During one of his journeys, the apostle Paul visited the leaders of the church in Ephesus. They were his friends and disciples and this was the last time he would see them, so he gave them the following charge in Acts 20:28 (NIV), “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood.”
Paul’s charge to the church in Ephesus is the same as the one Christ gives to the Elders of His church. In those verses, we’ve identified and will explore five key reminders for shepherds of the church:
- Keep watch over yourselves.
- Keep watch over all the flock.
- The Holy Spirit has made you an overseer.
- He calls you to be a shepherd of His church.
- God bought the church with His own blood.
Let’s explore those themes now.
Keep Watch Over Yourselves
“Keep watch over yourselves” is plural in Greek. It really means we are supposed to watch over our own spiritual lives and also over each other. In order to keep that kind of watch, we must seek out accountability.
Our tendency is to individualize Christianity and attempt to go it alone in a pseudo pietistic way, but that’s a recipe for disaster. If we isolate ourselves from one another as leaders, we will fall, and even worse, we will create factions within the church.
To have true accountability you’re going to have to be honest and vulnerable. You have to “get real.” If we hide behind our own self-righteousness, we will never be well.
Here are two simple questions we can ask that will help to that end:
- Where am I trying to be God? In other words, where am I putting myself first and trying to use my power and control to get what I want most? That’s a hard question to ask, and even harder to answer. If you ask it of yourself, you will minimize or outright lie to yourself. We don’t think we are as bad as we really are. So, you will have to ask it in the context of accountability, and to do that, you must have a good accountability partner. That leads us to the next question.
- How am I becoming more like Christ? In other words, do you see in yourself any Christ-like traits, words, or actions? That too is a hard question to ask. Your accountability partner might say, “No, I’m not seeing much.” What would you do in response to that? Hopefully you’ll get some affirmation and some exhortation to become more like Jesus. He is the great Shepherd, and He is the One who makes men like Himself. After all, God has chosen and predestined us to be “conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29), and His Spirit is working that in us daily.
There has been a lot written on accountability–so much so that it has lost its meaning. Accountability is not simply sitting around with a guy and asking how he’s doing. It is not just asking him a list of questions like, “Are you looking at pornography?” It is going deeper “to the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).
Let me give a short, almost trivial example: My wife wanted to replace the carpet in the den; the total cost was a few hundred dollars. We had the cash; I simply did not want to part with it even though our old carpet was well worn and stained. Now I had been meeting regularly with my accountability partner, and he had often asked me how well I was loving my wife. I always responded that I was doing “pretty well,” but I was not perfect.
That is a typical response: Non-specific and not fully honest or vulnerable. I did tell him that she had asked me to ask my accountability partner what he thought about getting the new carpet. His answer was short and brutal; he said, “Get the carpet!”
Why was this important? It came down to heart issues and two things were revealed for me. The first was that I was playing God with my wife and lacking faith by living in fear of financial ruin, so I was choosing to exercise undue control over her. The second was that I was not becoming like Christ. Christ understands the heart of women, has no fear of the future, and gladly gives where He can with joy. My idols were exposed, and I repented.
In that situation, I was trying to be God. That is our human tendency. And we need another man to call it out. I need that. You need that. The good news is that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, and confession leads to healing. God became man so that men could become like Christ.
Lastly, accountability works best if you have a written “Life Plan” that you have given to your accountability partner for review. It includes what you hope to achieve (your vision) and what you hope to avoid (your besetting sin). That is a document worth having, re-working and sharing as a basis for growth in Christ. It does not have to be complex, but you can only be held accountable to a set standard, known and agreed upon by you and those close to you.
Action: Make sure you are not hiding. Make sure you are not covering up with self-righteousness. Every shepherd must “burden” someone else (preferably a fellow elder) with his brokenness, fears, hopes and dreams so that we can keep watch over ourselves. If you don’t have real accountability, will you promise to get it?
Keep Watch Over all the Flock
I have read this verse countless times. The command is to keep watch, with an implied subject of elders doing the watching. The object is the flock.
The hardest part of the sentence and perhaps the word that most will take us to the heart of the gospel is the smallest one, “all.” The Scriptures teach that we as elders are to keep watch over everyone who is a member of the flock. At Perimeter, we would say that means those who have joined the church as communing members as well as their non-communing offspring. At the time of this writing, that totals around 5,000 people.
How can we do that huge task well? We could just divide the number of members by the number of elders and tell you to have at it, but we believe God has called us, and Scripture teaches us, to connect to people in a relational way, at the heart level, so they are not just a number in a herd. That is why we attempt to connect members with elders in a relational way as often as possible.
We try to connect elders to people who live in close proximity to them. Time spent is a good measure of how well we are watching over the flock. To be able to minister to someone at the heart level is not a “drive by,” “hit and run,” or “one-minute manager” type of occurrence. Shepherding takes time and a movement of the Spirit. It includes regular contact with heads of households and with their families. We divided the church into four parishes to facilitate that.
Action: Take a minute to pray for the church, and consider reaching out to those in your flock. This shepherding all of the flock is a massive attempt to do something so great for God that it’s doomed to failure lest God be in it.
The Holy Spirit Makes you an Overseer
Our Founding Pastor, Randy Pope, often preached that you can’t do it in your own strength, but only with the Holy Spirit’s power. Perimeter’s current Pastor, Jeff Norris, consistently emphasizes our radical dependence on the Holy Spirit to be able to do anything of lasting value for God’s Kingdom.
They preach those things because they are in the Bible. In and of ourselves, if we try in our own strength to do God’s work, we will not get very far, and we’re likely to make a mess of how far we get. Jesus said, “Apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5, NIV).
Our power to do anything of real substance comes from the Holy Spirit, so if God has made you an overseer of His church, relax. You don’t have to do it yourself! Don’t worry about how much there is to do, how heavy the workload is, or how ornery the sheep are. God is the one who had the plan; He’s the One who commissioned you, and He will enable you to do the ministry He has called you to. Remember, He is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.
Your part is by faith to abide in Him, look to Him, rest in Him, and then do as He says. He says, “Oversee.” That does not mean being the boss or lording over others, but neither does it mean just casually observing. It means being diligent in loving, serving, equipping, and shepherding those under your care as you appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit through prayer and through the Word.
Action: Take a minute to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to empower you to be an overseer.
He Calls you to be a Shepherd of His church
We need to actually ask the question, “Did He really call you to shepherd His Church?”
We know that people nominated you. We know that you passed an exam, and you were elected. That’s all very good, but what’s more important is that now that you’ve experienced the role for a while, does it fit? Does it feel right? Are you affirmed that in spite of the difficulties, this is what God has gifted you to do? Do you feel His pleasure a bit as you run the race of being an elder in His Church?
If not, or if you question your calling, that’s fine. Talk with your pastor about it. We would love for you to get wise counsel from others. There is no shame or guilt in saying, “I’m not called to shepherd the flock of God as an elder.” In fact, there is great honor in knowing what your gifting is and living there.
The position of Elder is not “higher or better”; it’s simply a call of God. You may be called to be Deacon. You may be called to use the gifts the Lord has given you more extensively in the marketplace or in community service than you could if you were an Elder. It really doesn’t matter where you serve, but that you find the right place of effective service for you in God’s kingdom.
Everyone who’s been created in the image of God and called according to His purpose has God-given gifts that are to be used for the kingdom. He gave some to be pastors and teachers. Are all teachers, elders, or healers? Nope.
The apostle Paul says that we should eagerly desire the greater gifts, the ones that build up the body, and that can be done in many ways as long as it’s done in love.
If He’s called you, and you’ve responded, you now have a responsibility to shepherd. What are the activities of a shepherd? Well, there are at least three:
- Rule gently over the flock with truth, strength and love.
- Supply safe pasture for the flock.
- Nourish the flock with heavenly food.
Think about what it means to rule, to provide a safe place and to help nourish the flock. Those are comprehensive ideals that are not to be done as an individual, but as a group. Remember you have other elders who are more seasoned around you and standing with you, and there are other elders who will come along after you. God gave elder(s), plural, to the church.
Action: Ask yourself again, “Am I called to be an elder?” Ask your spouse and those close to you for a checkup.
God Bought the Church with His Own Blood
I could give you a lot of word pictures here, but I will give you a few scenarios you can probably relate to. Perhaps you saved up your money when you were a kid and bought a bike, or you saved up more money when you were young and in love and bought a diamond ring. You may have given up your right to the last cookie on the plate or even donated a kidney to a stranger. You may have saved a life on the battlefield and been injured in the process.
None of those sacrifices compares to our Lord buying the Church with His blood.
Nothing compares to the fact that the One who created all things condescended to take on human form, live a perfect life, serve His creation by healing their diseases and washing their feet, and endured mistreatment by men and the wrath of God Almighty to pay for their sins when they’d made a full frontal assault on His throne.
There’s no more expensive real estate in the universe than the host of people whom the Lord has chosen to be His own. We’re referring to the Church that He’s called elders to lead, shepherd, and labor in. We implore you; let the weight of that sink in. You’ve been called to love and care for what Jesus labored and gave His very life for.
Why? Why would He call broken, imperfect people like you and me to lead His Church for which He made the perfect sacrifice? He’s entrusted us with that responsibility because He’s given us His Holy Spirit, and He trusts His Spirit to work in and through us. But we, in total dependence on His Spirit, must do our part. The first portion of our part is seeking a deep-seated understanding of what it meant for Him to purchase the Church with His own blood.
Take a reading of 1 Peter 1:17-21 (NIV). “Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”
Action: Take a minute to reflect on what it means to live in reverent fear, as a foreigner. Ask the Lord to give you a deep sense of the significance of your role as an elder in the Church He bought with His blood.
Conclusion
Jesus is the ultimate disciple-maker, but he isn’t the only one in the Bible. Throughout Scripture we see other individuals living in life-on-life relationships, imparting their spiritual gifts and wisdom for the benefit of others.
These pictures of discipleship remind us that we don’t have to be perfect to be effective disciple-makers. Instead, we build life-on-life relationships, speak truth, and depend on the power of God to do the work in us and through us.
Who in your life could you disciple?