Whose Sheep Are They Anyway?

My sheep, my church, my people……. I hear this stuff all of the time and it makes me very uneasy, okay it actually chaps my hide!!

Here is the fundamental question. Whose sheep are they? We can easily answer that question two ways. First, how does the person speak of the group of Christians they have been called to serve? If it is in the possessive we know. Secondly we can see by how easily the person turns a group over to Jesus so that He may be the head of that group.

In the talk with church, pastors, membership, obedience and submission, it all boils down to the afore mentioned question. You see if we are part of one church, have one pastor, are members of one church and obedience and submission is to Jesus as Head and Lord of the Church, all of this other stuff becomes part of a mute conversation my friends.

Over the past two weeks I wrestled with all of this stuff even the Gospel. I wondered if all of this church stuff is important, does really carry any weight, ultimately does it effect the way I respond to Jesus and it does. We can see that loyalty to denominationalism often causes division with others who are accepted by Christ, we see how our loyalty to cult personalities are diminishing our own discernment and own willingness to approach the throne of Grace boldly, we can see how our loyalty to “our church” often causes us to overlook the needs of others often ignoring them because we have fulfilled our duty to “our church”. We can see how a small band of the educated has almost complete control over the mind of others to the fact that people seek their approval and cloak it in the language of being “submissive”.

So over the two weeks I have discovered that this church stuff is very important and I will continue to write about it and scream from the roof tops, though as humbly and loving and patient as I can. A bunch of 500 year old books from European men have become the norm for Christianity and though I greatly respect their contributions to Christianity I have come to the conclusion that they have totally missed the ball on what Church life is supposed to look like and how Christians are to interact. I think there was a group who were on the right path but were mostly snuffed out and have been misrepresented by the dominant voice. Did they miss some things? Sure they did, but they seem to be closer and more committed to the text of scripture not their own writings.

So whose sheep are you? I would hope you say Jesus and if you are a leader, whose sheep are you serving, I would hope you would say, they are not mine! The sheep belong to Jesus, He died for them, was raised for them, purchased them, secures them, intercedes for them, and is coming back for them. Leaders have to be preparing and equipping people to listen to and follow their Shepherd. They have to trust that the Great Shepherd has them and will not lose them and that they will not follow another.

Jesus is not a religion, He is a living person, the analogy is sheep and a shepherd, so whose sheep are you?