The Pastor or Shepherd Aspect of the Pastor-Teacher Ministry

Tod Kennedy

Delivered at the National Teaching Pastors’ Conference, October 8, 2001, Believers’ Bible Church, Omaha, Nebraska

Introduction

Pastors seem to face a common occupational hazard: they teach and shepherd people who, like sheep, tend to wander off and get lost. In fact, probably all pastor-teachers have had people who wander off after professing great interest in living the Christian life. There is the story about three pastors who got together for coffee one day and found all their churches had bat-infestation problems. “I got so mad,” said one, “I took a shotgun and fired at them. It made holes in the ceiling, but did nothing to the bats.” “I tried trapping them alive,” said the second. “Then I drove 50 miles before releasing them, but they beat me back to the church.” “I haven’t had any more problems,” said the third. “What did you do?” asked the others, amazed. “I simply baptized and confirmed them,” he replied. “I haven’t seen them since.”

The perspective of the person in the pew often brings up another problem that pastor-teachers face. They have unrealistic expectations of the pastor-teacher. These expectations are daunting and often discourage the pastor from doing the two things that he is gifted to do: shepherd and teach his flock. So what is that he is to do? What he is to do and what he is expected to do are not always the same.

Somewhere between the call of God and the heart ward of the local hospital, there exists a specialist variously called a Minister, a Preacher, a Pastor, a Clergyman. He is a hero to his wife, a stranger to his children, a fine boy to his mother, and easy touch to down-and-outers, a name on the mailing list of hundreds of agencies and organizations, and an example to his flock. To some people, he’s a guy who has nothing else to do but get ready for a twenty-minute sermon once a week. To some, he’s the person in whose presence you must not curse, drink, or smoke.

To others, he is a dear friend, a “Johnny-on-the-spot” when death’s angel hovers near; he’s the one whose ministry continues when the medics have done all they can do; he’s the man who can mend marriages, but who can’t find time to fix his wife’s toaster; he’s the nice man at church who pats the babies’ heads, even though he’s not running for a political office. He’s the one who marries young lovers, prays with the sick, and buries the dead. He’s a financial expert, a public orator, janitor, errand boy, typist, file clerk, writer, public relations expert, poor golfer, professional tea-sipper and punch-drinker, journalist, reformer, evangelist, pastor, business executive, counselor, prophet, bookworm, diplomat, human being, sinner, bass, tenor (whichever is needed), planner, and a tee-totaler.

Ministers are found everywhere: preaching in church on Sunday, listening in meetings, teaching a class, looking at a clock, giving invocations, giving benedictions, waiting in maternity wards, sympathizing beside caskets, standing behind pulpits, pleading causes, serving on committees, reading the Bible, playing football with the kids on the vacant lot near the church, watching someone take a final breath, driving expectant mothers to the hospital, sitting behind a desk, lying underneath a car, standing on the roof of buildings under construction, dreaming, meditating, at home at dinner time, not at home at dinner time, standing before women’s groups, delivering addresses, meeting in conventions, diagnosing the world’s sickness and prescribing the cure—God. (Source unknown)

I. Who is this person we call pastor and teacher?

All of this is more often true than not, but what really is the job of the pastor-teacher? The pastor-teacher has two areas of ministry. We tend to understand the second aspect, teacher, better than we understand pastor. The teacher focuses on communicating the Word of God, our spiritual food, to the congregation for understanding and application—by lecture, by questions, by discussion, explanation, and by demonstration. The spiritual food makes normal health, growth, and living possible. There are various styles of teaching, but the task is to get the word of God into the lives of the congregation.

The pastor aspect of the pastor-teacher emphasizes care for his congregation. He leads, feeds, guards, comforts, encourages, rescues, and heals the sheep. Shepherding the congregation can be extremely draining. The pastor’s occupational hazard is attempting to shepherd based upon his own agenda and his own resources instead of combining the Word of God and the Holy Spirit and faith.

Timothy Kavanaugh, the fictional pastor in Jan Karon’s Mitford series, struggles with this failing. Tim pastored Lord’s Chapel in Mitford, North Carolina, and then held a temporary pastorate at St John’s in the Grove, Whitecap, North Carolina. This fictional pastor’s ministry emphasized caring for his congregation. While at St John’s, Tim repeatedly tried to extend God’s grace to Morris Love, a recluse who lived across the road. Mr. Love rejected all overtures of help. Tim’s thoughts, as he ponders his efforts to reach this lost man, echo those of many real pastors.

 

Life was a roller coaster, that simple. Joy and healing here, desperation and demolition there.

With all his heart, he’d desired healing for Morris Love’s brokenness, and who was he to think he might give a leg up to such a miracle? There were times when he didn’t like being a priest, always on the front line for justice and mercy and forgiveness and redemption; trying to figure out the mind of God; giving the Lord his personal agenda, then standing around waiting for it to be fulfilled. He didn’t have an agenda for Morris Love, anymore; he was giving up the entire self-seeking, willful notion. His desperate neighbor belonged to God; it was His responsibility to get the job done. He had schlepped in a paltry sack of victual when what the man needed was the awesome, thunderstriking power of the Almighty to move in his heart and soul and spirit like a great and consuming fire….

He wiped his eyes on his pajama sleeve.

‘So, Lord,’ he whispered, ‘just do it.’ (A New Song, Jan Karon. 347-348)

Whatever we attempt to do, God must do it; we are the vessel through whom he works. Any other way guarantees failure.

The pastor’s working title is pastor and teacher or pastor-teacher. Paul gives us this title in Ephesians 4.11. Acts 20.17-28 brings together the pastor or shepherd and the overseer as two parts of the one person. Paul, in 1 Timothy 3.1-2 and Titus 1.7, calls this person an overseer, while he calls this person an elder in 1 Timothy 1.17 and Titus 1.5. Paul equates the elder and the overseer in Titus 1.5 and 7. Peter, in 1 Peter 5.1-3, calls him an elder and tells him to shepherd the flock and exercise oversight. The conclusion is that the shortened title of pastor refers to the man who is gifted as pastor-teacher and who also is called an elder and an overseer. Pastor-teacher (pastor, poimͅͅͅen; teacher, didaskalos) emphasizes what he does; elder (presbuteros elder, older man) emphasizes his rank and authority; and overseer (episkopos) emphasizes his supervisory capacity.

The church seems to have split the function of pastor-teacher into two distinct kinds of ministry. Either the man limits his ministry to teaching, or he labors in the pasturing mode to the exclusion of teaching. We, in this audience, have done much teaching and appear to have done little pastoring. The biblical reality is that we should do both and do both well. Our congregations need shepherds and teachers.

The English word pastor is from the Latin pastor, which means a herdsman or a shepherd. It is related to the Latin verb pasco, which means to cause to eat, to feed, to supply with food. (An Elementary Latin Dictionary, Charlton T Lewis. Oxford, 1891 and 1966, 585). In the Greek the word for pastor is poimhn (poimhn eno~, o); and also means shepherd or sheep-herder. When referring to a flock, Greek has the feminine poimnh and the neuter poimnion. The Greek verb poimainw means to herd, tend, and lead to pasture. Our English word pasture comes from the Latin pasco, which means to cause to eat, to feed, to supply with food. The English word shepherd is of Anglo-Saxon origin, while pastor is of Latin origin. The two are interchangeable, though common usage does not find a shepherd of sheep being called a pastor.

What is the point of mentioning words behind our translations? It is simply to note that a pastor of a church is someone who pastors or shepherds the flock of believers whom God has given to him. Had the translators used pastor instead of shepherd in their translation of Psalm 23, we would identify more readily with the job of a pastor-shepherd. Or, better yet, had they used the Anglo-Saxon word shepherd in our English translations or translated the Latin or Greek words instead of transliterating them, pastors would be called shepherds—a term closer to the English understanding of what a pastor is. According to Charles Ball:

It has been said many times that this side of the ministerial office would be raised to greater dignity if only someone had translated the twenty-third Psalm thus, “The Lord is my pastor.” Such a rendering might shock a few and yet would be absolutely synonymous with the accepted reading, for “shepherd” is simply the Anglo-Saxon word and “pastor” the Latin for the same thing. It might be greatly profitable in these lectures if I were to hang our whole discussion of the pastoral function on the great twenty-third Psalm. Certainly, it would give us a lofty ideal for pastoral work today if we were to emulate the great Shepherd.

Here is the function of a pastor according to the twenty-third Psalm: “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures” (the sheep fed, filled and satisfied); “He leadeth me beside the still waters” (guided, quieted and comforted); “He restoreth my soul” (renewing me when I wander as a sheep); “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness” (watching for my welfare, guiding me into right paths); “Though I walk through the valley…thou art with me” (accompanying me so that I am not alone); “Thy rod and thy staff (The rod, literally, is a club for defense, the staff a cane to lean on so as to support one’s weariness; so here is protection from the enemy, also support in weakness); “He prepareth a table” (feeding, nourishing me; that is sustenance); “My cup runneth over” (that is abundance). Each thought mentioned here tells of the pastor’s business. Each one might be enlarged upon and amplified with blessing. Surely in the light of this beautiful picture of the divine Shepherd our pastoral work must take on a new meaning and a new importance. For is not this exactly what is expected of a pastor to the present day? (Charles Ball, BibSac, V106 #424. October, 1949. 468)

II. Shepherds were very common in Bible times

Shepherds were very common in Bible times. We have many illustrations of what a shepherd does from both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Both testaments give us the same picture. We will start with a selection of Old Testament passages and then go to some New Testament Scripture. (All Scripture passages are from the New American Standard Bible.

Isaiah 40.11 depicts the Lord God coming to rescue Israel, and like a shepherd he will tend his flock, protect and care for the lambs, and lead the nursing ewes. These are figures of protection, compassion, sympathetic care, and feeding.

11 Like a shepherd He will tend His flock,

In His arm He will gather the lambs,

And carry them in His bosom;

He will gently lead the nursing ewes.

Jeremiah 31.10 says that a shepherd gathers back his flock and protects the sheep; and this is what the Lord will do for his flock, Israel. This portrays the shepherd as one who keeps track of his flock; he watches so they do not become scattered, confused, and lost.

10 Hear the word of the Lord, O nations,

And declare in the coastlands afar off,

And say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him,

And keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.”

The Lord, in Ezekiel 34, gave Ezekiel a message of judgment against the shepherds of Israel who had failed in their task. Their task was to feed, strengthen, heal, search for, rescue, and protect the people of Israel. The Lord then says that he will personally shepherd his people; he is very specific about what a good shepherd shall do.

Amos 3.12 says that the shepherd snatches a couple of legs or an ear from a lion’s mouth—a picture of attempted rescue. Shepherds go out of their way to protect the sheep and to rescue them from attackers.

12 Thus says the Lord, “Just as the shepherd snatches from the lion’s mouth a couple of legs or a piece of an ear,

So will the sons of Israel dwelling in Samaria be snatched away—

With the corner of a bed and the cover of a couch!

Zechariah 10.2 notes that sheep (Israel) without a shepherd wander and suffer. The sheep need a shepherd for their own welfare.

2 For the teraphim speak iniquity,

And the diviners see lying visions,

And tell false dreams;

They comfort in vain.

Therefore the people wander like sheep,

They are afflicted, because there is no shepherd.

Isaiah 44.28 calls Cyrus the Lord’s shepherd—a picture of leadership, protection, and authority.

28 It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd!

And he will perform all My desire.’

And then we have the very familiar and telling Psalm 23, in which David, a shepherd himself, speaks of the Lord as his shepherd. The Lord, the ideal shepherd, leads, feeds, refreshes and encourages, calms, protects, and comforts the sheep.

The New Testament continues with the same understanding of the shepherd or pastor.

In Matthew 9:36 Jesus says that people who have no leader and no standards by which to live are like sheep without a shepherd: they become worried and discouraged. Mark 6.34 adds that Jesus began to teach them. Jesus’ attitude in both cases was compassion for the people.

Matthew 9.36 And seeing the multitudes, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd.

Mark 6.34 And when He went ashore, He saw a great multitude, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.

Jesus, in Mark 14.27, stated a common sense principle about sheep—they scatter when they have no shepherd—and he said his disciples would also scatter at his crucifixion.

27 And Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, because it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.’

John 21.15-17 relates the incident at the Sea of Tiberias after Jesus had risen from the dead. He told Peter to “tend my lambs,” “shepherd my sheep,” and “tend my sheep.” Note Jesus also told Peter to take care of the sheep for which he was responsible. That was an important job.

15 So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.”16 He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.”17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Tend My sheep.

Luke writes in Acts 20.28 that Paul instructed the elders from Miletus (Acts 20.17) to shepherd God’s flock or church.

Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood (Acts 20.28).

Paul writes in Ephesians 4.11-12 that God gave gifted men to equip believers for ministry so that the church become edified or built up. Apostles and prophets ceased to be given in the latter part of the first century. Pastors and teachers (one person gifted to do both jobs) and evangelists continue to serve to this day.

11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.

Hebrews 13.7 and 17 do not specifically mention pastors or shepherds, but the author does refer to their leaders (13.7, 17). In context these are men who teach the word of God and who keep watch over the souls of believers. We are safe to say that at the least pastors are included as some of the leaders, and they are likely the specific men about whom the author is speaking. They teach the word and watch over souls. They serve with a great responsibility joyfully.

7 Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.

17 Obey your leaders, and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.

Peter writes in 1 Peter 5.1-4 that elders, also called pastor-teachers and overseers, are to shepherd the specific flock that God has given to each of them, and they are to do it willingly and with eagerness, and not for corrupt gain. They are not to act as heavy handed and proud dictators but to serve as examples of how Christ, the chief shepherd, shepherds them. When Christ, the chief shepherd, comes for his church, he will reward the diligent and faithful shepherds by giving each of them an unfading crown of glory.

1 Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed,2 shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness;3 nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

III. Jesus, our shepherd, cares for us.

Not only does Jesus do the job of a shepherd, but he also has many shepherd titles. He is the Good shepherd in John 10.10, 14; the great shepherd in Hebrews 13.20; the shepherd and guardian of our souls in 1 Peter 2.25; the great shepherd in 1 Peter 5.4; and in Revelation 7.17 he is the Lamb who is the shepherd over the Tribulation martyrs.

John 10:10,14

10 The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My own, and My own know Me,

Hebrews 13:20

20 Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord,

1 Peter 2:25

25 For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.

1 Peter 5:4

4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

Revelation 7:17

17 for the Lamb in the center of the throne shall be their shepherd, and shall guide them to springs of the water of life; and God shall wipe every tear from their eyes.

IV. What did these shepherds do?

1. Feed, rescue, give sympathetic care, and protect (Isaiah 40).
2. Gather together and watch the sheep so they do not become scattered, confused, and lost (Jeremiah 31.10).
3. Feed, strengthen, heal, search for, rescue, protect (Ezekiel 34).
4. Rescue from attackers (Amos 3.12).
5. Lead and protect so they do not wander and suffer (Zechariah 10.2).
6. Authoritatively lead and protect (Isaiah 44.28).
7. Lead, feed, refresh and encourage, calm, protect, comfort (Psalm 23).
8. Have compassion for those who had no shepherd (Matthew 9.36).
9. Have compassion for those who had no shepherd; teach them (Mark 6.34).
10. Prevent from scattering because without a shepherd they scatter (Mark 14.27).
11. Feed and tend, which means to teach and care for (John 21.15-17).
12. Guard from false teachers, oversee, and shepherd the flock (Acts 20.28).
13. Equip or prepare for normal life and service (Ephesians 4.12).
14. Lead and teach and be examples of the faith life (Hebrews 13.7).
15. Lead and use authority wisely; closely guard and build up the spiritual life of each member of your flock; and try to do this joyfully (Hebrews 13.17).
16. Oversee and shepherd willingly and eagerly, not for corrupt gain, and not as heavy handed and proud dictators, but as examples of how Christ shepherds believers. Christ will give each diligent and faithful shepherd an unfading crown of glory (1 Peter 5.1-4).

V. The tasks of the pastor and teacher

When you think of a shepherd, how do you think that he spends most of his time? A shepherd or sheepherder must feed the sheep, guard the sheep, doctor the sheep, and lead the sheep. Then, when there is an attack, the shepherd gathers the sheep together and chases off the attacker. If a sheep becomes injured or sick, the shepherd tries to repair the damage and heal the sheep. When they tend to be afraid, such as in a storm or potential attack by an enemy, the shepherd gathers and comforts them. The shepherd for people has similar tasks. He leads, feeds, guards, comforts, encourages, rescues, and helps the spiritual healing of his congregation.

Teaching the congregation, which is comparable to feeding the sheep, is the most prominent and most important function of the shepherd. But the teaching ministry should not crowd out the pastor ministries. Feeding or teaching is listed first and foremost among the shepherd functions in Ezekiel 34, Psalm 23, and John 21. John 10 has the same emphasis—the shepherd leads the sheep to pasture. Acts 20 speaks of guarding, and in the context guarding is done by teaching truth and warning against error. 1 Peter 5 stresses the eagerness to shepherd your own flock and warns against the heavy-handed dictator like treatment of the flock.

This is a daunting responsibility. Actually, God must work in and through the pastor. God must provide the gifting and the desire and the ability for the pastor to shepherd the flock that God has allotted to him. Our fictional Father Tim, like all pastors, sometimes had to remind himself that the responsibility lay with God, not with him.

Pastor Tim wanted to make a quick trip back to Mitford to help Dooley, Esther and Gene, Louella, and Lace. He and his wife, Cynthia, have the following exchange. Tim laments, “I feel helpless.” Cynthia responds, “You want to help everybody and fix everything. But Timothy, you just can’t.” Tim says, “I’ve never been able to swallow that down.” Cynthia, an artist shares a bit of wisdom with her husband: “Remember the sign I have over my drawing board at home? ‘Don’t feel totally, personally, irrevocably responsible for everything. That’s my job. Signed, God.’” (A New Song, Jan Karon. 166).

To make this emphasis practical, maybe we can look at the pastor-teacher in these proportions. The teacher ministry focuses on communication of Bible doctrine. He spends all his time studying and teaching the Word of God. The shepherd ministry focuses on the care of the sheep. The pastor spends fifty percent of his effort feeding the sheep, and fifty percent leading, guarding, rescuing, healing, and comforting. Add all this up and the pastor-teacher ministry is about seventy five percent feeding and making sure they have good nourishment and twenty-five percent leading, guarding, rescuing, healing, and comforting the sheep. The total is one hundred percent.

Now the numbers are misleading. They simply demonstrate the scope of pastor-teacher’s job and where he must spend his energy and time. While the sheep eat and drink, the shepherd is of course always on guard—protecting, comforting, leading, and in some way always making sure they have food and are calmed so they will eat, drink, gain weight and produce good wool. He also is continually on watch for sick or injured sheep. Now, this sounds like an impossible job, yet much of his ministry can be best done from the pulpit and for the entire flock as a group. That is the nature of shepherding, whether of sheep or people.

How will the pastor determine what his congregation needs for food and what kind of care the various sheep need? Some sheep and some individuals require more attention. Some are consistently prone to illness or injury. Some are consistent troublemakers. Some are very emotional. Each congregation will have some of these people. They require more care than the rest of the congregation. They are the high-maintenance people, just like some four-footed sheep are high maintenance for their shepherd.

VI. So What are some ways that we can pastor our congregations?

1. We begin by walking and growing in the Lord so that we have a foundation from which to pastor our flocks. This is the great preparation for whatever may come.
2. We need to feed the flock, so we consistently study and teach the Word of God to our sheep.
3. We warn the congregation about winds of false doctrine and theological and church fads.
4. We warn, correct, and if necessary remove those in the congregation who bully, divide, or bother the rest of the spiritual flock.
5. We, through teaching and shepherding, come to know our sheep. For example, we recognize strengths and weakness and who requires more maintenance and who can serve without constant direction.
6. We watch for the spiritual illness of a member and attempt to treat that first by proper spiritual food in the public teaching ministry.
7. We make ourselves available to encourage, comfort, and lead those with spiritual illness. We can do this by visiting with the individual, offering spiritual support and encouragement, listening to him or her, and praying for and with the person.

When seven year old Angie Burton, a member of his congregation, suffered a ruptured appendix and septic shock, Pastor Tim joins Hoppy, his physician friend, and the hospital staff in praying for her.

It was nearly midnight when Hoppy opened the door. ‘I owe you and apology,’ he said [to Tim], “I could have asked you to pray at home, but all I could think of was having you here—on the premises.’

The rector had seen that look on his friend’s face before. It was utter exhaustion. ‘How did it go?’

There was a long pause. Hoppy looked up and shook his head. ‘We did everything we could.’

He sank wearily into the chair at his desk. ‘Every since we prayed for Olivia’s transplant and I saw the miracles that happened, I’ve been praying for my patients. One day, I asked Kennedy if she would pray. Then she told Baker, and soon we discovered that the whole operating room was praying.

‘I never talked to you about it, I kept thinking I would….Anyway, we’ve seen some turnarounds. No miracles, maybe, but turn arounds. We felt something powerful was going on here, something we wanted to explore.’

Hoppy took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. ‘The bottom line is, we prayed, you prayed, and Angie Burton didn’t make it.’

What could he say, after all?” (These High Green Hills, Jan Karon. Page 17)

Angie Burton died despite medical care and prayer. This happens, and when it does everyone’s faith is tested. The pastor’s ministry is to provide the spiritual teaching to prepare his congregation for such tests, and then also to provide the personal encouragement and support for those being tested.

1. We can take the ministry of the church to those unable to attend. Help them to study the Word; take the Lord’s supper to them and observe it with them in their homes or hospital rooms.

Larry, an elderly man in a congregation, provides an example of such ministry. He has been taking care of his wife at home for over ten years. She is in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Larry is a believer, but due to his responsibilities he has not been able to attend church. A few ladies from church go to his home at different times each week to sit with Sally so that Larry may shop or visit with friends or take some kind of a break from the long hours at home. They are extending Christ’s ministry to him and Sally. The pastor periodically goes by to visit, pray with him, and encourage him. He comes away blessed by Larry’s display of God’s love.

1. We can make phone calls to give them a personal sense of the church congregation.
2. We can take the church study notes and tapes to them.
3. We can have periodic church suppers at which the congregation can visit together and have fellowship.
4. We can let our congregation know that we, as their pastor, are interested in their welfare.
5. We can gather others of the congregation into a group of believers who can, under our guidance, help in the shepherding.
6. We can protect the individuality and the integrity of each of the sheep.
7. We can work along side the congregation in the church’s work days and fellowship times.

Conclusion

The pastor aspect of the pastor and teacher ministry emphasizes the care of the congregation. Be aware that most pastors overemphasize this part of the ministry and neglect the teaching aspect. If we do that, the sheep will become undernourished and susceptible to the multitude of spiritual diseases that have attacked the church. We, as pastors and teachers, must teach the Word of God to our flocks. We recognize that. I am suggesting that while we may not fall into the to little teaching trap, we may have a tendency to err in the other direction: all teaching and not much pasturing. We should and can do a better job of shepherding our congregations. A good part of the shepherding ministry is feeding the sheep spiritual food, the Word of God. But the pastor also has the privilege and responsibility of shepherding his congregation—to lead, protect, encourage, rescue, heal, and comfort. This is nothing less than spiritual warfare. This warfare, though time consuming and often discouraging, offers great blessing to the pastor and the congregation.

Jan Karon’s fictitious Pastor Timothy Kavanaugh recognized a God-given opportunity to listen, to encourage, and to point Olivia, a believer and church member, into a much needed ministry. Not only was she blessed, but also Timothy was blessed through what transpired.

The beautiful, dark-haired Olivia Davenport did an odd thing. Rather than use the visitor’s bench like everybody else, she walked to Emma’s chair, sat down across from him, crossed her shapely legs, and said:

“Father Tim, I’m dying.”

He could only trust that his face didn’t convey the shock he felt.

“I’m asking you to help me find something to make the rest of my life worth living.

“Mother left me her winter and summer homes, and I have considerable property of my own. That means I could spend these last months being quite idle and carefree, and , believe me, that’s tempting. But I did not come to Mitford to join the club and sit by the pool. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s absolutely wrong for me.

“I came to Mitford to do something that will make a difference. And while I’m not smart enough to know what that something is, I believe with all my heart that you can tell me.”

The first time he set eyes on Olivia Davenport, he felt as if the Holy Spirit had spoken to his heart. This time was not different. He sensed at once that Olivia Davenport was the answer to a prayer he’d initiated two years ago.

“Olivia, I’d like to ask you to read something, if you’d be so kind.”

He handed her his open Bible, pointed to the twenty-seventh Psalm of David, and in clear, lucid tones, she read:

‘“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion; in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me upon a rock. Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord.’”

She let the book rest in her lap.

“If you were ill,” he said quietly, “with no one to sit by your bed, to hold your hand when you’re lonely, or rejoice with you when you’re glad, would there be anything, after all, to live for?”

Olivia looked at him steadily. It was a rhetorical question.

“It would give courage to a lot of people to hear the faith and victory in these words.”

She smiled and, without looking at the book in her lap, repeated something she clearly knew well. ‘“For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion; in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me upon a rock.’”

“He has hidden you in his pavilion?”

She smiled, tears shining in her eyes. “And he has set me upon a rock.”

“Would you do something to make life worth living for the patients at Mitford Hospital? Would you be willing to read to them each and every morning? It’s a big Job.”

“He’s a big God,” she said, with something that seemed like excitement.

In the space of precisely seven minutes, which he reckoned to be the full length of her visit, he had been told a terrible truth, discovered an answer to prayer, helped someone find a ministry, and been unutterable refreshed in his own spirit. Perhaps, he thought, we should all live as if we’re dying. (At Home in Mitford. Jan Karon. Penguin Books. 1994. 138-139)

We know through our own experience that studying and teaching the Word of God to our congregations brings great blessing to them and to us. Shepherding our congregations, the other half of pastor and teacher, can bring equal blessings to our congregations and to us. Let’s concentrate on fulfilling our entire ministry and not miss out on some of God’s purpose and blessings.