A call to shepherd leadership
Of all the leadership models in Scripture — prophet, priest, king, or judge — God exhorts pastors and elders to be shepherds. Why?
Why does Jesus say to Peter “feed my sheep?” Why does Paul commend the Ephesian elders to “keep watch” and to “be shepherds?” Why does God choose a shepherd to describe the role of a church leader?
Why not a teacher, or priest, or prophet or another office?
The life of a shepherd was commonly understood to all in the ancient Near Eastern world. Every reader of Old and New Testaments had ready knowledge and experience of both sheep and shepherds. But the role of teacher and priest were also common, why not emphasize these roles in leadership?
In fact, when prophets and priests failed, God rebuked them as “shepherds.” (See Ezekiel 34)
Jesus, himself, resisted all claims of position (rabbi) or gifting (teacher), preferring images of a sacrificial lamb and shepherd instead. If preaching were the highest, most important leadership task, why did Jesus not say so?
The overwhelming preference of Scripture for describing spiritual leadership is shepherding. Whatever else a leader in the church must do or be, one truth is sure: he is no leader who is not a shepherd also.
The description of David’s call to ministry offers insight into what a shepherd leader is and does.
He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens; from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance. And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them. (Psa 78: 70-72)
Shepherding requires integrity and skill — in that order.
The word “integrity” comes from the word “integer” referring to a “whole number,” or a “complete entity,” something “undivided.” Integrity literally means to be one, to be complete and sound.
Asaph tells us that David shepherded Israel with completeness of heart. The test of leadership is fruit of character.
The Apostle Paul goes to great lengths to describe the qualifications of spiritual leadership by character, not experience, skill or gifting. In fact the only gift mentioned by Paul for elders is teaching. Even here, Paul exhorts Timothy to teach in his life as much as his words — literally with “gravity and honesty.” In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness. (Titus 2:7)
A biblical shepherd is one whose conduct matches his word. Righteousness is not perfection as much as it is the alignment of the heart toward God — where thought and action match word and deed. This ideal stands in stark contrast to the “righteousness” of the Pharisees who are “perfect” in outward appearance only — who have circumcised bodies but not hearts.
Whenever a church emphasizes skill over integrity it becomes less than a church. Leadership requires character first, then competence. Hands follow heart, ability is guided by character.
Shepherding is spiritual parenting — involving the same instincts, attributes and sensitivities of a godly mother and father.
Paul said as much in his letters:
I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children. Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. (1Co. 4:14-16)
We were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. (1Th. 2:7,8)
A shepherd is a life-giving parent.
For Paul, this is not about nurture alone. He links leadership and effective parenting together. It is a skill.
(An elder) must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church? (1Ti 3: 4-5)
Godly parenting, Paul says, is a qualification or test for leadership. Elders demonstrate their character and leadership in the home first. You are in the church what you are in the home.
Paul is addressing preparation as well as result. Leaders will be “parents” to the flock, just as they are parents in the home. We screen leaders for character because leadership, like parenting, is itself character forming. The way a leader leads will form those who follow.
So, Paul reasons, if proper respect is not formed in a home, how will it be formed in a church? Paul’s assumption is that home and church are indelibly linked. In fact, Paul describes the church as an extended family, a “household.” He exhorts husbands and wives to respect and love one another because their marriage is a picture of Christ’s relationship to the church.
All of these are “one” — leader, family and church.
Integrity is at the very heart of our calling to “one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
“Oneness” is everything for the church and must be foremost for a shepherd especially in crisis or failure.
Yet it is here — when confronted with our failures — that so many leaders and churches stumble, opting for the values of our narcissistic and individualistic culture against a way of life shaped by the cross practiced in one another community.
Failure is the crucible of character.
We recently served a church that had seen its congregation decline 40% in ten years, due in great part to the failure of the senior pastor to lead and shepherd the flock.
The senior pastor refused to own his failure. Instead, he repeatedly used the following responses to shift responsibility for his actions:
1. Blame: The pastor constantly stated that a major problem in the church was the congregation’s “lack of commitment,” even going so far to telling the church, “you have made me what I have become.”
2. Hurt: A constant claim of the pastor was that people have “hurt” him, failing to distinguish how hurt can be both productive and redemptive. (Proverbs 27:5-6)
3. Position: The pastor insisted that “God called him” to the church and that “I will not leave until God tells me to.”
These statements had some measure of truth. Some people did lack commitment. Some did treat the pastor unkindly. We did not question the pastor’s original call.
What was troublesome was the pastor’s use of these responses to divert and to excuse his own responsibility.
A good question to ask in these situations is “who is the object and subject of this concern or statement?”
Every instance above has the same object and subject: the pastor. Responsibility, feelings and power were all about and for the benefit of the shepherd, not the sheep.
In other words, the pastor was not “one” with his congregation. Integrity was broken.
Integrity is broken whenever a leader’s needs become primary, over (or against) the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the needs of others. This is the root of all leadership failure.
When this happens the church cannot practice or embody redemption. Instead of a leader sharing his heart, owning his fault and taking biblical steps to restore patterns of failure, a privatized faith and bankrupt grace is proclaimed. This is not biblical Christianity, nor leadership.
When the church is truly the church, leaders and members alike are committed to transform and grow as one — in submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Here, we are not surprised by sin or failure, nor condemned to work out our salvation in secrecy or alone. Rather, the motivation is to rush into the light of others so that we might confess, receive forgiveness and work out restitution and restoration.
This rarely happens in the church because we lack integrity. We cling instead to our rights and reputations, unaware until it is too late that our lives, despite our words, are forming harassed and helpless sheep.
Integrity is being undivided in your relationship to God, yourself and others. Integrity never blames.