In the name of Jesus. Amen. Today our meditation on God’s Word comes from the Gospel lesson, especially this verse: “When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matt. 9:36, ESV).[1] What do you call sheep without a shepherd? Lunch! That’s right: lunch. The Bible warns us that “your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). Satan hates the Christian Church. He hates the people of God—the flock of God—and so he mercilessly attacks the sheep, preying upon the flock. So without a shepherd to protect them, the sheep fall prey to the devil’s attacks—or simply scatter to starve in the wilderness.
Sheep need a shepherd. So what did Jesus do for the “harassed and helpless” crowds? First, he told his disciples to pray for more shepherds; then he called the twelve apostles to be shepherds over his flock.
“Then [Jesus] said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’ And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction…. These twelve Jesus sent out…” (Matt. 9:37–10:1, 5a).
The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. There are more than 100 million people in the United States who do not believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Literally, they are without hope in this world unless someone speaks the Word of God to them. But there aren’t enough pastors, missionaries, and evangelists to get the work done. So what does Jesus ask his Church to do? Pray for more pastors.
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly for the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (9:37-38). I like to call this The Lord’s Other Prayer. Most of us know the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father, who art in heaven; hallowed be Thy name…” (Aside: Although I understand a recent round of Jeopardy contestants didn’t have a clue about the Lord’s Prayer when the category of Divine Adjectives came up). We know the Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father. But that’s not the only prayer Jesus gives his disciples to pray. He also tells us to pray for more laborers in the harvest—more pastors, teachers, and evangelists to preach and teach the Gospel of salvation.
The Office of the Holy Ministry is the only office instituted by Christ in the New Testament. Jesus did this on the very first Easter when he breathed on his disciples and told them
“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you…. Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld” (John 20:21-23).
The Bible says that God gives pastors to the Church. The Office of the Holy Ministry is a gift to God’s people in order that they may hear the Word of God, believe, and be saved (AC V). The sheep need a shepherd. So God supplies: “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…” (Eph. 4:11-12). Pastors are a gift sent by God to feed, lead, and equip God’s people.
Throughout the New Testament, pastors are called many different things: elder (presbyter), pastor (shepherd), and bishop (overseer). Yet whatever you call a pastor, the essential nature of the Office of the Holy Ministry is such that the Apostle Paul instructed his fellow worker Titus to appoint pastors (“elders”) in every place he planted a church (Tit. 1:5). (Aside: Also of great interest is the fact that pastors are rarely addressed in the singular in the New Testament—almost always the plural. The assumption of the New Testament seems to be that a church will have more than one pastor because Jesus always sends his workers out to do mission and ministry as a team. That’s why the 72 are sent out two-by-two).
The idea of a congregation without pastors is as absurd as the picture of a flock of sheep without a shepherd. And the idea of an individual Christian not being part of a congregation led by a pastor is doubly absurd. The Bible is very clear that people in the Church need each other. We need fellowship (koinonia)—life together. A life apart from the Body of Christ ends up as spiritual death. There are no lone ranger sheep out in the world. Why not? Because a lonely sheep is a dead sheep. Remember, sheep without a shepherd are called LUNCH.
After my Dad retired from the U.S. Army as a chaplain, he reentered civilian life as a parish pastor in a small South Carolina town. It was a two-point parish with a town church and country church. My Dad lived in town right across the street from the town church. Of course, this fact got around town, so that when people didn’t find my Dad at the church office, they would knock on the parsonage door to ask for money for gas, food, or bus tickets.
After listening to their story, one of the first things my Dad would ask them is “Who is your pastor?” (Who is your shepherd?) Invariably, most of them didn’t have a pastor or a church.
“That’s your first problem,” my Dad would reply. “You need a pastor. Because if you were a member of my church, you wouldn’t have to go door to door asking for money. We would have already helped you.”
Every Christian needs a pastor, just as every sheep needs a shepherd. It’s another reason why church membership matters—so that you place yourself under someone’s pastoral authority to be your shepherd. There are no free agents in the kingdom of God.
Now, of course, pastors are not the only people who serve in the church. There are many people who work or volunteer in mission and ministry. I talked about that a few months ago when I preached about the Priesthood of All Believers. Some are professional workers, like Directors of Christian Education, organists and other church musicians, choir directors, and parochial schoolteachers. Others are volunteers, such as the president, treasurer, elders, Sunday school teachers, snack servers, and lightbulb changers. All of these are important roles for the proper functioning of the church. Every member in the Body of Christ matters.
Yet the pastor’s calling is unique. St. Paul calls it a “noble task” (1 Tim. 3:1). Yet the sad reality of our time is that very few men seek the noble task of the call to pastoral ministry. Quite plainly, pastors are becoming a dying breed. Across denominations in America, pastors are retiring from the ministry faster than they are entering it. Thirty years ago (1992), the median age of a pastor in the United States was 44. Today (2021) it is 57![2] Now, there’s nothing wrong with having an older pastor. In fact, a congregation would be blessed to have a wise pastor with years of experience studying and teaching the Word. But the trouble with having mostly older pastors in your ministerium is this: what do you do when they retire or die suddenly? Who will replace them?
A few weeks ago I heard the District President of our church body speak about the looming pastor shortage in The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS). The Council of Presidents (COP) of the LCMS estimates that five (5) years from now, nearly half of all men currently serving in ministry will be eligible for retirement. We could lose half of our actively rostered pastors within the next 5 years. Unfortunately, enrollment numbers at both seminaries in St. Louis and Ft. Wayne are way down from when I was student. My class (St. Louis ’07) had about 150 guys entering in the Fall 2003. We were one of the biggest classes since the 1950’s. (Aside: One of our church members, Lucy Griffin, had a father who was a pastor. He graduated from St. Louis in the 1930’s with over two-hundred men in his class!) Now both seminaries combined barely total 100 for a new class. For many reasons, men are simply not entering the pastoral ministry.
What does that mean for the Church? Well, certainly there will be a greater number of vacancies. Unfortunately, congregations usually do NOT do well during a long vacancy, because they tend to lose a lot of members through the backdoor. Why? Quite simply: churches need a regular, called pastor to lead the way. Visitors don’t want to join a church that doesn’t have a devoted shepherd.
With pastors in short supply, there will also be a greater frequency of calls to pastors already serving congregations. Some congregations may need to share a pastor—so called dual parishes. But do you know what the problem is with two churches trying to share one pastor? They both want him 100% of the time. But a pastor cannot give 100% of his efforts to two different congregations. He will destroy himself if he tries, so the inevitable result is part-time pastoring at both places. It’s a similar problem to polygamy. Both wives want 100% of their shared husband, so it leads to feuding, squabbling, and distrust. Better to have just one church under your care.
A day is coming soon when more and more American churches will not have a pastor. And what do you call sheep without a shepherd? LUNCH!
Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd, who laid down his life for the sheep. He laid it down on the cross to rescue us from sin, death, and the devil. He took up his life again when he rose from the dead on the third day. Jesus is also the Lord of his Church. He paid the bride price for her with his blood, and he will not let her go long without leadership. He loves his sheep too much for that. “When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matt. 9:36).
Jesus promised Peter that He (Jesus) would build his Church (Matt. 16:18). And so he will. He can do that with us or without us, but I pray that he will do it with us. So what are we called to do? We are called to pray. “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matt. 9:37-38).
Notice that before Jesus called the twelve apostles, he asked his disciples first to people to pray for them. When is the last time that you or I prayed, as the Lord instructed, this Other Lord’s Prayer? Maybe it’s time we start.
Jesus loves his Church—loves you and me. “All we like sheep have gone astray” (Isa. 53:6), wandering far from God by our sinful words, thoughts, and actions. Some of us wandered further than others, but we all wandered away from God with a wanderlust that would not be contained. But that was no problem for Jesus, who came “to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). And even when we were still a long way off, he ran in search of us, to bring us back to the Father, so “there will be one flock, one shepherd” (John 10:16). Jesus does not want us to be like sheep without a shepherd. Nor does he want our sister congregations to be like sheep without a shepherd. So he calls us to pray for more pastors, like he did his first disciples.
Is there a man in your life who would make a good pastor—a shepherd for Jesus’ little lambs? Is there a little boy or teenager in our church who loves Jesus and loves people? I have met many pastors over the years who told me they first had an inkling about the call to ministry while they were in elementary school—just little boys!
At my previous congregation, there was a little boy named Zak who used to follow me around the vestry and sanctuary on Sunday mornings while I prepared for the worship service. He asked me lots of questions about what I was doing and why.
One day I asked him a question: “Zak, do you think that you’d like to become a pastor someday?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “I’ve always wanted to be an astronaut.”
“That’s great,” I said, “but I think you could be a good pastor.”
Zak scrunched up his face. “Can you be an astronaut and a pastor at the same time?”
“No,” I chuckled, “I think you would have to choose.”
“Is being a pastor hard work?” he asked.
“Yes, being a pastor is hard work, but it’s good work.”
“Nah,” he said. “I think I’d rather just be an astronaut.” Hah! As if astronauts don’t work hard also!
There is another little boy in our church who recently told his father that he wants to become a pastor when he grows up: little Ethan Anderson. When his dad asked him why, he answered, “Because I’m a Christian, and I love Jesus. So I want to tell other people about Jesus so they can believe in Jesus too.” [Pause]
Have you ever asked your son, grandson, or nephew to consider becoming a pastor? Have you ever given them a nudge to enter the Office of the Holy Ministry? If you haven’t, what are you waiting for? Maybe God could work through you to provide another shepherd for his sheep. In the name of the Father and of T the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[1] All Scripture references, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version.
[2] https://churchanswers.com/blog/the-disappearance-of-the-30-something-and-40-something-pastor-heres-why/