They Smell Like Sheep

I read a great book this week - They Smell Like Sheep, by Lynn Anderson.

It's about leadership.
Leading like a shepherd.
Leading like The Shepherd.

The shepherd metaphor is referenced more than 500 times in scripture. Throughout the Bible, the cause of Christ to rescue a fallen humanity is illustrated in terms of a shepherd rescuing his lost sheep. Isaiah used this metaphor by saying that, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way (Is 53:6)," clearly eluding to the coming Christ, the Good Shepherd, Who would love us so much as to lay down His life for us.

In Jesus' day, the concept of shepherding was widely understood. It was a familiar way of life for many of the people to whom Jesus spoke. It's easy to understand why the concept of shepherding is viewed, by many, as equally as totalitarian and dictatorial as the leadership encountered most in today's culture, as in, a shepherd mightily ruling over his sheep, however, that view of shepherding is improper and inaccurate. 

To the contrary, a shepherd is one who deeply loves and cares for his sheep. Anderson says that, "for the family of a shepherd, the food on their tables and the clothes on their backs, not to mention the family honor, was inexorably linked to the way they cared for their flocks." To that end, a shepherd is not one who lords his power over the flock; rather, he is one who intimately shares his life with his flock.

A shepherd knows each sheep by name; he nurtures the young, bandages the wounded, cares for the weak, and protects them all.

A shepherd smells like sheep. 

What's intriguing is that Jesus led in stark contrast to what's normally defined as leadership. His definition of leadership is one who is last and servant of all (Mark 9:35). Jesus' definition of leadership is servanthood. Try typing in servanthood once and you'll see that it isn't even a recognized word in our dictionary.

Jesus definition of leadership, and His revolutionary display of power through servant leadership, is apparently why many of the Jewish people did not recognize Him as Messiah. While they waited for a messiah who would physically restore Israel and lead them into a messianic age of global peace, Jesus, The Messiah, presented Himself as a suffering servant and not as the conquering king they were expecting.

It begs the question, have we embraced the wrong kind of leadership?

As the church of Jesus, rather than embracing shepherd-like leadership, have we somehow been drawn to, eerily attracted to an authoritarian, totalitarian form of leadership rather than the shepherding-style servant form of leadership modeled by Jesus?

Israel longed for a leader who would cast down their enemies and redeem their place in the world. They were looking for, in their leader, a physical display of strength, of power and of might. I have to ask, do we look for the same in our leaders? In our pastors? 

Have we embraced the wrong kind of leadership in the church? 

People long for pure leadership, an honest and caring shepherd. Servant leadership shines in stark contrast to the leadership of modern American culture, and quite frankly, the leadership of most modern day churches. 

Gene Edwards, in the preface of A Tale of Three Kings, speaks of what I believe we have come to not only embrace, but expect of our leaders, inside and outside of the church:

"I noted some years ago a growing number of letters from Christians devastated by the authoritarian movement that had become so popular with many evangelical groups. A reaction to this totalitarian concept eventually set in. A mass exodus was soon under way. The stories being told by these spiritual fugitives are often terrifying and sometimes unbelievable...I have never seen anything that has damaged so many believers so deeply. The wreckage appears to be universal, and recovery from it is almost nil."

So it was in Jesus' day, as it was in 1980 when Edwards wrote those powerful words, and it continues to be true even still today. Jesus modeled for us the purest and most powerful and effective form of leadership the world has ever known. It is the responsibility of the church to not only study Jesus' methods and model of leadership, but to adopt it and institute it.

The church should be known for its strength, but not the kind of strength that has created this mass exodus.

Jesus said they will know you are my disciples by your love.

Jesus smelled like sheep. His hands and feet were always dirty because of His lifestyle of engaging people, particularly those who were considered the least. He modeled leadership in the form of a humble servant and loving shepherd. He did not lord His power over people, rather, engaged them with a caring, gentle and loving spirit. Jesus met the needs of those to whom He ministered. Out of His deep love and compassion for people, He equipped others to do the work that He was physically unable to do Himself.

The message of Christ continues to this day. His healing and hope continues to bring light and life to a dark and broken world. Jesus modeled strength through servanthood, power through sacrifice. His selfless love, His willingness to be intimate and serve the least, and His enthusiasm for suffering loss for the sake of rescuing even one lost sheep, makes Jesus the perfect model of leadership, standing above all who have come before and whoever will follow.

The Art of Suffering

Awkward? Just a bit. Francis Chan, the keynote speaker at the Exponential Church Plant Conference just resigned from his church days earlier. Yes, awkward. And everyone wanted to know the exact same thing. Why?

First, he quoted Amos 6:1. "Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come."

Then he began to share the thing that was most stirring in his heart. The thought, the coming moment when each one of us will fall before God while He looks down upon us and says, "Well Done, my good and faithful servant".

Along with probably everyone else in the room, I'm still waiting for the answer. Why? Why walk away from sixteen years of leading a growing and successful church? Why walk away from a position of worldwide influence? Why now?

His answer didn't resonate with me until I returned home from the conference. I have to credit my 3 year old little girl for actually helping daddy see what Francis was trying to say. His answer - a lack of Suffering.

A lack of suffering? Anti-prosperity gospel?

Do we have to suffer to hear God say, "Well Done"?

The night I returned home, after having been away from my daughter for almost a week, the revelation of suffering captivated my heart. And it came most unexpected.

The night before we left Orlando for home, while getting ready for bed, I was moving a large industrial sized fan into the doorway of our bedroom to create the kind of white noise that helps Katie and I sleep well. To my dismay, the large, round, sharp, heavy base wasn't very well attached. And, at the most inappropriate time, most likely when the base was at the highest elevation possible above my bare and naked foot, it dismantled and dropped - right on my big toe. I'm still amazed at how well our bodies can respond to pain when inflicted on such a tiny extremity. It hurt. Bad.

After walking in the door and being greeted by my 3 year old, I felt it necessary to take off my shoes and socks and give my newly black and blue and bloodied big toe a bit of refreshing air. Morgan said she wanted to see what was underneath the bandaid. So I thought, sweet, she'll love this. Doesn't every kid love the sight of a big black bloodied toe? Um, NO!

She was mortified. She grabbed hold of me and wouldn't let go. She wept and wept and wept almost like I have never seen her weep before. She was shaken at the core. I was a bit surprised actually. She was in turmoil. She kept saying over and over, "Daddy, I don't want you to have a boo-boo". And no matter how much I tried to convince her that daddy was okay and that my boo-boo didn't hurt (even though it most definitely did), her concern only seemed to worsen.

All throughout the night, while reading a bed time book with mom, while enjoying a fun episode of Dora the Explorer with dad, she would look at me with an exaggerated quivering lip and pouty face and say, "Daddy, I don't want you to have a boo-boo". And then she'd cry. What in the world did I just do? I think I scarred her for life!

Then, some time late into the night, while I lay in bed, it hit me. I finally made the connection between comfort and suffering, between suffering and love.

I don't think the suffering Francis spoke of had much to do with success, money or good health. Suffering doesn't mean we have to be poor, afflicted or sick. It means we hurt. It means that in us, love and suffering are one and the same, they're connected.

My little three year old taught me for the first time in my life what it means to love and suffer because of love. Jesus, help us all if we don't get this! Woe to us who feel complacent and secure in Zion...

My daughter so loves me that even the thought of daddy hurting was enough to overwhelm her soul. For her, daddy's hurt was her hurt. Daddy's pain was her pain. For her, love and suffering are naturally connected. Even if she wanted to, she can't separate the two.

After a bit of reflecting, I took a deep hard look at my own heart, the heart of a church planter. When have I loved someone so deeply that I suffered because of it? Do I suffer because of the pain in my family, in my neighborhood, in my community, in my city?

Do I suffer for the lost, the broken, the hurting, the spiritually restless, the orphan, the widow, the abused, the addict, the hungry, the poor, the rich, the depressed, the outcast, the sick, the oppressed?

Could Jesus have endured the physical suffering that he had to endure on the cross without first enduring and embracing the spiritual suffering so intimately connected to his ever-abounding love for us?

Oh, that we could have faith like a child, eyes like a child, the heart of a child. Oh, that our hearts could break for the lost and the broken, hurt for the pain in our world so much so that out of our deep and gruesome suffering would rise a compelling and divine resolve to offer hope and healing, restoration and reconciliation with the Creator God.

Are you willing for God to break your heart? Are you willing to love so deeply that the rest of your life will be filled with the suffering that Jesus feels for every single man and woman, boy and girl?