You're a Sheep Dog!

I'm writing a little early this week because I'm leaving for home on Wednesday and will be spending Friday in the car driving back to Illinois. I am so excited to be Jersey-bound, even if it's only for a couple of days. It will be the first time my whole family is together since last Christmas, so that's really, really making me pretty stoked. With me living in Illinois and my younger brother living in North Carolina, it's hard to find time to get all five of us together (my sister still lives at home with my parents). So I am VERY thankful for Thanksgiving this year :)

My post this week comes from a combination of the sermon I preached yesterday and something a fellow pastor said to me when I was installed here a couple of weeks ago. The night before my installation* service, she called me to ask me to send her an email about my long term and short term visions for my ministry at this church. In the course of my correspondence to her, I mentioned that I didn't like the image of pastor as shepherd, since Christ is our shepherd. She delivered my charge** during the service and called out this image, which I used in my sermon yesterday and wanted to mention in my blog today because it really spoke to my heart.

Christ is the shepherd. Think of the pastor as the Shepherd's staff. The shepherd uses the staff to steer the sheep when they're veering off the path. Sometimes the shepherd has to pull the staff back and let the sheep roam. Sometimes the sheep will bounce off guardrails and sometimes they'll even fall off the path completely. This is where the sheep dogs come in.

Leaders and caregivers in the church are the sheep dogs. They are the ones who help search for the sheep and who help make sure the sheep are going where they're supposed to go. The sheep dogs are important because they are another set of eyes for the shepherd. The shepherd knows each sheep by name, but the sheep dogs function as extra eyes and hands (well, paws) for the shepherd.

I love this image. I love it because it makes everyone in the flock accountable for something. The theme in my ministry right now is that we are all walking together to grow in Christ. As the body of Christ here on Earth, we're called to take care of each other and lift one another up. My message yesterday was to encourage the members of the church to use the body for what it was intended, and to contribute to the body. The beauty of my fellow pastor's image was her remark that sometimes the rolls change. Sometimes a person is a sheep dog doing the leading, and sometimes a person needs to be the sheep and seek help being kept on the path.

Christ is the good shepherd. God chose us because God created us in love, and Christ rules over us. Christ the King Sunday (which was yesterday) is about realizing that as we walk on this path of life, we're not doing it alone or in control of where the path leads. We can decide which paths we want to take, at some level, but at the end of the journey, we all end up where we are supposed to be.

I wish you the very happiest Thanksgiving and pray for traveling mercies for those who are traveling. May you find rest and comfort with your loved ones. :)

Yours in the Peace of Christ,
Pastor Becki

*In the Presbyterian church, new pastors who have been previously ordained are installed into the church to which they have been called. The service is essentially a wedding service between pastor and new congregation, each taking vows to support each other and trust each other.
**In the installation service, someone gives a charge to the new pastor and then a charge to the congregation that encourages. My charge was to see myself as the staff, but also to not be afraid to make mistakes.