A shepherd carried a staff with both ends necessary for his job. The top end was that of a hook. This end was designed to grab around the neck of a wandering sheep and pull it back into the fold. So much of pastoral ministry and the work of the ministry among fellow church members is reaching out to those drifting and bringing them back into the fold.

The church needs candid, compassionate, and courageous leaders. We need to pray that God would raise them up.
After the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus noticed a serious problem among the crowds in Capernaum.

As he was engaged in his teaching, preaching, and healing ministry, Jesus observed that the crowds were aimless and helpless. They were, as Matthew notes, “like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).

When Jesus said this, he wasn’t criticizing the people. He was criticizing their leaders.

This is a call back to and further indictment of Israel’s religious leaders, who had long since abandoned their duties as the shepherds of God’s people (Ezekiel 34). It is also a glorious reminder that in Christ, God’s people have and will always have the good shepherd (John 10:11).

While Jesus was addressing a particular people, and a particular failed class of leaders at that time, this principle itself is timeless. God’s people will always need good shepherds to guide and lead them.

Jesus’ application to the disciples after seeing this problem wasn’t to offer “church multiplication” seminars, or “next gen leadership training,” but simply commanded them to “pray” that God would raise up and send “laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:37-38).

The problem is one of supply and demand. There were not enough godly leaders to shepherd the people righteously. The solution is to pray that God would raise up more leaders. That’s certainly not a call to inaction on our part—churches should work to train future leaders. And as they do, they should pray for certain qualities in those leaders.

What are those qualities? From this passage, we can also note a few essential characteristics for leaders, church planters, and missionaries that we should pray for. Here are three.

Three Characteristics of Godly Leaders
First, we need candid leaders.

The problem with Israel’s shepherds was that they weren’t in it for the good of the people but for their own gain. The sheep were starving while they got fat and happy (Ez. 34:2-3). They were anything but sincere in their aspiration to be leaders.

We need missionaries, church planters, pastors, and lay leaders whose sincerity and candid desire to lead the people of God trump their career aspirations. When it comes time to choose new leaders, whether in the church or the mission field, we should promote the GED over the PhD if the GED sincerely desires to serve those who will be under his care, not simply use the position to help him climb the ministerial industrial complex ladder.

In the Southern Baptist Convention, where I pastor, this is a particularly insidious issue: Leaders who aren’t in ministry for the good of the people, but for the sake of their careers. Many pastors have been taught to use “smaller churches” as stepping stones to land the coveted megachurch role. Or, across our denominational entities, men make sure to never “rock the boat” because to do so would cost them that side gig of becoming a “church planting trainer” (with plenty of swag and three-quarter zips included).

As in the church, so in the SBC: We need candid men of God who care about the flock, not just fleecing the sheep along their way to the top.

Read More