Jump Start # 4024
John 10:4 “When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.”
Here in this wonderful picture of the good shepherd we find powerful layers of leadership that is essential to a healthy church. Built within these verses are contrasts. The sheep do not listen to the thieves and robbers because they do not recognize their voices. The hired hand views his work as only a job. He does not care about the sheep. When wolves appear, the hireling flees. He won’t risk his neck for a bunch of sheep that he doesn’t care about. What great lessons we can learn from these contrasts.
Within our verse today is a relationship between the sheep and the good shepherd. They know the voice of the shepherd. How would they recognize that voice? Obviously, they have heard it before. There has been communication between the shepherd and the sheep.
Communication is vital to all healthy relationships. This is true in a marriage, the home, the church and our relationship with the Lord. He speaks through His word. We speak through prayer. The stronger and more frequent the communication lines are the better.
Now, let’s look at this in the standpoint of a congregation. Communication is vital.
· Sometimes members will say, “We don’t know what’s going on here.” That could be a communication problem. Or, “We didn’t know that we were having a gospel meeting next week.” Makes me wonder, why didn’t you know?
Here at my home congregation, we give everyone a theme booklet at the beginning of the year. Within that booklet are all the scheduled events for the year, the adult classes and a breakdown description of the many things we do. Members also get a fridge magnet that has all the dates of meetings and events here. That way they can plan their year around those things. A month before an event, like our summer series or VBS, we blast out the dates and times in our bulletin, opening and closing slides at every service and on social media. People know. Communication is vital.
· When a guest preacher is invited to come and speak, open and great communication is vital. When does he need to be there? Where is he staying? What is expected of him? What are the arrangements for meals? What’s the powerpoint set up? Does he need to bring his own laptop?
There are so many horror stories that just about every preacher can tell that comes from a lack of communication from the inviting church. Here are just a sampling:
Days, not weeks, days before the preacher is expected to come and preach, he hears from the church for the first time. He is told that they want him to do a special series on some detailed topic which would require weeks of prep time. He just finds this out a few days in advance.
I have stood at the desk of a hotel where I was told there was a reservation for me during my stay only to find out that someone forgot to make that reservation. I have been told, after I have flown to another city to preach that I was expected to teach the teens that Sunday night, do morning classes and have a lesson for a group of preachers at a luncheon that week. I found that out after I was on the ground in that city. I have been at the airport waiting for someone to pick me up and give me a ride, only to find out after I called someone that things had changed and I needed to get a rental car. I have been to places where one of the members knew I golfed, so a tee time was made for several in the church to go golfing. The only thing is no one told me. I didn’t bring my clubs. Communication.
Communication. If a church is inviting a guest preacher, reach out to him multiple times at least with a month to go to let him know all the arrangements, details of what he is to do and what is expected. Assign a deacon with this task to take care of reaching out and keeping the preacher informed.
· Little problems can remain little when there is good communication. When a person is upset, quick care can keep that from becoming a major storm when there is communication. When the members keep things secret from the shepherds, expecting them to know all things, a distance is created between them that doesn’t have to be there. Good communication.
The sheep knew the voice of the shepherd. There is something for us to learn there.
Roger