Over the years of pastoring a church, one thought I had, that many pastors do also have, is in essence this: “How do I keep people from leaving the church?” Or, “How do I keep people in the church?” It’s an okay, maybe even appropriate question. The answer is very important and some answers are wrong, therefore, not okay and inappropriate.
“Pastor” itself is a title for this office or the leader of God’s institution on earth, the church. Another English translation of the same Greek word, poimein, is Shepherd. You really don’t hear people saying, “Shepherd Brandenburg,” but that is the same thing as “Pastor Brandenburg.” If a pastor is a shepherd, then the people of the church are sheep.
A true shepherd of sheep wants to keep his sheep. Jesus illustrates this in Luke 15 when he leaves ninety-nine sheep to find just one of them. He cares about sheep that he would leave the other ninety-nine in order to get one. He doesn’t want to lose even one.
Luke 15 doesn’t talk about how a shepherd keeps sheep or keeps from losing one of them. However, the rest of the Bible gives a lot of instruction on this. Spiritual sheep leave the fold by leaving the truth of the Head Shepherd of the fold, Jesus Christ. Leaving Him is leaving His teaching in scripture.
The point of keeping sheep is keeping them in the truth. It isn’t merely or mainly keeping them physically with everyone else in the church. Someone could do that by compromising, allowing the person to get away with sin, or never giving expectations to any sheep. That isn’t in fact keeping sheep as a pastor. They’re gone already.
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