Acts 20:28
“Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”
Quoting the above verse Richard Baxter wrote:
“If the people of our charge must “teach and admonish and exhort each other daily,” no doubt teachers may do it to one another without any super–eminency of power or degree.”
One of the great challenges of being a pastor/elder is how little we receive challenging encouragement and exhortation from the flock and from one another. Personally, I would rather receive teaching, admonishment and exhortation from those within my flock than from those without. This is ideal for a genuine New Testament body of believers.
But, this rarely happens because:
- The body is not encouraged and free to exercise their gifts appropriately
- The sheep just don’t understand the importance of and the need to encourage and exhort their pastor/elders…they forget or don’t realize the New Testament command to “honor” their elders
What Can We Learn From This?
- Based upon Acts 20:28—There should be a plurality of elders within and overseeing every local body of believers. This may not happen when a church is new and/or immature…but it should be obtaining to that condition. No lone pastor/elder!
- Those elders should come together frequently to encourage one another. Frequently as in, outside the Sunday gathering and at least once per week. Not only do we as individual pastor/elders need to guard ourselves…we need to guard one another as well. What we do for the flock, we need to do for ourselves as well.
- Pastors/Elders should seek out encouragement from other pastors/elders outside of their local body…but never at the expense/detriment of their local body that they are responsible for.
- The flock that we oversee should be encouraged, exhorted and admonished to do the same for those that labor for and among them.
Hebrews 3:13
But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.