Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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Because they are within the walls of Christianity, most of God's sheep are right now wandering, as it were, on the hills, having no true shepherd. From place to place they go, looking for something they can't express, but what it really is, is a home, with a shepherd to whom they really belong, who really loves and cares for them as his own. Christianity's system of hiring and firing ministers, and shuffling them around, cannot provide this love. "He that is an hireling," said Jesus, "and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling, and careth not for the sheep" (Jn. 10:12-13).
In the mid 1950's, there was a very violent strike at the cotton mill in my hometown of Henderson, NC. I can remember as a child watching Walter Cronkite reporting it on the CBS Evening News. Because many people were out of work at that time, they didn't have much to give by way of tithe and offering. I later heard that some Christian pastors had left town because contributions were so few. I do not say that those ministers left town because they were evil. I say they left town because they were hired, and the pay was not good enough. Being a pastor was what they DID; it was not what they WERE. It was their job, not their life. "Ye are in our hearts", wrote Paul to the saints at Corinth, "to die and to live with you." "The good shepherd", said Jesus, "giveth his life for the sheep." A pastor from God could never desert his flock because they could not pay him enough money. He would get a job and stay with his sheep before he would move away, looking for more money, if God has really brought the two together, pastor and saints.
The "hireling system" of Christianity knows nothing of this depth of love and commitment. You know as well as I, that a larger congregation that pays more money is what really inspires many a Christian minister to leave one congregation and go somewhere else. It happens often, and it happens because in Christianity ministers are hired to take care of a flock. The sheep are not really his from God.
I have seen the evil of the hireling system. I have seen young saints forsaken by the man who led them to Christ because he heard the "call" to a more attractive or higher paying ministerial position. I have hurt for those young saints. They knew in their hearts that something was wrong with this. How could their shepherd simply leave them? Something in their hearts told them it was wrong, but what could they do? Adding to the confusion is that sometimes these same young believers are appointed to a committee responsible for choosing their next pastor! Talk about utter confusion! How can young, confused, and hurting, lambs be expected to plumb the depths of spiritual mysteries and chose a man who is able to lead them in righteousness? In other words, the sheep are called upon to discern who is more discerning than they are. And, as I said before, if a congregation is wise enough to be able to select its own pastor, it doesn't need one.
Because the hireling system is so ingrained into the Christian system, and because God's people are so entangled with Christianity, God's people can hardly believe that any other way will work. This is not a new problem. Old Testament Israel also considered God's way of government unreliable. They preferred a system like that of other nations who did not know God; they wanted a human king (1Sam. 8). They demanded something dependable, constant, and organized, as if God was not dependable, constant, and organized! The prophet Samuel begged them to desist from their demand for a king, and when they would not, he wept and prayed to the Lord. The Lord wondered why Samuel was grieved. "They have not rejected thee", the Lord told Samuel, "but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." Samuel's position as God's prophet was secure; it was God who was being fired. God's children have done the same thing today. They have fired God and adopted the ways of Christianity instead.
Israel rejected God by rejecting His way of raising up leaders for His people, and His children have rejected God today by doing the same. Preposterous, do you say? I say take a look around you. Look at the hundreds, even thousands, of Christian sects that God's people have joined, large and small, which call themselves after the name of Christ, who died to make us one, and then tell me that God's way has not been forsaken. Tell me God's heart is not broken. Take a good, long look at the mass confusion that God's children are a part of, and then tell me that God planned this confusion, that Jesus suffered and died so that we could be the divided, hurting people that we are.
We've grown accustomed to the plague. In the main, confusion reigns in the spirits of God's sheep. They don't know where to go. They don't even know (they're not told) that such a reality as having a pastor for life, given by God, exists. And, despite their hunger, it is virtually impossible for them to believe that such a thing could even exist. There are sheep wandering from one dry place to another in this part of the world, sheep that Jesus used me to bring to him. I have known for years that I am their pastor, but they do not know it. In time, I pray, they will realize it, but until they do, I suffer with them through their wandering from one "high place" to another. And all the while, green pastures await them at home, the same green pastures which Israel, in her desire to be like those without the truth, forsook.
George Clark wasn't elected to his post. He was appointed to it by God. And the Lord sent him sheep, for whom he was responsible to God until death. Even as he lay dying, his flock would come to him for strength, and because he was a pastor, even in death he did not disappoint them. Because he was given to us by God, God continued to honor Himself by enabling His servant to minister to us until the end. And now, the mantle has fallen upon me. I know my sheep, and I know that someday I will give account to the One to whom they really belong. I pray that I may do so with joy, not with grief, but time alone will tell.
On the night of our Passover prayer meeting (see the TFT for 4-20), brother Glen Bartow remarked, "How few people in all the history of the body of Christ, as we know it, have really experienced what we have had, in really having a pastor from God. And now, we are experiencing something even more rare, perhaps, than that: the transfer of authority over the flock from one man of God to another." Yes, Glen, ours has truly been a sacred experience, a mystery of faith and love. I ask you, our fellow servants and friends, to pray for us, and for all saints, that we might know Him, and grow in all goodness, being full of the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ the Lord.