As a pastor of a local church I consider Paul’s instruction as an Elder as one of my chief aims;
Acts 20:28
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
The idea of pastors—and elders—as guardians of the flock of God is clearly present in the New Testament. The word Paul uses in Acts 20:28, which is typically translated “watch over” or “pay careful attention to,” can also just as faithfully be translated as “guard.” Flocks of the Lord’s sheep have been trusted to pastors and elders, and it is their duty to guard them. We hear Paul urging this on Titus in chapter 1 of that epistle; we hear the Lord Jesus defining the work of a shepherd as one who does not flee in the face of danger but stays on to guard the flock (John 10:12,13). Peter’s words to the shepherds of those churches in Asia Minor also carry the implication of guardianship over the flocks of the Lord.
To keep the worship of God pure, and according to what is pleasing to Him? To instruct the people in approaching the Lord, and to lead them faithfully in worship, according to the pattern revealed in God’s Word? To watch over one another, lest we begin to drift from what God has revealed and fall into practices of ministry and life more characteristic of the surrounding culture than the revelation of God’s Word? To guard the flock against false teaching? The ravages of the devil? The ways of temptation and sin? The practices of paganism, worldliness, and spiritual nonsense?
Sadly too many people are seduced including elders into a form of spirituality that says there is no need for the ‘Bible’ for God can be felt and experienced and that experience is placed higher than the scriptures. When we place experience above the scriptural we are in a very dangerous place, as we have no measuring guide as to what is of God. So people may have all kinds of weird experiences from shaking violently to making noises that in my opinion are demonic yet they are told it’s the Holy Spirit. There is no place for sound doctrine but an emphasis on ‘God moving’ ‘You feeling’ and this is called ‘revival’, its truly a last day deception and time for pastors and elders to guard the flock from such error and deception.
To watch over your flock is more important than casting vision, running a smooth operation, or being entertaining in the pulpit. Pastors are called to guard the flocks of God entrusted to them. No amount of anything else can substitute for this most foundational aspect of our calling.
Ministers who fail to take up a guardianship attitude toward their churches will not be able to fulfill the Lord’s call, and may well become responsible for their congregation’s drifting into unbiblical practices and ways. We must not be naïve about the importance of this matter. The work of guarding the flocks entrusted to our care, must be of first importance on the minds of today’s pastors.
