“Can you do my wedding?”
I had not spoken with him in nearly 20 years, yet somehow he found my cell phone number and called me. He heard I was in vocational ministry and he was getting married so he thought it would be nice to have someone he knew officiate his wedding. I asked him why he wasn’t having his pastor perform the wedding ceremony. The response was sad, but not surprising: “I don’t know my pastor”. Oh, he has one, I suppose. He attends a church, but it was clear he was not participating in the life of the church. Being part a large church he thought of the guy up front as “the pastor” and since he did not have a relationship with this man he didn’t ask him to officiate his wedding. Since he was not really involved in the life of the church, beyond attending on Sunday mornings, he also did not know any of the elders of the church.
I think our time in college overlapped just a single year. I had neither seen him nor spoken with him in nearly 20 years yet he “knew” me better than he knew his pastor. I explained to him that I am not a wedding officiant. I am an elder in Christ’s church and while the State of Michigan authorizes me to officiate weddings, this is not “my job”. As an elder I certainly officiate weddings. I love weddings. Weddings and pre-marital counseling and walking with a couple through their marriage is part of being an elder. Officiating weddings is part of discipleship. I am not a wedding officiant, however. Let me explain.
In John 10 we read of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. He told his disciples there is only one legitimate way into the sheepfold: by the door. The one who enters through the door is the shepherd of the sheep. He told them the sheep hear his voice and they recognize him and follow him because they know him. They won’t follow a stranger, though. Then he had to explain his meaning to them. He is the door of the sheep. The only way into the flock is through Jesus.
He explained he is the good shepherd, for the good shepherd loves his sheep and would give his life for them. He said this:
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
John 10:11-13 ESV
When times get tough, hired hands flee. They move on. They seek to work with other flocks where the danger is less. But then the wolves come again. Hired hands have no real investment in the sheep. They’re hired to do a job. That might be watching them at night, though that’s when wolves come. They might be hired to shear the sheep. Sheep-shearing is a significant endeavor. The larger a flock the longer it takes. Shepherds often hire people to shear the sheep. Our very own Sam is off on an adventure to shear alpacas for the next few months! Shepherds need sheep-shearers!
A shepherd also shears sheep. It’s part of being a shepherd. A shepherd—the owner of the flock—does all sorts of things for the sheep. The shepherd leads the flock out to pasture each morning. He often travels a significant distance with them to lead them to green grass and to safe water. If there is a well, a shepherd must draw enough water for the entire flock. These were daily responsibilities for sheep need to eat and drink.
As mentioned, shepherds guard the sheep against both predators and thieves. Whether lions or bears or wolves or humans, there are significant dangers to sheep and a shepherd must protect them. They also care for the health of the sheep. Sheep can get injured. Shepherds have to search for and remove parasites. Shepherds apply oil to the heads of the sheep to protect them from flies and infection. They also assist with lambing, ensuring new lambs are born healthy and are able to feed. They keep rams separate from ewes when it’s not breeding season. Sometimes shepherds have to cull the flock for either sacrifice or for trade.
Shepherds keep track of the flock, counting their numbers regularly to be sure none are missing. Then, after all that, they lead them back to the sheepfold for the night. Caves were often used for overnight shelter. In such cases, the shepherd would often sleep in the entrance—he himself would be the door. He would thus protect the sheep from predators while also keeping them safely inside for the night.
Shepherds often need help, so they hire folk to provide that help. This was certainly the case at shearing time, but flocks are a lot of work. If a large number of predators were roaming an area a shepherd might hire extra help to keep the flock safe. If it were getting close to shearing time and the sheep were heavy with wool, making sure they didn’t fall into a creek or a stream was important as they would likely drown with all the extra weight. Extra eyes and hands to protect them would be necessary. Such hired hands, though, were hired for specific tasks.
When I was asked to officiate a wedding for the man I had known briefly many years prior, I was being asked to perform a singular task. He wasn’t asking me to shepherd him. He wasn’t asking me to walk through life with him. He was asking me to function in a role as a representative of the State of Michigan by solemnizing his marriage. He was expecting me to agree to be a sheep-shearer.
We need sheep-shearers! We need night watchers. We need extra hands for particularly difficult seasons of work. Jesus, however, did not give hired hands to his church. Think of the apostle Paul’s words to the elders from the church in Ephesus in Acts 20.
Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.
Acts 20:28-30 ESV
Paul uses the shepherding metaphor from Jesus. It is an apt metaphor. He tells them to pay attention, both to themselves and to the flock entrusted to them. The Holy Spirit has made them overseers, which indicates a high level of responsibility. They are undershepherds, not hired hands. That is, while they do not own the sheep—they belong to the Good Shepherd, for he purchased them with his own blood—they have been given responsibility to shepherd the flock on the Lord’s behalf. They are not hired hands.
He tells them the dangers are real. In the case of the church, the wolves are false teachers who seek to destroy the flock. The elders of the church must also be good shepherds and therefore must be willing to lay down their lives for the sheep. Having oversight, they must care for every aspect of the flock. This includes shearing when the time comes. This includes culling, for sometimes discipline requires removal. This includes healing and treating wounds. This includes leading the sheep to green grass and fresh water.
None of the shepherds is called to a singular task, but to the full task of shepherding. Too many today treat shepherds of Christ’s church as sheep-shearers, as those they can hire for specific tasks. This is one reason I generally only officiate weddings for those who are part of New City. I have done weddings for close family but this is because I continue to have a role in their lives after the ceremony. I perform wedding ceremonies as part of my role as a shepherd, but my role can never be reduced to sheep-shearing.
Elders in a church are not there to provide religious services. Many view them in this way because of how many view the Sunday morning gathered assembly. We often hear the language “going to church” or “attending church” when the truth of it is we are called to participate in the life of the church. This includes participating in the gathered assembly on Sunday mornings, but there is no sense in which this should be the sum total of our involvement in the church.
If the church is merely a task we check off on our list, a thing we do as Christians, then the guy “up front” is a provider of services. Someone has to preach, for this is why we “attend church” in the first place. This is all kinds of wrong thinking, of course, but these two tend to go hand in hand. If we recognize the church is something we are called to participate in, then attendance is part of that participation and the elders are more than just those who offer religious services.
The thing about shepherds—true shepherds—is this: they smell like sheep. They live among the sheep. They spend time with the sheep. They interact with the sheep. They help the sheep. They feed the sheep. They water the sheep. Yes, they even shear the sheep. They spend so much time among the sheep they smell like sheep. If a shepherd does not, he is not a shepherd but a hired hand. Hired hands keep their distance. Hired hands move on to the next flock with routine regularity. Hired hands leave when things get tough. Shepherds are committed to the sheep.
Here’s the real issue: the reason the sheep follow the shepherd is because the shepherd smells like and sounds like the Good Shepherd. Jesus said his sheep hear his voice and know him, so they follow him. He has given undershepherds to his church and when his undershepherds spend time with him and follow him, they begin to sound like him and begin to smell like Jesus. This is why the sheep follow their shepherds: their shepherds are like the Good Shepherd. They recognize the scent of the Good Shepherd on their undershepherds and they follow them. If they do not, the sheep is almost certainly in the wrong flock.