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Review content:
What is a Shepherd? (Part One)\r
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Some years ago, “N,” the senior pastor, stood in front of his flock and told the tale of a parting of ways. A foreign pastor, “C” had agreed to submit himself and his church, to “N.” In practical terms this meant that “C,” an established pastor, meant that he was joining “N’s” network of churches, and putting himself in a position under “N’s” authority. And so we added that church, that country to our roster of places our “word” had spread, and that flag went up on our stage. Somehow though, as “N” now told us, the relationship with “C” had eroded. That previous week, that Friday in fact, it had ended.\r
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“N” called “C” and told him he was being ambushed—“N” had gathered all the pastors and elders he could find and they were now on speaker phone with “C” in the conference room.\r
By the end of the call, the relationship was severed. And as they parted, “N” told us, he called “C” the worst thing you can call another pastor, the lowest term for that occupation: a “hireling.” He spit this word out for us, his contempt and fierce righteous joy shining in the retelling.\r
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Calling a pastor a “hireling” is like calling a doctor a “charlatan” or a “scientist” a fraud. It conveys, in very certain terms, that the very essence of that person’s professional identity, that their work, their calling, is compromised and suspect. It is surely worthless.\r
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It is a heavy accusation to bring to bear on a pastor. And so I have thought many times about pastors since. What their role is, and how they can avoid this most egregious of traps.\r
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The role of pastor is mentioned only once in the Bible. But we know it is analogous to shepherds, and the term “hireling” alludes to this. A pastor then is a shepherd, and a bad one is a hireling.\r
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So we might ask, what is a shepherd? What does he do?\r
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Does a shepherd dispel a member of their flock, run back to the rest and retell, with obvious gusto, of that “lost” sheep’s leaving?\r
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Does a shepherd, in losing a member of that flock, manage to transfer all responsibility for them straying onto the sheep, never taking any responsibility himself?\r
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Is that a shepherd? Or could that be a hireling?\r
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