [language of sacrifice!] to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. 15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
(2Co 13:4-6 ESV) 4 For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God. 5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless indeed you fail to meet the test! 6 I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test.
(Rom 12:1 ESV) I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Amen and Amen!
How ironic that the “missing piece” in the teaching of the Church of Christ is the Christ Himself! Yet, too often that has been true. When I was growing up (in the 1950’s), I heard so little about the fruit by which Christians are to be known – beyond what we were not to do: cuss, go to movies (even Snow White), go mixed swimming, smoke, drink, and such like. We drew heavily from the works of the flesh (except for the ones in the middle of the list – enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions). We had little to say about the fruit of the Spirit.
I literally grew up wondering what “fruit” we would be known by, as I (even then) did not see what was so wonderful about where we put our emphasis. I never questioned the need for baptism, because I could read that right in the Bible. Some of our other teachings are not as clear as that, but they did not seem to me to qualify as “fruit” by which true and false teachers could be distinguished. This, mind you, was when I was still in my teens.
I could say much more, but instead I’ll only say, “Praise God that He has opened my eyes to the things that are of greater importance in the kingdom of God!”
And just how do elders “teach Jesus”? Perhaps Moses had had it right:
“Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates…”
There’s nothing wrong with a weekly lecture, but such does not really constitute the kind of “teaching Jesus” that is needful. Hearing about Jesus is not nearly so powerful as seeing Him. And going to school three hours a week to meet with a teacher is pretty limited.
To be like Jesus is first to be a servant. Phil 2:5-8 says He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but took the form a servant. In Luke the greatest among you must be your servant. To me the first part of feeding the sheep is not formal instruction but serving them. The kind of teaching that Jesus did which was most powerful is action; feeding, clothing, healing, crying, suffering, etecetera. If you are an elder the first thing you must do is SERVE your flock. This requires humility and is very different than our traditional form. It goes beyond the character or teaching qualifications. If you serve your congregation out of sincerity you will win their respect and will have greater opportunity to influence them in other ways.
And, to lead your sheep means you lead them into servanthood. Servanthood not to just each other but to each other and the other sheep that are lost and hungry. As usual, true leadership is more than issuing commands and should be demonstrated through example. A true Elder ought to be the busiest person in the church.
As Doug states a view of an Elder, how could there ever be too many in any congregation? The normal concept is what? Three to Five percent of a congregation? Is it totally illogical to believe that there is enough work as described that 25 to 50% of the congregation could serve as Elders? Don’t you think that the world outside of the church would take notice of atmosphere that would be demonstrated by a church that was filling these needs? I believe many outside the church would be drawn into a relationship with Christ and the Church, seeing Jesus displayed in this fashion.
Doug suggested: “A true Elder ought to be the busiest person in the church.” I cannot for the life of me see what “busy-ness” has to do with being a shepherd more than it has to do with being a believer. Unless we are talking about what Larry mentions, the traditional idea that elders should be only a tiny fraction of the overall group.
Two things come to mind: first, that there are reasons behind the oligarchy which is most elderships. One is that most elderships act primarily as a board of directors, where few rule the many, because the role of eldership is considered to be that of decision-making, which is most efficiently handled by a small group. Another reason is that our American, independent, nobody-tells-me-what-to-do mentality often makes any form of leadership a thankless task. So, we have few volunteers.
It seems to me that we have drawn too hard a line between rulers and ruled. It’s inconsistent with the spirit of a shepherd and the nature of our connection with the Head of the Body. In any city (or in any congregation of any size) we should have shepherds in development, shepherds in oversight, and shepherds in counsel. First, a constant flow of men whose calling we recognize and who are being developed as shepherds, then men who fulfill the full role of shepherds, and then, men who have been shepherds but who now, due to age or infirmity, give wisdom and counsel to the first two groups. This is a natural, organic progression. Our current practice is more along the lines of a parlimentary system, where we call for elections once in a while for whatever reasons.
What does it look like when elders submit themselves to the flock?
Our western culture does not make this easy to accomplish or even to recognize.
David asked,
There are many possibilities. Let me give an example or two.
* The elders care nothing about their own taste in preacher, sermon, or song selection. Rather, they make their decisions based on seeking green pastures for the congregation and seeking God’s mission for the church.
* An elder leads the church’s tornado relief effort, pouring himself into the care of the destitute and dispossessed, solely because he cares about the destitute and dispossessed.
* An elder diligently visits the sick and bereaved day after day and night after night.
* The elders earnestly seek God’s will in prayer, seek counsel from the experts, attend seminars and lectureships to learn how best to do their work, and empty themselves into service of their congregation, without representing particular groups or segments, seeking what’s best for the whole.
How does a church recognize such elders? Well, visit the sick and bereaved and notice whether an elder has been there, too. Wonder why it is that there’s no elder who is your elder, because the elders all serve the entire congregation. Volunteer to help tornado victims and notice whether an elder is involved. Notice that the song service does not reflect the taste of men the age of the elders.