In a leadership class I’m in, we’ve been having discussions about the pastor being the shepherd and that part of being a shepherd is protecting the sheep against wolves or even wolves in sheep’s clothing. Although I agree with that, I want to propose a question no one seems to ask or probe but one that in my opinion beckons:

“Who protects the sheep from the shepherd?”

We talk about protecting the flock (congregation) from people who may be “false teachers,” harmful or malicious people who destroy unity and hurt others, but what happens when the wolf is the pastor – the very shepherd who is suppose to protect?

Who protects the sheep from the pastor who handles conflict in explosive and unhealthy ways, or the pastor who is manipulative and controlling, or the pastor who is teaching false doctrine, or the pastor who doesn’t keep confidence, or the pastor who is having an affair? In the discussion of pastor as shepherd, the question MUST be asked: who guards the sheep against them? How does the shepherd/pastor protect the sheep and his or her ministry from himself/herself?

Here are a few practical ways I thought of doing this:
1) To avoid against slipping into preaching false doctrine and being unfaithful to scripture: I think constant education as well as having a group of colleagues who rotationally listen to each other’s sermons and provide feedback. This serves not only to guard against false doctrine but aids in professional development as well.
2) To protect the church against a controlling pastor there needs to be understanding, resources and encouragement for the pastor to keep emotionally healthy in ministry. As Pete Scazzero says…it is impossible to have a healthy ministry and spirituality if one is emotionally unhealthy.
3) To keep one’s life of moral purity (financially, sexually, emotionally, etc.), there must be a level of accountability with someone whom the pastor can be totally honest with. There are also practical fences one can build to protect one’s self from temptation and falling into the deep well of sin.
4) To remember to rest and to have times and places where you can have fun and be yourself, apart from professional expectations.

To be a good shepherd, one must begin with humility; a recognition that one is human and can fall fast and hard into sin’s grasp. If we, as pastors, are shepherds of the sheep and part of our calling is to protect the flock then we must…WE MUST…do what we can to protect them from ourselves.