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The Journey

Don’t Trust the Hired Help

Scripture: John 10:11-18

What is the real work of a pastor? Some would call them the shepherd of the church, but I do not fully agree. As a pastor I do not really want to be the shepherd. I do have a role to play as does everyone else in the church. But to be honest all of us are just the help. I cannot save anyone, I cannot forgive anyone, to be honest I can only pray for other and direct them to deepen their own relationship with Christ.

Some may say that I am wrong and that’s ok. Just think it through for a moment. Who is the one we follow? If we are followers of Christ we cannot follow anyone else but Christ. If a pastor takes the role of Christ then we do not follow Christ but that person. The pastor may be a really go person, but Christ is greater.

I love being a pastor. I love to encourage people, I love to teach about Christ, I love to assist people in their times of need. I love to tend the “sheep” but I as a pastor must remember that they are not my sheep, I am the help. If trouble comes to the Meeting that I am a pastor of, I can leave, and where would all the people be? I could go across the country enter into ministry in another Meeting but the people of the current Meeting I am at will remain where they are. I am the help, I can only encourage people to listen to the Shepherd.

I need to remember this as a pastor and a follower of Christ because it is important to be honest. Honesty is important to the Christian faith. It is important to realize that we are sheep in need of help. Wolves will come into our lives and we will be left vulnerable, unless we trust the shepherd.

As we pray today interact with Jesus. Imagine the scene that He is setting up. Imagine yourself as a sheep wondering around the wide medow. Who are you hearing? Is He calling to you to follow? As you wonder farther away in the medow you hear a noise and smell something different something sinister. What will you do, where do you turn? Who is there to help you?

The people around us can help to a point, but only to a point. Even the best pastor in the world can only do so much, because they too are sheep needing help. Prayer is where we interact with Christ, hear his voice, and can respond.

About jwquaker

I’m sure everyone wants to know who I am…well if you are viewing this page you do. I’m Jared Warner and I am a pastor or minister recorded in the Evangelical Friends Church Mid America Yearly Meeting. To give a short introduction to the EFC-MA, it is a group of evangelical minded Friends in the Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Colorado. We are also a part of the larger group called Evangelical Friends International, which as the name implies is an international group of Evangelical Friends. For many outside of the Friends or Quaker traditions you may ask what a recorded minister is: the short answer is that I have demistrated gifts of ministry that our Yearly Meeting has recorded in their minutes. To translate this into other terms I am an ordained pastor, but as Friends we believe that God ordaines and mankind can only record what God has already done. More about myself: I have a degree in crop science from Fort Hays State University, and a masters degree in Christian ministry from Friends University. Both of these universities are in Kansas. I lived most of my life in Kansas on a farm in the north central area, some may say the north west. I currently live and minister in the Kansas City, MO area and am a pastor in a programed Friends Meeting called Willow Creek Friends Church.

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