IT'S NOT ABOUT SHEEP FARMS!

What a lot of churches do not understand is that corporate church thinking is very much Old Testament thinking. The Old Testament is where we find large, lavish, ornate temples and synagogues, structured and formalized worship services, hierarchical and structured organisational charts of exactly who has what authority, who has what duties and responsibilities where and when. It is where we find all the rules and regulations, do's and don'ts, transgressions and appropriate punishments. ... And it didn’t work!

Jesus came to teach us many things. One of them was that the  Kingdom of God was not in the things AROUND you. If it is not WITHIN YOU, you are not part of it, and if it is within you then nothing AROUND you can separate you from it. No church has the power, authority or ability to stand between you and Christ Jesus. Indeed NOTHING on Earth, OR in Heaven for that matter, has the power, authority or ability to come between you and Christ Jesus, or to oust you from HIS Kingdom. It is not about the churches of men, it is about the Kingdom of God.

Sadly so many churches these days and in history have gone down the Old Testament corporate path with similarly disastrous results. Yes some of them may appear very successful from a corporate point of view. Large well structured, well oiled, smooth running corporate machines housed in large, architecturally designed, luxuriously appointed, rather expensive, corporate style buildings replete with offices, auditoriums, theatres, multifunction rooms and halls, etc. They have great looking organisational charts with all sorts of departments and departmental directors, corporate plans and visions for the future, corporate in-house training and team building plans, impressive goals and performance targets, etc. And above all, that necessity of all successful corporations, a carefully, nurtured, protected, and projected "corporate image".

BUT they have forgotten that they are called to be shepherds, not sheep farmers.

What is the difference between a shepherd and a sheep farmer? A sheep farmer looks after the FARM. A shepherd looks after the SHEEP! A good sheep farmer will sacrifice sheep for the sake of the farm. A good shepherd will always sacrifice everything for the sake of the sheep. A sheep farmer measures success by the wellbeing and state of the farm. A shepherd will measure success by the wellbeing and state of the sheep. A good sheep farmer will always put the interest of the farm above the interest of the sheep. A good shepherd will always put the interest of the sheep above even his own. A sheep farmer treats the sheep as if they belong to him. A shepherd knows the sheep in his care do not belong to him and he is accountable to another for each and every one of them. A good sheep farmer will consider a loss of 1 per 100 sheep as an excellent outcome for his farm. A good shepherd will leave the 99 in order to save the one who is lost. A sheep farmer loves his farm. A shepherd loves the sheep!

Like the church at Sardis many of today's churches may be corporately alive and rocking, but they have become spiritually moribund and dead. They have lost their first love and now love and serve the church corporate more than they love and serve the Lord's sheep that are in it. They have forgotten that Jesus did not come to build a corporation, He came to save people. He came not as a corporate executive nor as a sheep farmer, but as a shepherd and a servant of His Father's flock. Corporate executives care about the corporations they build and run. Sheep farmers care for their farms. Shepherds care only for the individual needs and wellbeing of each and every sheep entrusted into their care. Servants care only for the individual needs and wellbeing of each and every member of the family they serve.

We must always be careful to remember that in the house of God there are only THREE things you are called to be and not one of them is a corporate position. You can be called to be a Shepherd, a Servant, and ... a sheep! Administration is indeed a gift from The Lord through His Holy Spirit. But it is a gift designed to SERVE the needs of shepherds, servants and sheep, not to master and control them.

D.J. Ludlow

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