From: stevek
Date: Wed Dec  3 15:42:13 MST 2003
Subject: sheep

I agree with every word in Pat's blog re Eric & Rod. She did a great job in describing the role of shepherds. What was written between those lines was the description of sheep. Jesus used the sheep/shepherd methaphor because He was speaking to people who knew the deeper meanings behind what he was describing since they were either doing that work themselves, or saw enough of it around them culturally that the words resonated. We don't see it, so they lose some of their value and meaning to us. Sheep are dumb, dirty, and timid. If left on their own they will stay in a single pasture and overfeed it until it becomes barren/and they'll die. The Bible uses the words 'cast down' in Ps. 42 - that is the condition when a sheep is on it's back and can't turn itself back over. If left, it will die. A single jackrabbit can stampede a herd of sheep. The shepherd moves the herd from field to field, usually through valleys, in order to be in a place where they can feed and survive. A shepherd turns a 'cast down' sheep over, restores it (Psalm 23) so that it does not lay in that position and die. A shepherd calms the herd when it is rattled and thereby keeps it from running off in all directions. I've been in churches where the pastorate is distant and non-communicating. There may be good teaching from the pulpit, but there is no relationship with the 'flock.' The sheep sit in the pews, look stupidly up at the shepherd, get a little feeding and graze around until the next Sunday when they come back in for some more feeding. That's not what the Village has been blessed with. Both Eric and Rod reach out and touch the sheep under their care. Read the Psalms and you'll see how fatiguing that can become/many of David's writings had their genesis in the long, lonely hours when he was out doing the shepherd thing in the pasture with the stupid sheep. The only Person there to speak to was God. He clearly did a lot of that. If our pastors think that life ain't a bowl of cherries - guess what - we're the bowl of cherries they're lacking. And, true, as cherries we come with little white worms inside of us (right, Rod?) but let's make sure those worms aren't tapeworms that just want to continue to feed off from our pastors and wear them down. (You didn't think you'd get so much mileage out of that story, did you?) Pray that God would open your heart and lead you to a place of service within the body in a fashion which would ease the burden which is presently being borne by the two teachers. Think of what you go through in getting ready for a party at your home/each of the details involved with that are a part of opening the doors at the Village each week. Offer to serve in a specific area - I don't expect you'll be turned down. The work is plenty/the laborers are few. Affirm those in leadership - it's Christlike.

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