Scapegoats or Shepherds

I'm working on Sunday's sermon. Week after week I stand in front of the congregation I serve, and share with my thoughts on the Gospel message. Some weeks, it seems pretty clear what the Gospel means for our lives. Other weeks, it is harder to figure out exactly what God is saying to us.

This is been one of those harder weeks.

You know the news. Last night, at the midnight screening of The Dark Night Rises, a gunman opened fire. 12 were killed, dozens were injured.

I’ll be honest with you: I’m not sure what to say about all this. There is no magic word that will make it all better. There is nothing that I can say that will cause this all to make sense – nothing that will make it seem less tragic and awful.

There are questions we could ask today.
How did no one catch this sooner?
Who failed this troubled man?
How does violence in our entertainment create violence in our society?
Are our gun laws too lax or too strict?
We like to look for scapegoats … someone to blame … someone or something to point our finger at. But as much as we ask those questions, they will not give us the comfort we are looking for. They will keep us busy for a while, but they cannot comfort us.

Following the resurrection, Jesus appeared to the Apostle Peter; Peter who had denied Christ and had run away on Good Friday. Peter, who had seen the hopelessness of that tragic and awful day.

And Jesus asked Peter a question.
He asked, “Do you love me?”
“Peter, having seen what you have seen – the hopelessness of Good Friday, and the light of the resurrection, do you love me?”
“Yes Lord, you know that I do” came the reply.
“Then tend my sheep.”
Tend my sheep. Care for them, provide for them. Look after one another, love one another. Whatever else may come, whatever else may happen, remember that: Tend my sheep.

Jesus wasn’t looking for a scapegoat – he surely had that in Peter if he wanted it. So many questions that Jesus could have asked: "Did you run … did you deny me … were you afraid … did you give up hope?" But he didn't.  Instead, Jesus was looking for a shepherd. If comfort is to be found … if Jesus’ flock is to be cared for … then shepherds are needed.

What about you?
Having seen what you have seen –
The pain of Good Friday.
The tragedy of this last night.
The glory of Easter morning – Do you, having seen what you have seen, love him?

Then tend the sheep.

Be the one who provides care and comfort … Be the one who shows the love of Christ to the world … Start close to home … caring for and loving your family both at home and in your community.
Then branch out … reach out to those in need … those who are hurting … those who are lost … 

In dark times such as these, we don’t need more blame, we don’t need scapegoats, we need shepherds. 


There – in the act of tending the sheep, caring for one another – will we find the comfort and the hope that we so desperately need right now. 


Dear friends … Do you love Jesus? Then tend his sheep.




Adapted from a sermon that I preached at St John - Prairie Hill on April 22, 2007, following the tragic shooting on the campus of Virginia Tech. 


Image is from http://www.churchart.com, used with permission. 


Aurora Shooting, Dark Night Rises, Gunman, Colorado, Prayers, Sermon, Movie Theater Shooting

Get Rid of Your Crappy Pastor!

(This post has attracted a lot of attention since first published. Thank you. Please check out my follow up post as well.)

I simply cannot count the number of complaints that I get to hear about other pastors. I've responded to such complaints many ways over the years. The simply smile and nod, without actually agreeing -- or conversely, the serious head shake. I've advised the individuals to go and talk to their pastor about their complaint. I've even tried to convince the complainer that their pastor really is pretty good.

But enough of that. I know what most of these complainers want ... They want to get rid of their crappy pastor. The sooner the better. And so, without further ado, six steps to get rid of your crappy pastor and get a better pastor in your congregation.

1) Pray for your crappy pastor. I know, you really don't want to pray for your pastor right now, but give it a try. Pray for your pastor's preaching, for your pastor's life, even for the pastor's family. Prayer was one of those things that Jesus was kind of big on, so go ahead and give it a try.

2) Make sure your crappy pastor takes a day off. Really, you don't want your pastor doing all those things that annoy you any more than absolutely necessary. Make sure everyone knows when the pastor's day off is, and that doesn't call on that day. If there is a congregational event, or an emergency, or a wedding, or a funeral on the normal day off, let it be known that your pastor will be taking another day off to make up the time off.

3) Insist that your crappy pastor take every week of vacation in the contract. Many pastors leave unclaimed vacation days every year. Let's face it - you don't really want your pastor around anyway, so encourage him or her to take all of the allowed vacation. And make it easy decision for your crappy pastor to leave town! Line up volunteers to take care of all the work around the congregation so the pastor doesn't have to work extra hard before leaving and when coming home. Offer up your vacation home, or a gift card for a plane ticket out of town. Make sure everyone comes to worship, so the pastor doesn't feel guilty about leaving for a Sunday.

4) Continuing Education Events. Speaking of getting your crappy pastor out of town, by contract your pastor probably has continuing education time. Make sure that your pastor is attending lots of events with exciting speakers, great preachers, and innovative thinkers (you know, just so your pastor can see the ways in which he or she doesn't measure up). While you're at it, go ahead and increase the continuing education budget - make sure there is no barrier to your pastor getting away from your congregation and to these events.

5) Take over the tasks with which your pastor struggles. We all know that pastors should be good at everything in the parish - from administration to preaching, from visitation with the elderly to youth events. Chances are, your crappy pastor has some places where there are struggles. Hire an administrative assistant. Get the parents and other volunteers to coordinate and host the youth events. Get a group of volunteers together to visit with homebound members. There are all sorts of ways to make sure that your crappy pastor doesn't mess up these tasks that he or she is already struggling with.

6) Encourage your pastor to spend more time in prayer and reading. Now that you have freed up your pastor from all those tasks that were the worst trouble points, there is all sorts of extra time. You don't want him or her to jump right back into those tasks and mess them up, do you? Encourage them to go and read, or spend time with other local pastors, or spend more time intentionally in prayer.

There you go! It's foolproof!

If you do these six simple things, I guarantee you will get rid of your crappy pastor. Get your congregational leaders on board with this plan. Recruit the key people in the congregation to help you with it.

Pray for your pastor, make sure your crappy pastor takes all of the allotted vacation and days off, send your pastor to amazing continuing education events, recruit volunteers (or hire other staff) to fill in your pastor's weaknesses, and make sure your pastor is spending time praying, reading, and dreaming.

Yup, that's it. Do those things, and I guarantee you will stop complaining about your crappy pastor. You will hear better sermons. People will feel more ministered to. Exciting ideas will start to come from your council meetings.

And all these things without having to go through the search process and hire a new pastor!

Take these six steps, and watch your crappy pastor become the sort of pastor you have always wanted.