Run With It: Shepherds of God's Flock

Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Shepherds of God's Flock

1 Peter 5:1-4 BSB (Berean Standard Bible)

“1As a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings, and a partaker of the glory to be revealed, I appeal to the elders among you: 2Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not out of greed, but out of eagerness; 3not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.”

Modern Day “Churches”

We live in a day and time when so many “pastors” of “churches” are behaving more like cult leaders, or as though they are the heads of Christ’s church, in place of Christ being the head. Some (or many) of them will choose a select number of the faithful to themselves to serve as a “gestapo,” of sorts, in order to spy on the people and to report any who they believe are the “opposition,” who are not totally in sync with the political and worldly and unbiblical and ungodly methods of how to conduct “Christ’s church.”

Some of this they are learning in their training seminars on how to “grow their churches.” My husband and I were church planters for a while, and we attended some of those training seminars. And in one of them we were told that we were to use “needy people” to get the church up and running, but once we were up and running we were to get rid of the “needy people,” because they would drag us down. And this was being taught to pastors and church workers, to take advantage of needy people, but then to dump them.

Over all of my adult years (I am now 76) I have witnessed all kinds of crooked stuff being pulled off by pastors and elders of “churches,” which were of the flesh of man and not of God, and which were contrary to the teachings of the Scriptures. And in our present time so many of them are being trained in marketing schemes and in what they need to do in order to draw in large crowds of people from the world into their gatherings. And so many have turned “the church” into centers for entertainment and fun.

This is not a representation of all gatherings of the church but of many or most which are of this modern era which are catering to the ungodly and to the people of the world in order to grow their numbers. So many of them have been turned into businesses and are being marketed to the world, and so they are also diluting the gospel and the whole meaning of church in order to attract the world to their gatherings. And God says we are to come out of and to be separate from such gatherings as these worldly gatherings.

[Matthew 21:12-13; John 2:13-17; Acts 5:27-32; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Philippians 3:18-19; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22; Revelation 13:5-8; Revelation 18:1-5]

An Appeal to Pastors and Elders

Instead of acting as dictators and cult leaders and heads of businesses being marketed to the world where the pastor is being raised up to God-like status not to be questioned or tested to see if what he is doing and is teaching is of God and in agreement with the Scriptures, pastors and elders are to be shepherd’s of God’s flock, watching over them, caring about them, and ministering to their needs, teaching them the truth of the Scriptures and of the gospel, how we are all supposed to live as followers of Jesus Christ.

And they are those who are to be setting the example to the flock in how we ought to live as followers of Christ, in the things that they teach and speak and do and live. They should be teaching the body of Christ, the church, the people who profess faith in Jesus Christ, that we must all deny self, die to sin, and obey God, in practice. They should also be helping the people of God to discover their spiritual gifts and ministries, and then to make room for them to use their gifts in their ministry areas, for the rest of the church.

For one man is not to be running the whole thing. One small group of select people are not to be the ones doing all the ministering while the rest sit as spectators, and not as participants in the sense of them being able to share their spiritual gifts and ministries with the rest of the church. For all of us are ministers, if we are of faith in Jesus Christ. Pastors and elders are not to lord it over their people, but they are to serve as examples for the rest of us to follow, according to the teachings of the Scriptures, and not of the flesh.

And the people who do the preaching should be being tested to make certain that what they are teaching is of God, in agreement with the Scriptures taught in their correct biblical context. So many pastors and preachers today are diluting the gospel message and they are teaching lies to the people and they are distorting the Scriptures in order to appeal to human flesh, and few or none, it seems, are being tested to make certain that what they are teaching is of God, and in agreement with the Scriptures. This should not be.

Testing the spirits: [Matthew 7:15-23; Matthew 24:11-14; John 10:1-15; Romans 16:17-19; 2 Corinthians 11:3,13-15; Ephesians 4:11-16; Philippians 3:2; 2 Peter 2:1-22; 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22; 1 Timothy 1:3-7; 1 Timothy 6:3-10; 2 Timothy 3:1-9; 1 John 4:1-6; Jude 1:1-25]

Shepherds of God’s Flock

An Original Work / July 15, 2026

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Jesus Christ as our Shepherd

Gentle Shepherd

By Gloria Gaither / William J. Gaither

Gentle Shepherd come and lead us

For we need you to help us find our way

Gentle Shepherd come and feed us

For we need your strength from day to day

There's no other we can turn to

Who can help us face another day