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In someways, my new book When Sheep Bite came out of my first book Shepherd Leadership. And yet, in many ways I consider When Sheep Bite to be the prequel of Shepherd Leadership.
Check out this short clip from my interview on the Leading From Alignment podcast with John Opalewski and Jim Wiegand where I try to explain what I mean.
In whatever order you choose to read these books, I have been thrilled to hear back from pastors and other church leaders who have found encouragement from both of them.
You can watch the full Leading Form Alignment interview here.
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In my book When Sheep Bite, I not only wrote about biting sheep, but I also wrote about wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing, and wolves who aren’t trying to hide themselves at all! How are shepherd leaders to deal with these folks?
That was one of the topics I addressed on the Leading From Alignment podcast with John Opalewski and Jim Wiegand.
In the chapter of my book called ‘Driving Away the Wolves,’ I wrote:
Loving shepherds are constantly among their sheep so that the sheep can know their voice and so the shepherd can know the voice of each individual sheep. This has the two-fold benefit of the sheep knowing which voice is trustworthy, and for you as the shepherd to spot the off-key voice of the “meaningless talk and deception” of those wolves who are hiding out among the sheep.
Peter shared the gospel with a group of Gentiles at Cornelius’ house, and not only did they receive Jesus as their Savior, but they were all baptized in the Holy Spirit as well.
A group of Jews approached Peter and were angry with him because of a secondhand report they heard. To their credit, they listened respectfully to Peter’s full account of what happened and ended up changing their minds after they heard the firsthand story.
But Peter began speaking and proceeded to explain to them in orderly sequence…. When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.” (Acts 11:4, 18)
There’s a wonderful lesson here for all of us to apply: Verify secondhand reports.
I unpack this more in my book When Sheep Bite in discussing gossip and slander.
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In John 10:1-18, Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd, and He refers to those who follow Him as His sheep.
Anyone who has ever seen a shepherd interact with his sheep knows that the sheep are listening for their shepherd’s voice to give them direction, but they will ignore or run away from a stranger’s voice.
This requires two-way communication. The shepherd must speak tenderly and convincingly, and the sheep must remain tuned in to their shepherd’s voice with an ear to follow.
This requires proximity. The shepherd cannot speak from a distance without raising his voice, and sheep will never be attracted to someone who yells at them.
This requires consistency. The shepherd needs to continually speak life-giving words, and the sheep need to consistently obey the shepherd’s words in order to reap the benefits.
This requires discernment. The sheep have to be able to know the difference between their shepherd’s voice and a stranger’s voice. The shepherd needs to speak “words of eternal life” (see John 6:68-69).
This requires patience. A shepherd’s directions really “get through” the first time, so the message needs to be patiently, lovingly, and creatively repeated.
This requires abiding. The shepherd needs to show himself trustworthy, and the sheep need to show themselves faithful in their abiding with their shepherd.
Jesus is the good and perfect Shepherd. There is no one else to whom I should be trusting, abiding with, listening to, and obeying.
The Good Shepherd will call some of His sheep to serve as His under-shepherds for other sheep. Those under-shepherds bring the Good Shepherd glory by shepherding just as Jesus models for them.
When shepherds and sheep remain in constant communication, there is a vitality and maturity that is readily apparent. And when the communication breaks down, the health of the sheep quickly deteriorates.
If you have been called to be an under-shepherd, please check out my books Shepherd Leadership and When Sheep Bite that will give you practical, biblical guidelines for you to thrive in this beautiful ministry.
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There are some know-it-alls who want to tell pastoral leaders how they should have done things differently. Much like the “armchair quarterbacks” that seem to know all the right calls a team should make, even though they have virtually no experience.
Pastor, pay very little attention to those armchair quarterbacks that would speak into your life!
To put the quote that Jim shared from When Sheep Bite into context, here is the full passage—
Jesus is our perfect example of a Shepherd Leader. His example was to lay it all on the line, regardless of how the sheep were behaving or misbehaving: “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (John 10:11). By contrast, Jesus warns us that those who are not willing to put their lives on the line for the sheep are worse than armchair pastors—Jesus calls them mere hired hands: “The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep” (John 10:12-13).
If I am called to be a shepherd leader, attacks will come from both sheep and wolves. It’s what I do in those hard times that shows whether I am truly called or merely acting as an armchair shepherd.
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Saul and Jonathan, beloved and delightful in life, and in their deaths they were not separated; they were swifter than eagles, they were mightier than lions. Daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with jewelry, who put gold jewelry on your apparel. How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle! Jonathan is slaughtered on your high places. I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; you have been a close friend to me. Your love for me was more wonderful than the love of women. How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war have perished! (2 Samuel 1:23-27)
It’s not surprising that David honored his friend Jonathan in song after his death. But it is surprising that Jonathan remained faithfully at his father’s side, fulfilling his duties as a son and a prince of Israel, although he did not agree with his father’s treatment of David.
In Jonathan we see the obedience to the fifth commandment: Honor your father and mother (Exodus 20:12).
And it is also surprising that David says nothing bad about Saul in this song of lament, but only praises him for his valiant victories as Israel’s king.
In David we see a true picture of forgiveness—where a forgiven transgression is a forgotten transgression, no longer held by David against his tormentor. Later in his life, David would write about the mind-blowing truth that God obliterates the record of our forgiven sins, never bringing them up again (Psalm 103:10-12)!
Is it any wonder that David and Jonathan became and remained such close friends? From the moment Jonathan first heard David speaking about his trust in God, they became “one in spirit” and forged a covenant friendship that lasted even beyond Jonathan’s life (1 Samuel 18:1-4).
May we learn from these two God-fearing, faithful friends what it really means to honor others, whether we call them friends or others might call them “enemies.”
In my book When Sheep Bite I have a chapter called “When the sheep slander you.” In that chapter, I dive deeper into the lesson leaders can learn from how David treated Saul both during his life and after his death.
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All leaders—but especially pastoral leaders—need to work on a better response when we are bitten by a sheep in our pasture. Our natural first response is usually not going to be very helpful for us or for the biting sheep.
When a painful attack suddenly confronts me, I go to the mirror. Instead of asking, “What’s wrong with them that they would bite me like this?” I go to prayer to ask, ‘“Did I do something that provoked this?’’ Sometimes I have literally gone into my bathroom, closed the door, and gotten nose-to-nose with myself to ask this question, and then listened for the Holy Spirit to speak to my heart.
My cousin Dick Brogden wrote, “Critics and skeptics are gifts to us, for in their aspersions they often bring to light a brokenness or a liability early on in its development in us. If we are secure enough to ferret out the truth through the condemnation of others, we remain healthy in the long term as our malady is exposed and dealt with before it becomes to serious.”
Remember that we are naturally self-protective, so this time of introspection will need to be supernaturally empowered by the Holy Spirit if we are going to see the true prompter of the attack. A prayer I have prayed more times than I can count is, “Search me thoroughly, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24 AMPC).
Get a copy of my book here to help you heal from the painful sheep bites, and to learn how to respond better with each new biting experience.
I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
“Dad always said you could fall off the same ladder you climbed up.” —Hank Aaron
Paleontologists have noted that what Creationists would call pre-Flood mammals lived longer than similar mammals today. “This research should be of interest to Bible-believing Christians because, as chronicled in Genesis 5, humans in the pre-Flood world were experiencing much greater lifespans. Moreover, the advanced ages of the Genesis 5 patriarchs at the births of their sons strongly suggest delayed sexual maturation and possible delayed skeletal maturation, too. The Bible gives no hint that this amazing longevity was in any way supernatural.”
“If we leave our failure, we don’t learn from our failure. If we learn from our failure, we seldom have to leave because of our failure.” —John Maxwell
Dr. Steve Nichols hosts a great podcast called 5 Minutes In Church History. In the episode this week, he talked about the church politics Jonathan Edwards had to confront when he first arrived in Stockbridge. It came to a head in a letter Edwards received: “All it did was go into, again, politics, accusing Edwards of mis-running the school, which wasn’t true, and deflecting the blame and the focus away from the Williams family. And now Edwards needs to vindicate himself. Well, all that to say, we think of these church history figures, and we see their portraits, we sometimes forget that they’re actually people, and they had to deal with challenges too.” These types of faultfinding accusations are what I address in my book When Sheep Bite.
If God would say this (Ezekiel 5:7-9) about His chosen people Israel, how much more so should other nations take notice, repent of their egregious sins, and plead with God for mercy!
Craig T. Owens 