Beware the Shepherd Who Beats the Sheep
Many years ago, a friend of mine was invited to speak at a church. ⛪
He sat in the front row as an honored guest and joined in the praise and worship. But before he was introduced as the morning’s speaker, he watched in disbelief as the host pastor stood up and began criticizing the congregation.
“This morning’s worship was pathetic. Half of you didn’t show up to the prayer meeting, while the rest strolled in late with your lattes and scruffy jeans. It’s disgraceful. You’re lukewarm and God is sick of you. Some of you need to take a long, hard look at yourselves and ask, ‘Am I really a Christian?’”
Stung by these harsh words of criticism, some people hung their heads in shame. 😓 But not my friend. He leaped onto the stage, took the mike from the pastor, and began undoing the damage.
“Your heavenly Father is not sick of you. He loves you with a love that never quits. He does not care how loud you sing or what you wear. He rejoices over you with singing and he thinks you are wonderful.”
As my friend continued to proclaim the good news of God’s unconditional love, heads lifted and people began to smile. Gone was the shame and condemnation. The room began to fill with praise to the Lord.
When I first heard this story, I was amazed by my friend’s bravery. But on reflection, the part of the story that sticks out is that this was a church where people were brow-beaten by their pastor.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd but when this shepherd beat the sheep they responded as though this was normal. 🐏 They probably thought, “Yes, I am a miserable excuse for a Christian. I do nothing well, and I imagine God is disappointed with me.”
If I’m being totally honest, I have said things that brought guilt and shame to people. I didn’t yell and rant, but as a young pastor, I would sometimes preach at people in the pursuit of godliness. Which is nuts, when you think about it. Bullying people to make them holy is like trying to trying to teach an infant to walk by yelling at it.
(Sidebar: I have written elsewhere on bullying in the church. Bullying in the form of preaching law, pulling rank, shaming people publicly, and making threats is far too common. Tragically, much of it is considered normal.)
I thank God for people like my friend who confront this kind of condemnation and speak up for those being abused. I also thank God for people like the Apostle Paul who refused to let the Judaizers burden the New Testament church with law. ⚔️
We did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. (Galatians 2:5)
It takes the courage of Jesus to speak against the lies that keep people from drawing near to God. And it takes the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to remember that our battle is not against flesh and blood.
The host pastor in that story was not the bad guy. He was just misguided and probably overworked. Like the people in his church, he needed to be set free.
Paul said he dedicated his life to preaching the gospel of grace (Acts 20:24). Is there any greater occupation?
You’re probably wondering what happened with my friend. Sadly, I don’t remember the rest of the story. It was a long time ago. But based on similar experiences I’ve heard, I imagine my friend did not get a return invitation.
Which is a shame, because what he was preaching was what the world most needs to hear.
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If you enjoyed this article, you might enjoy these:
- The Accepting Church
- 8 Signs of Hyper-Grace Churches
- What Makes a Church a Family?
- Why We are Not a Red-Letter Church
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Escape to Reality 
We ministered the goodness gospel of Grace in prisons for 17 years. The chapel at one such facility held only 100 guys. The guys were lined up waiting when we would arrive. I asked the Chaplain if there was a larger space to accommodate them all. He said. “It’s only like this when you and your husband come. The men have expressed to me that (out of 128 Christian ministries) yours was the only message where they were not condemned or shamed or told they must work to earn God’s good favor again. They are thankful to know they are loved and forgiven and have hope of a new beginning!” That broke our hearts to hear that was happening! (Roman’s 8:1)
Thanks for sharing, Jeanie. It just goes to show you that grace is attractive. People respond to the message of grace because we all hunger for it. How beautiful are the feet of those who preach it!
Paul,
Thanks for this great story and such a valuable lesson. It is my opinion that the devil uses these box churches on the corner as a tool to make salvation seem hard to those looking. Besides shepherds beating their sheep, you have many making a qualification of God’s acceptance the task of getting a makeover of improvement in your look, your actions, and your connections. Much of the same as you wrote, but my question is about our prayers for them. I do not see a church on the corner or a pastor leading anywhere under the new covenant so think it is mainly religion, not scripture. Shouldn’t our prayer be to get out of that situation and seek God yourself without those hurdles, instead of praying for a change in the pastors heart and the years it would take to convince others and boards to accept those changes? I wondered as a pastor in your past, how you feel about the topic. Would you care to comment? We all love the people and the pastors, but it is hard to encourage them to stay. If you add tithing and other customs of the old covenant still being used the gap gets wider in my stance.
Keith Pinke
As you can probably tell from the many articles I have written about the church, I am a big fan of the local church in all its forms and flavors. I appreciate that some adopt models of leadership that are worldly (hierarchical) rather than biblical (servant-hearted), but the New Testament church is the greatest human institution on earth outside of the family. At its best, it is a family, and the people in it are our brothers and sisters, no matter how they act. As to misguided leaders, I can attest from personal experience that people change. Just about every grace preacher and pastor I know of has had a Damascus Road-like experience. Maybe not as dramatic as the original, but just as profound.
So my heart is for the misguided pastors because I used to be one. Most of them love the Lord and his church, and they are doing their very best. My conviction is that we who are strong in grace ought to support the weak (Rom. 15:1). If we give judgment rather than grace, we are not modeling the change we hope to see. As to whether people should stay or leave those churches, that’s for them and the Holy Spirit to decide. As I have written elsewhere, some leave because it’s the healthy thing to do; others stay because they hope to be agents of change.
Thanks again Paul. As we navigate our body in Venice, Florida, we are more and more seeing that our mission (along with teaching the original good news) is reaching those brow beaten sheep. So many have lived under that so long they do actually think it’s normal. And I so appreciate your care for the brow beating pastor, he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. I can see it that way too, because I was once there too. Praise God for His Spirit of wisdom and revelation to know Him, see him. Eph. 1:17-18. Thanks again brother
“He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.” That’s a good way of putting it. Like the disciples of John in Ephesus and the God-fearing Greeks in Thessalonica, they have a heart for God, but they have not yet heard or grasped the full message of grace.