DILIGENT AND VIGILANT

Be diligent to know the state of your flocks,

And attend to your herds….  (Proverbs 27:23)

The writer was referring to a literal shepherd caring for his sheep.  We do no violence to the text, however, in making a practical application to the pastor and his people.  Throughout Scripture, spiritual leadership is illustrated by the work of a shepherd and a repeated way of describing people is that of sheep.  The elders of the church are charged with leading, feeding, and caring for the flock of God.

The pastor is to be diligent and vigilant.  He must be diligently vigilant in knowing the state of his sheep, and he must be vigilantly diligent in attending to their needs.

How can we meet their needs without knowing them—and how can we know them without personal engagement?  We live in a day when evangelicalism heralds the model of a talking head on a TV screen—and calls this a pastor.  He may truly be a shepherd to some—to the staff, or several others, but it is impossible for him to be the pastor of the people gazing at the screen.  He would not know the sheep if he saw them on the street and they only know the preacher in 2-D.  I want to say that many of these viewing stations have local pastors who minister to that congregation—but they do not feed them and lead them.  I am not questioning the intent—nor that good may be done.  I am just saying that the teaching elder is only that, in such a case, but is not the pastor for he cannot know the state of the sheep.  Is this then the model we want to pursue?  Let each man be persuaded in his own mind.

It is likewise true that past models have not necessarily worked any better—where a local pastor was really just a chaplain instead.  In many traditional churches, the pastor-chaplain did little feeding of the flock.  He knew them because he was with them from the womb to the tomb.  He was there after they were hatched to bless them, there after they were matched to bind them, and there after they were dispatched to bury them!  Socially, he was involved; administratively, he was engaged; ministerially, he was effective—but, in terms of making disciples—not so much.  Does pastoral care need to happen?  Of course!  Yet, if simply running up and down the roads, staying for every minute of every surgery, counseling for hours upon hours, becomes the pattern, there is no time left for the study, and the preaching is without power.

I have heard this remark, “Dr. Snodgrass is a great preacher, but not much of a pastor.”  Then, I have heard this, “Rev. Smiley is a great pastor, but not much of a preacher.”  It is a false dichotomy!  If a man is to feed the sheep, he must know the flock.  Otherwise, all he can do is fire off a buckshot sermon and hope the general application will hit someone.  Knowing the sheep enables you to take a rifle and hit them directly in the heart!  If a man is to provide pastoral care that goes beyond getting him a pat on the back, he must not fire blanks!  If lives are not being transformed by the power of the Word, then what is the point?  As for me, I will seek to be both diligent and vigilant.  I want to be personally involved with the sheep in order to feed them.