The Shepherd’s Leadership
Dr. Larry Thorson
Today
we continue our study in the tenth chapter of the Gospel of John “Why We Need a
Good Shepherd”. In John 10:4 Jesus
describes what a good shepherd does each morning to get her sheep out of the
sheep pen. We read…
4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead
of them…*,
*Today’s New
International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
There’s
an ice breaker game sometimes played in small groups to help people get
introduced to one another. It asks the
question “what kind of animal would you use to describe yourself?” The most common answer among middle school
and high school guys is probably a wolf.
I’ve heard some describe themselves as a rabbit, kangaroo, elephant,
even a skunk. Surprisingly I have rarely,
if ever heard someone describe themselves as being like a sheep. Why is that?
It could be that sheep are perceived as stupid followers dependent on
someone else.
In her book The Preaching Life, Barbara Brown Taylor tells of a conversation
she had with a friend who grew up on a sheep farm in the
“Cows are herded from the rear by hooting cowboys with
cracking whips, but that will not work with sheep at all. Stand behind them
making loud noises and all they will do is run around behind you, because they
prefer to be led. You push cows, her friend said, but you lead sheep, and they
will not go anywhere that someone else does not go first-namely, their
shepherd-who goes ahead of them to show them that everything is all
right."
I read of a pastor who was taking a
group of parishioners on a tour of the
Barbara Brown Taylor quoting her friend I
mentioned earlier who grew up on a sheep farm told her that "it never
ceased to amaze him, growing up, that he could walk right through a sleeping
flock without disturbing a single one of them, while a stranger could not step
foot in the fold without causing pandemonium." Sheep & shepherds
develop a language of their own.
David J. Risendal writes
how he once
saw a television special about middle-east shepherds - people who live a life
that isn't radically different from that of their first century counter-parts.
Every night, the sheep were led into a protected area - a
"sheepfold." Sometimes, there would be three or four or five flocks
gathered by a number of shepherds into the same area. The shepherds would take
shifts staying up throughout the night, making sure that wolves or other wild
animals weren't able to make their way into the protected area. In the morning,
a person would wonder if there was any hope of separating one flock from
another. But interestingly enough, it was a very simple matter. Each shepherd
went to opposite corners of the field, and began to call the sheep. As the
sheep heard the shepherds' voices, they immediately began to move towards the
one that belonged to their shepherd. After a few minutes, all the sheep were
separated into their own flocks, and the shepherds lead them away. Sheep know
the voice of their own shepherd, and they follow it.[2]
So maybe it’s not that sheep are stupid
animals as much as it is that they’re good followers. But followers aren’t looked up to as much as
leaders are. We’re entering the second
week of Super Bowl hype and the names of the Colts quarterback Peyton Manning
and the Saints quarterback Drew Brees are constantly mentioned. Only the real die hard football fans know the
names of the other players. But if it
wasn’t for those other players nobody much other than their mothers would be
talking about Peyton Manning and Drew Brees this week.
I did a computer search for books on the
subject of being a good follower. I
couldn’t find a one. Then I did a search
for books on the subject of being a leader.
Hundreds of books in every size, shape and price will help you become a
better leader.
A father was filling out the application
form for his daughter who was seeking entrance to a very exclusive college. He
came to the question on the form asking whether his daughter was a leader. In
honesty he wrote, "No, but she's a good follower." A few weeks
later a letter arrived notifying him that his daughter had been accepted. At
the bottom of the letter the dean had written, "Since the entering class
of 500 has 499 leaders, we thought there ought to be one follower."
Sheep know how to follow and the world
needs good followers. It becomes a
problem when the shepherd becomes the sheep and the sheep become the
shepherd. No one is comfortable.
Right now President Obama is trying to
figure out how to lead the country.
Clearly in his State of the Union address last week he expressed a
struggle in front of him to do that.
Rather than pulling together as a country in a crisis his opponents
throw every obstacle in his way while at the same time the president takes
verbal shots at them in his speech. If
the President doesn’t take strong direction he’s accused of being weak and
people say we’re leaderless. If the
President takes strong leadership he leaves people out who are going in a
different direction and they work to stop him.
We need to pray everyday for our President and Congress. They all have a very difficult assignment basically
overcoming human greed.
Jesus said a good shepherd goes out in
front of his sheep. Now I can just
imagine a young, strong lamb watching his fellow sheep following after the
shepherd and stopping to say “Bah bah, bah, bah.” Now I happen to know a little sheep, it’s one
of the languages they taught us in seminary along with Greek and Hebrew. “Bah bah, bah, bah” means “Hey are you guys
all a bunch of sheep?” “Bah bah, bah” is
translated: “I don’t think that shepherd knows where we’re going”. “Bah bah, bah, bah.” “My way is a lot better.” “Bah”.
“A lot better.”
I’m reading Mark Mittleberg’s book
Choosing Your Faith; a book which describes the various structures of faith a
person can use in their life. For
example some people have faith in God because their mother had a faith in God
and they believed their mother. Others
have faith because they were required by some authoritative person to have
faith. Mittleberg describes what
happened to an old friend of his who joined a church where the pastor and the
elders controlled every aspect of their members’ thinking. It was so bad that when she came to hear him speak
at a conference she was nervous about being seen at the event because her
elders wouldn’t approve of her being there.
He calls that “totalitarian faith”.
That’s believing something because you’re forced to believe it. I think of those raised by the Islamic
Taliban.
I was raised Lutheran. My parents required me to go to a Lutheran
church three out of four Sundays every month until I got my drivers’ license at
16 and then I could go or not go. They
also required me to go through a two year confirmation course but at 14 when I
completed the course it was up to me as to whether I was going to confirm the
Christian faith or not. Two years later
after some reading in various religions, some disappointing sports injuries, and
the completion of reading the New Testament, I made a personal decision to put
my faith in Jesus and allow him to be the Lord of my life. I then became a follower of the Good
Shepherd. I didn’t become the leader of
the Good Shepherd.
To be a follower of Jesus Christ, we
have to practice following. That means we’re
not always in charge. We don’t always
have to have our way. Do you know how
hard that is for a senior pastor? That
means trusting the one who leads. That
means listening to the voice of the one who leads. That means going where that one leads instead
of going where you lead.
Let me give you a little test to see how
well you follow. When you go somewhere
do you usually insist on doing the driving?
When you’re out somewhere do you usually have to insist on where to eat? When you choose a vacation spot do you
usually have to go to your first choice?
When you select a family car do you have to choose? I once had a boss who whenever we went out to
eat he always had to choose where to sit and not sit where the hostess
suggested. He had to be in control.
I could hammer away at how we need to
follow Jesus but you already know that.
Until we get to the point where we’re able to give up control and take
advice we’ll have a hard time following the Good Shepherd out of the pen. I like this quote from the 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People: In the words of Thoreau, “For every thousand hacking at the
leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root.” In other words “we can only achieve…improvements
in our lives as we quit hacking at the leaves of attitude and behavior and get
to work on the root, the paradigms from which our attitudes and behaviors
flow.”
At
our root is the need to be in control for whatever reason. Instead we need to learn from the sheep and
trust that the Good Shepherd won’t hurt us.
So ask yourself this week what or who do I actually have control
over? What control needs do I have? Once we can let go we can learn to
follow. The Good Shepherd waits to lead
us.