A Future and a Hope - Epilogue

[TLFisher]

Originally Posted by alwayslearning

I agree. Elders should be pastors/shepherds but in the current LC system they are locally based repeaters of Witness Lee messages and announcers of LSM events. In other words they are representatives of the LSM.

Following is an excerpt (in bold) I received in an email today:

“But he that is an hireling, 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 an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.” (John 10:12, 13 KJV)
Jesus made it clear that the central difference between a true shepherd and a hireling (hired hand) was that the shepherd was willing to fight and die for the protection of the sheep, while the hired hand was not willing to risk his life for the sheep.

There are character distinctions between a shepherd and a hireling. For an elder to be a shepherd, he needs patience, integrity, accountability, impartiality, etc. Among hirelings an obvious characteristic is partiality. If one elder has a problem with you, all elders will until "you get right with the brothers." That's being partial. Also there is little or no care for the flock. What about one brother or sister who wanders astray? The general attitude is passive "if they want to come and meet, we're here." Whereas the heart of a shepherd is active as seen in Matthew 18:12-13.

“What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray." Matthew 18:12-13