Allow me to expand on this promise for a moment.

1. God promises to give you shepherds. The first observation I have is this: shepherds must be rather important from God’s view of things, or else He wouldn’t have wasted His time promising them to us. Therefore, it is very important that you find a man to be your shepherd. God says so! Having a shepherd is critical to God’s eternal redemptive plan for your life, so you need to make it your top priority to find one. Some may say that this passage is teaching about Jesus being our shepherd. While that is certianly true, I dont think that’s what this passage is saying. The noun, “shepherds” is in the plural. While Jesus is our great Shepherd, this passage is clearly indicating that there will be multiple shepherds. I’m tempted to use this passage to argue for a plurality of elders in the church, but to be fair to the text I think I would be pushing it a little too far if I did that. I safely conclude, however, that God is talking about modern day pastors and elders -not Christ, and He promises that you need them, and that He will give them to you. What about those who have taken the time to look for one, but have come up empty handed? Good question. There are many, even now, who may be wandering around looking for a place to be cared for, looked after, and nourished –where they know they will be loved and taken care of. This may have been going on for years, and they just might be on the brink of despair. Don’t despair! God promises that He will give you a shepherd. Do you need to stress over whether or not such a man exists? No, because God has spoken and promised that He will provide such a shepherd for you. The man exists; you merely have to trust God and search for him. God says that He will give him to you. The man exists, and he is a gift from God. There’s nothing you need to do but love and trust in God. You don’t need to do the Christian equivalent of a rain dance to make the sky pour down rain, or a pastor-chant for a pastor to pop up out of nowhere. All you need to do is love God, trust God, and wait on God. Maybe you have already searched for a man to call Pastor and have not found him yet. Maybe you have been through all the churches in Kamloops, and still you have not found him. Be patient. God will keep His promise. He will give you a Shepherd.

2. God promises to give you a Shepherd. God has promised to give you a shepherd. Do you want a place to be loved and cared for? Do you want the gift of having a man in your life who will look after you? Do you want someone around that will offer counsel and guidance, a stirring and encouraging word in times of distress, a friend that will love you and take care of you no matter what mess you might inadvertently get yourself into? Do you really want that? Most people will say “Yes, I’d love to have a friend like that.” But, truthfully, they really don’t. A friend like that will love you in such a way that he will not be able to bear it when he sees that you are making decisions which have as their inevitable outcome the sure destruction of your life and the harm of many of those around you. A true friend will speak. He must speak if he loves you. Like a shepherd, he will use a rod and a staff (Psalm 23:4). What’s a rod for? It’s for whacking the sheep when they need some motivation. What’s the staff for? The staff usually has a crook on it so that the shepherd can loop it around the neck of the sheep from a distance and tug him in the right direction. The Psalmist says that the rod and staff are comforting to him. Here’s a modern day translation: “The whackings and neck-jerks that you give me are a comfort to me. Thank you for whacking me and jerking me by the neck on occasion.”  I find it incredibly odd that so many should pine away longingly for a shepherd convinced that God hasn’t provided one for them when clearly He promises that He will. Could it be possible that you’ve said “no” to God’s shepherd due to your hard and rebellious heart? Could it be that you’ve said “no” to God’s shepherd in your life because you refused to listen to the warnings and admonition that he gave you? Could it be possible that you’ve said “no” to God’s promised shepherd because you didn’t want to be shepherded?  God promises to give you a shepherd. If you really want to have a shepherd in your life, and you want to see God keep His promise of giving you a shepherd, then perhaps you should get busy being a submitted sheep. Perhaps you need to work on your humility a little bit, and try a little harder to being open to the gentle corrections and appropriate admonitions from a Godly shepherd.

3. God wants you to have a shepherd after His own Heart. This is where the Word of God begins to cut both ways. It’s easy from a pastor’s perspective to exhort people to find a place of worship and get involved in a local church, and it would be too easy for me to recommend that they come to the Bridge. Before any such recommendation can be made two pivotal questions must be asked: What does it mean to be a shepherd after God’s own heart?Are the pastors here at Bridge Church shepherds after God’s own heart?  I think I’ll save the previous questions for another post for another day. I think that the encouraging word that we can draw from this portion of the text is that God promises to give godly shepherds who are men after God’s own heart. I know that God has demonstrated Himself faithful in this regard. All throughout history the shadows of deception have threatened to plunge humanity into a dark age where there would be no understanding of God, yet God has always preserved a spokesman to speak to His people on His behalf. ALWAYS! So we can trust that if He did it once in the past, He will do it again in the future. He has, and He will! From my own personal experience, I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve seen the leadership from one church stray from God’s heart and suddenly another is lifted up to a position to speak truth to God’s people. God always begins a slow and tedious process (slow and tedious to us because it usually takes four or five years at a minimum, but five years is nothing from God’s perspective of eternity) of removing the offending shepherd and raising up a new shepherd in his place.  So if you find yourself in a church where it is apparent that the leadership has strayed from God’s heart, then take courage in the promise of God to provide a shepherd after His own heart and start searching for a man who follows God’s heart. He’s out there! And if you haven’t found him yet, then be patient because God will keep His promise. **For me, this is a special moment of introspection. Am I a man after God’s own heart? I hope and pray that this is the case. As Paul says, “I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted.” (1 Corinthians 4:4) Likewise, I am not aware of anything against myself. But what should I do if the day comes that I fall before the Lord in failure? What should I do if, after preaching to others, I myself become disqualified? (1 Corinthians 9:27) I have watched so many pastors, deceived by the allure of sin, insist in the middle of significant moral failure that they still deserve to shepherd God’s people. They have clearly fallen from the Heart of God, and they now insist on continuing in a position of leadership. These men only further compound the problem. The church is always harmed, and the advance of the gospel is always slowed down in such situations. Here’s what I’ve decided to do if I am ever caught in moral failure and it is necessary that I must resign my position (I pray that I will follow through with this plan if that day, God forbid, should ever come.): I will use what standing I have left to guide the church towards the shepherd that God has promised to raise up, the shepherd that is a man after God’s own heart. If I sense that God has departed from me and has chosen to raise up a new leader, I want to get on board with God’s plan. I don’t want to be consumed with murderous rage like King Saul. I hope that I will have the heart to trust in the promise of God which is to give a shepherd after His own heart. I pray that I will have the heart to believe this promise and to obey this promise by guiding others towards the shepherd that God lifts up. It is this desire that actually prompted me to put my morning devotion into writing via this blog post, because I would like others to be able to use this blog posting as a tool of reasoning with me should the day, God forbid, ever come that I need to step down. If I fall from being a good pastor, a shepherd after God’s own heart, then may I have grace enough to guide others towards the promised shepherd who will replace me. When you, the members of Bridge Church, pray for me, please pray that I will always strive to be a man after God’s heart, and pray that I will always have the grace to step aside, should the day come, but still use my God-given intellect and knowledge of scripture to guide us toward the promised Shepherd. This is what I want you to pray for me for.

4. Who will feed you knowledge and understanding. This is where the Word makes things easy for both of us. What should you look for in a pastor? What should I try to do as a pastor? There are a lot of different items involved with the job description of a shepherd, but first and foremost is this: a shepherd after God’s own heart should always strive to preach the Word!!! A godly shepherd’s first order of business is to always be ready to proclaim the truth of God’s Word! This passage of text reveals to us that a sheep who loves God and wants to be a sheep after God’s own heart is going to be a sheep that searches diligently for a shepherd who preaches the word and seeks to give knowledge and understanding of the text. A good sheep is hungry for God’s Word. A good shepherd will find a way to deliver a tasty morsel of Word for the sheep to eat. Both the sheep and the shepherd are intricately bound to God at this point because as the one is, after God’s own heart, striving to feed knowledge and understanding of God through His Word, so the other should be striving to consume and digest knowledge and understanding of God. What a wonderful way to arrive at an understanding of godly shepherds and godly sheep: both the shepherd and the sheep, if they share a passion for God and can be described as individuals with a heart after God’s own heart, will be consumed with a love for the text of Scripture, for knowledge of the text, and for understanding of the text. Wow!  This passage makes me want to study scripture even more, and helps me pray that the members of the Bridge would have an ever increasing and insatiable appetite for knowledge and understanding of God!

 I want to close with an exhortation. For those of you who have not found a church home, I’m not exactly recommending us, but I know our church will love and care for you. For those of you who are searching for a pastor after God’s own heart, I’m not saying that I am that man, but I do strive to be that man every day. But here’s my real exhortation: you must be hungry for God’s word. You must have a soul craving for it! If you lack a soul craving for knowledge and understanding of God, then you need to get busy cultivating a healthy appetite, and you need to be in the hunt searching for a shepherd who can feed you. So get hungry, and then get busy looking for a good shepherd.

As a pastor, I too am a man under authority. There are several different layers of accountability in my life. First, there are my fellow elders. Most importantly, they hold me accountable to living a godly life that is worthy of emulation. Nothing is more important than a man’s walk with God. They also hold me accountable for achieving the goals of the Lord in preaching and teaching on a weekly basis.

Secondly, there is my church. The church congregation, though comprised of many members, holds me accountable as a single entity. The church congregation is the body of Christ, and is charged with the responsibility of seeing Christ’s interests advanced on this earth. They hold me accountable to helping the church achieve those interests in our community and within the church.

Lastly, I am also accountable as a missionary to my mission board, my home sending church in Texas, and hundreds of financial supporters back in the States that support me. You see, I am not only a pastor. I am also a missionary. I was commissioned by Cedar Heights Baptist Church, a church in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, to come to Kamloops with the express purpose of preaching the Gospel here in the interior of BC, starting churches in the cities of this region, and advancing the Kingdom of Christ by making disciples. Cedar Heights Baptist Church commissioned me as a missionary. This means that I am sent with their blessing, their approval, their recommendation, and their financial assistance. I am required to give an account on a monthly basis of what is happening, and what is being done with the money that they send to support me. There is no contractual agreement between me and my supporters. In the event that they don’t like what they read one month in one of my newsletters – they can pull the plug on my funding.

I also function under the oversight of the North American Mission Board, the church planting and evangelizing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. I am an official missionary with an official sending church, working under the guidance of an official Missions Agency. With the approval of a local church, the funding of hundreds of individual brothers and sisters in Christ, and the guidance and oversight of an official Mission Board –I too am a man under authority.

Wouldn’t it just be easier to go rogue and do it alone? It depends on what you mean by the expression, ‘easier?’ There is something fundamentally flawed in our hearts and minds today when we think that something is ‘easier’ when it involves less people and less headache. Have you ever stopped to consider that the involvement of multiple layers of people with multiple layers of accountability is a God given safety net? Have you ever considered that dealing with these individuals on a regular basis helps a man work out patience and long-suffering as his God continues to work in him and through his circumstances for his sanctification? Have you ever considered that God is more concerned with your personal holiness than He is with it being ‘easier?’

At the end of the day if you find yourself a little free from accountability to others then you need to ask yourself a question: how will I grow and conform more and more into the image of Christ without accountability? You see, Jesus was a man under authority. If you, dear brother, are striving to be a man after God’s own heart, a man forged into the image of Christ – then how will you do this without deliberately holding yourself accountable to a higher authority than yourself?

Shepherding a Child’s Heart, by Tedd Tripp

Scripture teaches us that the heart is the “wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23, ) further explaining that:

“The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).

For this reason, it is absolutely essential for parents to focus on their children’s “heart”, not simply aiming for external goals of good behavior.

And this is exactly what Tedd Tripp seeks to teach parents to do in “Shepherding a Child’s Heart.”  Here’s what he has to say concerning the issue:

“Your child’s needs are far more profound than his abberrant behavior.  Remember, his behavior does not just spring forth uncaused.  His behavior–the things he says and does–reflects his heart.  If you are to really to help him, you must be concerned with the attitudes of heart that drive his behavior” (Shepherding, pg. 4)

“Shephering a Child’s Heart” is divided into two parts: Foundations for Biblical Childrearing and Shepherding Through the Stages of Childhood, each with Biblical priniciples and practical applications.  In particular, the second part of the book provides characterics of children at each stage an specific Biblical goals in parenting that age group.  This will be a challenging and beneficial text for parents of children of any age as you learn Biblical perspectives on parenting.  Click here for an Amazon link to the book.  I also have a couple copies of this book that’d I’d be happy to lend out!

Life Groups are an important part of life in Bridge Church as we value authentic relationships and time together in God’s Word. In Life Group, we continue to discuss the passage from Sunday morning, unpacking it as a group and seeking to apply it in our lives.  Each Life Group is an open group with people from a variety of stages and walks of life who strive together to build genuine community. Here’s the details about our three current Life Groups:

Tuesdays at 7 PM, the Ganton Life Group meets in the home of Clay & Carolyn Ganton close to downtown Kamloops. Discussion is led by Clay.

Tuesdays at 7 PM, the Vandean Life Group also meets.  This is held at the home of Tyson & Charlene Vandean in Logan Lake and discussion is led by Joshua.

Thursdays at 6:30 PM, the Betker Life Group meets in Aberdeen at Cheryl Betker’s home and discussion is led by Michael. In the Betker Life Group, Melissa & Kyla also lead a Children’s Life Group.

We invite you to participate in a Life Group this week! You’ll discover the timeless truths of Scripture and develop eternal relationships.  Feel free to call the office for more information or directions to any Life Group!

Family Driven Faith: Doing What it Takes to Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk With God by Voddie Baucham Jr.

Pastor Voddie Baucham examines the alarming statistics of the number of students who are raised in the church, yet abandon the faith by the end of their first year of University.  What can the church and the family do to reverse this trend?  In his challenging book, Pastor Baucham points readers to the timeless child-raising passage of Deuteronomy 6.  However, unique to this book and others which discuss this Biblical text on parenting, Pastor Baucham begins where the passage begins: love–answering the question of “what is Biblical love?” This correct understanding of love serves as the foundation for the Scriptural principles of child-raising that Pastor Baucham expounds upon in the remaining of the book.

Here’s what others say about this book:

“Voddie Baucham has written an insightful and convicting book challenging parents to prioritize the spiritual development of children. Only read this book if the salvation and sanctification of your children is of the utmost importance to you.”      -Tony Evans, pastor, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, Dallas

“I’ve never encountered a book on family life that compressed so much Biblical teaching, proactive thinking, sound theology, and practical help in one volume.”    -Don Whitney, Proffessor of Spiritual Fomation, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Click here to buy your own copy of Family Driven Faith. Bridge Family, I also own a copy that I’m currently lending out, and down the road I would be happy to pass it along to any of you who would like to borrow it as well!

Hebrews 13:17 says that Elders will have to give an account for the members of their church. This is the most frightening passage that I’ve read about what it means to pastor God’s church. How can I stand before God and give an account of my pastoral ministry if no one has made a commitment to me to adhere to certain Biblical principles? How can I shepherd people who secretly refuse to be shepherded? I am asked, as a pastor, to make a huge commitment to people that will result in my greater judgment (James 3:1), but they are not asked to make any commitment to me, and they are not asked to make any commitment to the Bible. This is a farce and a lose-lose situation.

I’m basically screwing myself in this deal. I am voluntarily taking upon myself greater judgment and greater responsibility, and I’m not going to ask for anything in return? Hebrews 13:17 says that members of a church congregation should “Obey and submit to church leaders.” How does the church realistically ask people to submit to the leadership? How does the church ask people to obey? This is a two-way relationship after all. As pastors we have a good understanding of our coming judgment (at least I hope so). But church members need to be informed of their responsibility in the two-way relationship as well. They also need that understanding. As a result,  I personally need a signed membership covenant from the members of my congregation so that I can sleep a little easier at night knowing that we have a reciprocal relationship with each other and knowing that they know it too. I can’t even begin to explain to you the number of hours that I’ve stayed awake over various membership situations. I sometimes feel that in some way I have failed various members as their pastor. I take the burden of it all on myself.

My own mind, lured and enticed by the idolatry of being a people-pleaser and wanting everyone to like me, works very hard sometimes to believe the various lies, to take blame on myself, and to try and create a compromise situation where everyone can get their own way. In this situation -that I create in my own mind- I can be well-liked again, and everyone can live happily ever after -the only exception being God who is usually greatly dishonored in such compromise situations. But then I drive to work. I pull open my file drawer and I take out the membership covenant, and the bright shining light of truth floods the darkness, and I know that to compromise on the bedrock truth of Scripture would be a disservice to the church by allowing the cancer of sin to remain, and a disservice to churches all over the world. I’ve learned that a signed membership covenant protects the church from me in my weaknesses, and it protects me from my own self.

A properly crafted member’s covenant will rest all of its authority on Scripture. The corollary to this rule is that an improperly crafted membership covenant will not rest all of its authority on scripture. Too often certian requirements and expectations are placed on members that lack specific scriptiural warrant. This is legalism. A good membership covenant will not be a document that advocates legalism, but will advocate a Christian ethic based on the Gospel and rooted firmly in scripture. Every point will quote the Bible. Every obligation will call upon God to witness its veracity.

The Members come to learn that they stand to give an account NOT to the Elders, but to God Himself. They learn that their membership isn’t tied to human wisdom or human popularity, but to God Almighty, who is no “respecter of persons.” In effect, a properly crafted Membership Covenant is calling upon people to make a commitment to the Bible, a commitment to God, and not a commitment to any pastor as a nice guy, smart Elder. It focuses everyone’s attention upward. It empowers the membership to take actions by clearly defining what is right and what is wrong. Members can step into an organic, non-leadership directed, self-starting, self-initiating activity of shepherding each other according to the Membership Covenant, and they can do this without fear of reprisal as long as there are clearly articulated guidelines for how to talk and interact with each other as there should be in a Membership Covenant.

God’s desire is to empower every believer to stand as a priest and proclaimer of the Gospel, and a Membership Covenant can empower the members of the congregation to start caring for each other and shepherding each other as long as they have a framework of clearly articulated guidelines within which they can find freedom to operate. A person may see another member living in sin, and since he knows that the other member has signed the Membership Covenant, he knows that he has permission to gently speak into that member’s life without necessarily consulting the Elders. If the other member takes offense, both parties may refer to their signed Covenant (and Scripture) to hopefully settle the dispute. Both parties can place trust in the fact that each party is agreed to certain principles and they can operate without fear of reprisal because they know the other party has had things clearly explained to them, and they have agreed by signature to those principles.

A properly crafted Membership Covenant immediately focus everyone on God, and empowers everyone to speak to each other with the wisdom of Scripture. This leads to a very organic, self-shepherding church family.

Without a signed membership covenant it would be hard for any church to do two things: 1.) hold individual members to any standard of accountability, and 2.) hold the church congregation to a standard of accountability in seeking to be reconciled with any wayward members.

In the Western Church, average church goer Joe and Sally live in blatant and unrepentant sin. They believe, erroneously, that they can do whatever they want with a subtle disregard for the interests of the church and the interests of Jesus Christ. They often make decisions that lead to subtle forms of idolatry – the most blatant and obvious being the inherent belief that they can leave the church whenever there is any disagreement and seek out a church that cators to their personal whims. Joe and Sally leave the church, abandon their family in Christ, and selfishly pursue whatever tickles their fancy. They should be held accountable for their decisions. A signed membership covenant PROVES that there was a clear understanding between various parties at the beginning of the relationship BEFORE there was any conflict. A church that utilizes a signed membership covenant can honestly say that Joe and Sally fully knew what they were doing when they joined the church. A signed membership covenant becomes a piece of evidence in a court of law when members violate the other members of the church and selfishly pursue their own interests. It helps to establish a baseline and the church can hold people accountable to that baseline because the church can prove that they explained that baseline of behavior to Joe and Sally before they joined the church. 

It also helps to hold the church to a standard of accountability. Many in the church may not know Joe or Sally or do not have a  relationship with them. As a result, many members in the church may be reluctant to pursue reconciliation with Joe and Sally. In the beginning, there was a tempting desire to allow Joe and Sally to go in peace without confrontation over their subtle idolatry. But every member will know that this is not an option that will carry water with the leadership. Why? Because they also signed a covenant that clearly articulated certain responsibilities that were incumbent upon them in moments of crises. The church KNOWS that they have a responsibility to Joe and Sally, to reach out to them and to love and care for them during this moment of crises. And so the church steps out in obedience and can call Joe and Sally back to church attendance and begin to appeal to Joe and Sally via the membership covenant to resolve their differences amicably. The church leadership is effectively able to hold the church to a standard of accountability to engage Joe and Sally in an act of reconciliation and redemption when few really want to. And this is very helpful. Because it further compounds Joe and Sally’s guilt for so flippantly disregarding their church. They have had a loving family reach out to them and appeal to them to repent and come back to the church. Any insistance upon departure is, in cold-hearted fashion, a rejection of the loving appeals of their fellow brothers and sisters. This makes church discipline really really easy at this point.

A signed covenant is a piece of evidence that can show to a watching world that there was a clear-cut understanding among various parties involved. As evidence, it cannot be denied! Therefore, it is useful in holding people to a standard of accountability.

Mark your calendars today!  The Kamloops Kid’s Club will be July 19-23.  This year, our annual VBS-style kid’s day camp will be expanding to an all-day event as children step back into the ancient city of Rome for music, games, activities, crafts,  and Bible teaching from the Apostle Paul himself as he’s under house-arrest, chained to a Roman guard.

More information coming soon!  For now, if you’re interested in potentially helping with Kid’s Club or having your child join us for this memorable adventure, send me an email (kylagleason@aol.com) or comment below.

The Thursday night Oatway Life Group will see a change this week as it becomes the Betker Life Group, meeting in the home of Cheryl Betker at 655 Laurier Dr (in Aberdeen).  It’ll be the same time, 6:30 pm, with the same leaders and children’s life group.  Phone Cheryl or the church office for more information or directions!

The Logan Lake Life Group & kids’ life group still meet 6:00 every Tuesday evening at the Vandean home and the Ganton Life Group at 7:00 every Tuesday evening at Clay’s house

Hope to see you at Life Group this week!