Church corrals no place for cowboys

By Melissa Lilley

BSC Communications

C.B. Scott spoke about the role of pastors as shepherds during the Small Church Conference at Lewisville Baptist Church.

Photo by Melissa Lilley

Baptist State Convention

LEWISVILLE - Jesus called himself the good shepherd in John 10 and not a cowboy.

"Shepherds are not cowboys," said C.B. Scott, pastor of Westmont Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. "Pastors are not cowboys; it's not head 'em up and move 'em out."

Scott spoke to pastors about being shepherds during the Small Church Conference at Lewisville Baptist Church. All pastors should want to build relationships with members of their congregation, or flock, but in a small church the opportunity to be a good shepherd is even greater.

"A shepherd must know the Good Shepherd," Scott said. "There are those that pose as shepherds that do not know the Good Shepherd."

If pastors do not know the Good Shepherd it is impossible for them to model the ways Jesus shepherds his flock, said Scott, who used texts such as Gal. 1:15 and Rom. 1:1 to remind pastors that God is at work in a church when He has "called and placed the man to be the shepherd of that flock."

Pastors will shepherd flocks that follow their voice only when they leave the office and get into the community. "People only trust you when they begin to know you," Scott said.

Sometimes pastors are not patient enough to build relationships and want people to follow without giving them reason. In other words, Scott said church leaders can get "a little haughty." But to shepherd is to know people and to let them see that even pastors need to be broken and humbled before the Lord.

"To shepherd does not come from an educational institution; it comes from knowing Jesus. And having a pathos in your soul for people who need to know Jesus," Scott said.

If small church pastors are shepherds who love the sheep they will feed and protect them. To feed the sheep means to preach and "the only diet for the flock of God is the word of God," he said.

Scott challenged pastors never to go into a small church pastorate with eyes on the horizon, looking for the next church.

Pastors must plant themselves wherever God puts them and make sure God is the only one who leads them from that place.

No matter the church size, God's presence will be known when pastors shepherd flocks that hunger to be like the New Testament church. "God is at work in the small church as He is in any church that has truly decided to seek to model itself after the pattern presented in the word of God," he said.