The Church Needs Candid, Compassionate, and Courageous Leaders. We Need to Pray that God Would Raise Them Up.
After the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus noticed a serious problem among the crowds in Capernaum.
As he was engaged in his teaching, preaching, and healing ministry, Jesus observed that the crowds were aimless and helpless. They were, as Matthew notes, “like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).
When Jesus said this, he wasn’t criticizing the people. He was criticizing their leaders.
This is a call back to and further indictment of Israel’s religious leaders, who had long since abandoned their duties as the shepherds of God’s people (Ezekiel 34). It is also a glorious reminder that in Christ, God’s people have and will always have the good shepherd (John 10:11).
While Jesus was addressing a particular people, and a particular failed class of leaders at that time, this principle itself is timeless. God’s people will always need good shepherds to guide and lead them.
Jesus’ application to the disciples after seeing this problem wasn’t to offer “church multiplication” seminars, or “next gen leadership training,” but simply commanded them to “pray” that God would raise up and send “laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:37-38).
The problem is one of supply and demand. There were not enough godly leaders to shepherd the people righteously. The solution is to pray that God would raise up more leaders. That’s certainly not a call to inaction on our part—churches should work to train future leaders. And as they do, they should pray for certain qualities in those leaders.
What are those qualities? From this passage, we can also note a few essential characteristics for leaders, church planters, and missionaries that we should pray for. Here are three.
Three Characteristics of Godly Leaders
First, we need candid leaders.
The problem with Israel’s shepherds was that they weren’t in it for the good of the people but for their own gain. The sheep were starving while they got fat and happy (Ez. 34:2-3). They were anything but sincere in their aspiration to be leaders.
We need missionaries, church planters, pastors, and lay leaders whose sincerity and candid desire to lead the people of God trump their career aspirations. When it comes time to choose new leaders, whether in the church or the mission field, we should promote the GED over the PhD if the GED sincerely desires to serve those who will be under his care, not simply use the position to help him climb the ministerial industrial complex ladder.
In the Southern Baptist Convention, where I pastor, this is a particularly insidious issue: Leaders who aren’t in ministry for the good of the people, but for the sake of their careers. Many pastors have been taught to use “smaller churches” as stepping stones to land the coveted megachurch role. Or, across our denominational entities, men make sure to never “rock the boat” because to do so would cost them that side gig of becoming a “church planting trainer” (with plenty of swag and three-quarter zips included).
As in the church, so in the SBC: We need candid men of God who care about the flock, not just fleecing the sheep along their way to the top.
Second, we need compassionate leaders.
It is noteworthy that Jesus’ primary emotion toward the crowds was compassion. The text says, “He had compassion for them…for they were like sheep without a shepherd” (v.36). Surely, the members of this crowd had a litany of issues. They undoubtedly had bad theology and sin issues and had never heard about the “9 Marks of a Healthy Church.” But Jesus recognized their primary problem was the lack of godly leadership, and so he had compassion on them.
We need leaders now who have a heart of compassion for misled sheep. The rampant liberalism in mainline denominations means that the average Christian will now attend a church that is both LGBT-affirming and pro-choice. It should not surprise us, then, that the average Christian is increasingly LGBT-affirming and pro-choice. They are actively being misled.
This should grieve us, but we should also have great compassion and sympathy toward sheep who are being misled into the jaws of wolves. We must warn them about the wolves but seek to love them as we lead them back into faithful and theologically sound Christian discipleship.
Third, we need courageous leaders.
As Matthew notes, the sheep were “harassed and helpless” (v.36). Wolves were devouring them. They had been “scattered” and misled by the shepherds who had no desire to protect them (Ez. 34:5-6).
A shepherd carried a staff with both ends necessary for his job. The top end was that of a hook. This end was designed to grab around the neck of a wandering sheep and pull it back into the fold. So much of pastoral ministry and the work of the ministry among fellow church members is reaching out to those drifting and bringing them back into the fold.
But the shepherd’s staff had another end. The bottom was sharpened like that of a spear. This end was necessary to the other task of a shepherd: Fighting and killing wolves. A shepherd had to be prepared to put his life on the line for the sheep. Jesus noted that the difference between a shepherd and a “hired hand” was precisely this issue (John 10:12).
We need courageous leaders willing and ready to wield both ends of their staff. We need leaders who will take on the challenging issues of culture, sin, and conflicts in the church. The mission field does not require men who will run away from sleepless nights and difficult conversations.
Paul warned the Ephesian elders to be alert for “fierce wolves who will come in among you” (Acts 20:28). We need leaders in our churches and sent out from our churches who will not shy away from doing what it takes to protect the flock.
Three Ways to Pray for These Laborers
If we want to see more candid, compassionate, and courageous leaders, we must do what God told us to: Pray for them to come. Churches should make a regular habit of praying to God to raise up laborers for the harvest.
Here are three simple suggestions for praying to the Lord of the harvest.
Pray individually.
We must work prayer for the harvest into our personal devotion and prayer life. If you made a pie chart of your prayer life, which area of focus would be the biggest slice? Those things closest to you, your family, church, health, job, etc., deserve great prayer attention. But do you regularly pray for the harvest? Perhaps you pray for your evangelism, but do you also pray for laborers to be sent into the harvest?
Pray as a household.
If you are a leader in your home, you are responsible for cultivating regular attention to the harvest in your family devotion. Perhaps your family reads a Bible story and prays after dinner. Think of ways to pray for the harvest and bring this to the household members’ attention. Pray for a church plant being sent from your church or a neighboring church.
Pray for missionaries being sent out from your church. Pray for missionaries to be raised up in your church or small group. Begin cultivating a habit of praying for the harvest in your household. Perhaps so many would-be missionaries are met with pushback from their families because the harvest was never a subject of regular prayer.
Pray as a church.
If you are a pastor, elder, or church leader reading this, I encourage you to think of ways to cultivate a prayer habit for the harvest in your local church. During the Sunday morning gathering, we have a long prayer that intentionally focuses on many things. We will pray for pastors in our area, state, nation, and worldwide. We want to pray for the gospel work happening not just in our body that morning.
Likewise, we have a twice-monthly prayer meeting. We will pray for many pastors, evangelism efforts, nations, and missionaries during that meeting. We want to have a regular time as a congregation to pray for the harvest.
Conclusion
Before the Great Commission, there was the great call to prayer in Matthew 9:35-38. Just as we have a blanket call to evangelism, we have a blanket call to pray for the harvest.
Specifically, we should pray to see candid, compassionate, and courageous laborers (pastors, missionaries, and evangelists) raised up and sent out.
For indeed, the harvest is plenty.
