Feed My Sheep

By Bill D. Hallsted

The dream came again that night. It was always the same dream, with minor variations.

In the dream, I was asked by some friends to care for their animals while they were gone. I don”t remember whether the dream even included why they were gone, or for how long. What was clear was my failure.

The request, or my agreement, was not at all foreign to my experience. With my background in ranching, it was natural. I knew how to take care of animals.

I was also the preacher. Who better to ask for a favor when necessity took animal owners out of the area for a time?

When one family needed to be gone, the request was, “Could you look after the sheep a couple weeks while we”re gone?”

“The calves just need fed a couple times a day. Check to be sure the waterer is working each day.”

All in the life of a preacher””at least in small rural churches. All part of being a neighbor, and country folks are always neighbors””always there for each other.

But then we left the rural areas to minister in the suburbs, where the population density was much greater. Here we could minister to a larger church. Whether it”s right or wrong, the norm for churches, like businesses and corporations, is “work your way up to the better-paying locations.”

 

Dreams from God?

That”s why the dreams were strange when they began to plague my sleep. No longer was I doing farm chores for neighbors.

But the dreams came, nonetheless. They were always the same, with only minor variations. The owners were due back the day the dream unfolded. Realizing they were due back, I suddenly remembered my obligation””an obligation I had, in every instance, totally forgotten. In the dreams, I had neglected to feed the animals. I hadn”t checked on their well-being. I hadn”t checked their water supply. I had reneged on my responsibilities.

In the dreams, I always drove frantically to the farm or ranch, ran at top speed to the feedlot or the corral or the hog yard or the sheep pasture, terrified the animals would all be dead. I knew they would at least be gaunt and haggard.

I don”t remember the dreams ever ending. I never learned the fate of any of those neglected animals. I always woke from the dream while racing toward the victims of my lapse in belated and frantic concern. It was disconcerting, to say the least.

A lot of things have been said, taught, implied, and suggested about dreams. In Scripture, God often used dreams as a means of communication with certain of his people. A cursory glance at dream in any concordance reveals God used that form of communication frequently.

So the question is, “Were my dreams significant?” “Did they stem from my own mind or from a different source?” “Were they from God?”

Let me share a couple of facts with you. Then I”ll leave you to decide.

 

“Feed My Sheep”

The first bit of relevant background comes from a conversation between Jesus and Simon Peter recorded in John 21:15-19. After Jesus” resurrection, Peter was still devastated by the failures of his own faith. At the same time, his chagrin over those failures churned in jumbled turmoil with his jubilance at Jesus” resurrection. Jubilance and despair in equal doses make for a wicked mix in which to find peace of mind.

Jesus asked Peter, twice, “Do you love me?” using the high and exalted form of love defined by the word agape. Twice Peter answered, “You know that I love you” but each time he answered, he changed the word to phileo“”a lesser word denoting an emotional attachment.

Jesus posed the question a third time, but this time he reduced the demand of his question by asking Peter, “Do you love me?” using that lesser form of love that Peter had used.

In response, Scripture says “Peter was hurt” because Jesus changed the word he used, but he reiterated the fervency of that emotional attachment””the phileo love for Jesus with which his heart was filled.

In answer to every effort of Peter to evade Jesus” question, Jesus responded with a form of exactly the same demand. “Feed my sheep.”

Many have tried to find nuances of differences in “feed my lambs,” “take care of my sheep,” and “feed my sheep.” There aren”t any differences! In the words of one old cowboy, “There ain”t a calf slobber”s worth o” difference.”

Peter was given one very specific and important task to do. Feed and tend the Master”s sheep.

The second bit of background is this: The church where we felt called by God to minister””this one in a suburban, heavily populated area””was vastly different from the rural ones, but the needs were the same. My conviction was the same. Faithfully teach and preach God”s Word, and God”s Spirit will empower that Word to bring souls to him. His Word will bring about growth and strength in individuals and the church as a whole. Illustrations and approaches had to be different, but the message was the same.

God”s Word is alive and active in all times, places, and circumstances. It has the power to melt hard hearts and convict chronic excuse-makers. God”s Spirit, working through that Word, changes lives. Accordingly, the church grew in numbers, in attitude, and in outlook.

 

Attracting People

With that growth came, subtly and innocuously, “megachurch fever.” “We could be a church like. . . . “

“How do we need to change to attract larger numbers of people?”

Slowly the pressure began to build for me to “tone down” the biblical content of my preaching. “You need to have a lot more illustrations.” “You need more humor.” “Your sermons need to be more entertaining.” “You need to avoid subjects folks are uncomfortable with.”

Please understand, there is a fine and difficult line in the life of every preacher. One side of that line is the reality that the preacher is, himself, subject to the leadership of the congregation. He is not THE authority in the congregation. He needs to submit to the eldership””to God”s leaders.

The other side of that line is what many have (rightly, I think) called the “prophetic office” of the ministry. God”s prophets were always those he commanded to confront even kings””including the very kings to whom they were subject. It is the preacher”s responsibility to be the leader of the leaders who lead him, the teacher of the teachers who teach him, the authoritative voice of God”s Word to those in authority over him. He needs to submit and lead at the same time””a nearly impossible demand.

In this case I began to lessen the biblical content of my sermons. I made a conscious effort to make them more relevant, lighter, and””here it comes””seeker friendly.

I did begin to get more compliments on the messages, but the compliments were almost all in the vein of how much the attenders had “enjoyed” the message or the service.

 

God-Given Responsibility

Then the dreams began. I don”t know whether they were triggered by my conscience or by my Lord. I don”t know whether they were a message from him, or an outcry of my own conviction. Either way, the insistent and repetitive message of the dreams was right.

I was called and commissioned to tend the sheep that belong to someone else. It was my responsibility to feed them””to see to it they had all they needed for health and growth. Instead, I bowed to the pressure to entertain them.

One day soon the Master of those sheep would return. That was always the focus of the dreams. I had to give account.

So do you.

The task of all who minister is to feed his lambs, to take care of his sheep.

The task of all who lead within every congregation is to ensure his sheep are well-nourished.

We need to teach and preach God”s Word in the most winsome ways we are capable, but we need always to be fervently and deliberately certain that God”s Word is paramount, taught, explained, and applied.

If folks are made uncomfortable by what God”s Word says (rather than by its being explained in an obnoxious, inappropriate, or offensive manner), then they need to be made uncomfortable. Being convinced and convicted by God”s Spirit is intensely uncomfortable!

If it is God”s will that great numbers flock to faithful teaching, then praise him. If it is his will that the harvest be lean for a season, then praise him. He knows what he is doing. The harvest will come in his time.

Our God-given responsibility is still this: “Feed my sheep.”

 

Bill D. Hallsted serves as minister with Hot Springs (South Dakota) Christian Church and has written many books and articles.