What is the greatest threat to the church in our generation? I wonder how you would answer that question. Maybe you would say it’s liberalism, a moving away from the biblical teaching on certain points. Perhaps you’d be more specific and say that it’s the lack of reverence and devotion of people today and a widespread nominal Christianity that only really comes into effect on Sundays and not much more. Paul Washer, a well known American itinerant preacher, was asked what he thought the greatest threat to the church in our generation was and his answer might surprise you. He responded and said that the greatest threat was pastor. You can check out his response here.
I saw that last week and on the same day as I was looking through my feed on X, I saw a post from Jared Wilson that got me thinking about the topic even more. Jared Wilson, a well-known pastor, author and professor said this on X (formerly Twitter) on November 3 “Pastors, you don’t have to take advice on how to shepherd your flock from pastors who don’t even shepherd their own.”
I agree with Jared, I think it’s wise counsel, but I don’t think it’s easy to do. Let me explain. Most of the time pastors take advice from other pastors, that makes sense, you learn form those who are more experienced in your line of work and you glean from their experience over the years. But the best pastors to learn from are those local to you and those that you actually know.
The problem is that many pastors take advice on how to shepherd their flock from people that they don’t necessarily know. They read books, watch Youtube videos, read blog posts and follow people on social media. Many pastors learn from pastors who are personally unknown to them and, most of the time, some distance away. The issue with that is (and this can also be an issue with local pastors, don’t get me wrong) that often you don’t know how their churches are actually being shepherded.
If you read a book by a well known pastor, there is no guarantee that his congregation is being shepherded well. Most publishers will try to make sure that the person writing for them is in good standing with their church and elders, but they’ll do that by speaking with people they know, who in most cases are also pastors. Just because someone has the title of Pastor, doesn’t mean that they are necessarily shepherding the flock. It’s easy for a pastor’s time to be taken up with external things, that bring joy and refreshment, but that aren’t necessarily for their church or for the good of their members.
Pastors, like every other job requires, need accountability. Yes we are set aside to serve the church but that does not mean that we are above listening to feedback and ensuring that the flock feel cared for and shepherded well. Before a pastor listens to others and tries to learn form them about shepherding a flock, they need to discern if that pastors flock is also being shepherded well. Before pastors engage in any external things they need to ensure that their congregation are cared for and that he is serving his local church to the best of his ability. I’m speaking of myself as well, not only of others.
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