When I was a pastor, one of the most heart-wrenching statements I ever heard from people was the phrase, “I’m not being fed.” People would use the solid biblical argument from John 21 where Jesus tells Peter to feed His lambs and sheep, so I felt that the burden of responsibility rested squarely upon my shoulders. I believe that the complaint of “not being fed” is one of the primary reasons people leave churches today, and I have no doubt that such a statement repeatedly will chip away at the confidence of a pastor and leave him second-guessing his ability to lead–just as it did to me.
Several years ago, God revealed something to me that has helped me to understand and resolve this problem. I grew up on a dairy farm in Maryland where we managed a herd of over 100 milking cows, and naturally we spent a large percentage of our time preparing their food and feeding them. Now let me tell you from experience, feeding cows is quite an involved process. Throughout the growing season, we spent hours in the fields tilling the soil and planting alfalfa, wheat, barley, soybeans, and corn. Harvest time took us to the fields again to bring in these crops. Baling hay required two men working in the heat of the summer sun: one to drive the tractor, and the other to pull bales from the baler and stack them on the wagon. We would then haul the hay bales to the barn and store them, and the hard work accompanied by 100ºF+ temperatures in the haymow would leave us sweaty and exhausted. This process took place three or four times during the summer with each successive cutting.
In late June we would harvest barley and wheat, haul it in trucks, and store it in the grain bins. I vividly remember how itchy and dirty we felt after handling the barley. Soybeans were harvested and stored, later to be ground into meal. Corn, which ripened in September and October, was probably the biggest job as it all as it required many hands to harvest it. One man would cut silage in the fields while two other men would take turns hauling it to the silo where it would ferment. Ear corn was harvested later, and like wheat and barley, it was hauled on trucks or wagons and unloaded into the corn cribs. Throughout the year, we prepared grain feed on a regular basis by loading wheat, barley, and ear corn into a truck and taking it to the mill where it would ground into feed. We brought this back to the farm in bags ranging from 50-80 pounds which we moved by hand, stacking them in various barns for the calves and heifers.
Finally, after all this preparatory work, the cows had to be fed. Twice each day we would run automated equipment to unload silage into a wagon, add minerals and soybean meal, and dispense the final mixture into feed troughs. We would also throw down bales of hay from the loft and carry them to the hay racks. This process took place every morning and every evening without fail. The cows had a high level of expectation; we could never get away with not feeding them–not even once–or pandemonium would break out. I remember in the autumn when we set our clocks back, that the cows would get restless having to wait that extra hour for their dinner. Believe me, cows can have an attitude! “Where’s my dinner? Why isn’t it ready for me? The nerve!” You can almost see them now, with hoof on hip and eyes squinting in disgust.
And that, my friend, is how you feed cows. It takes a lot of time and effort, and is generally met with thankless expectation. What God taught me about this, didn’t happen in Maryland—it happened in Tasmania. During our years there, I saw flocks of sheep in the fields, and I came to realize one day that cows and sheep don’t eat the same way.
How do you feed sheep? You open the gate and point them to the pasture.
Can you see the difference? Feeding sheep is vastly different from feeding cows. Now let’s look at the Scriptures again. Jesus never said, “Feed my cows.” He said “Feed my sheep.” But the tragedy is that we, as spiritual leaders, have for centuries created a cow-feeding culture. Let me be the first to admit my guilt. I would spend endless hours studying and researching the Word of God so I could craft sermons week after week, and then, in cow-feeding fashion, put all that hard work before the people in a monologue presentation. We would throw in some eye candy in the form of visuals on the screen, or a well-rehearsed drama, hoping people would come back for more. It was hard work, and costly in terms of both money and time. I see it happening in so many places today. In fact many churches these days even display the Bible text for people to read, which seems like a great idea, but I’m observing that many people don’t even carry their Bibles to church anymore because everything is on display for them. Now don’t misunderstand me–there is indeed a place for this kind of teaching, but we must be far more attentive to teaching people how to graze–that is, to feed themselves day by day. I fear that we are teaching people how to eat much more like cows than sheep.
The problem with feeding believers “cow-style” is not just the amount of time and effort required for this kind of feeding, but the fact that it creates both dependency and satisfaction. People count on the expertise of a gifted teacher to give them the spiritual nutrition that they need, and then feel satisfied about the knowledge and insight they’ve gained. Feeding believers like sheep is more about pointing people to key Scripture passages and getting them to dig down to discover what God is saying. The shepherd (pastor) shows the sheep where to graze, but the sheep must then go and do the work. The key is to make a connection between the believer and the Holy Spirit, so that He can be their teacher.
If you have any spiritual leadership in the body of Christ, please do not neglect to obey Jesus by giving the people of God the nutrition they need. But I urge you to feed them like sheep, not like cows. Train disciples to learn from the Holy Spirit on a daily basis, and send them to train other disciples to do the same.
