Recently I was reading Ezekiel 34 and it reminded me of an 'ah-ha' moment I had in Chile, which in effect sent us on the path we are on now, the path of fortifying theological education in Latin America.
First the text. Ezekiel 34, in its essence, is a piercing critique by God leveled at those whom God had chosen to care for His people. It is significant to note what they are condemned for--failure to feed God's sheep (34.3). As a result of these leaders' negligence, God's sheep were scattered, lost, and made vulnerable to a variety of predators that roam the desert.
All this shepherd imagery in Ezekiel 34 is, of course, a metaphor. At its core, the metaphor is meant to communicate that those who have been called by God to lead His people have the responsibility to nurture those people--to teach them, warn them, encourage them, inspire them, help them understand their place in God's world; to serve them and intercede for them; to chase after them when they stray; to heal them when they hurt, etc. Central to this calling is the leader's ability to understand and teach the Bible and all its implications. When God's leaders fail to fulfill their responsibilities, God's people suffer.
While reading this passage from Ezekiel, I was reminded of an 'ah-ha' moment I had in Chile. After about six months of ministering to college students in Chile, I began to realize that there was a profound need which, not being met, was obstructing healthy church growth. Through various experiences I would later learn that this need was not particular to Chile, but in fact was felt all over Central and South America. In a sense, the need was two-fold.
There were those who desperately wanted to be fed. Almost weekly, university students who had recently become Christians as a result of our ministry on campus would complain to us that they could find no church where they could learn about the Bible, where they could learn about what God wanted for their lives, where they could learn how to follow Jesus. At first, we didn't believe them. So we would visit their churches, all kinds of churches--mainline, pentecostal, baptist, Anglican, independent, etc. The more churches we visited the better we understood the frustration of these students: there really was no one who was feeding them.
But I soon learned that there were also pastors who desperately desired to feed their sheep. Yes, that's right, the more I investigated the matter, the more I came to understand that pastors were frustrated too! One particular Sunday I acutely felt the pain of the preacher as he struggled to deliver a message from the Bible. He wanted to speak from the Scriptures, but simply didn't know how. Afterwards, I grabbed a coffee with him and asked him if he enjoyed preaching. His frustration was evident as he lamented that he could find no resources to help him better understand the Bible. Then he shared with me that he felt that the burden of his responsibility to feed God's sheep was at times unbearable. What made things worse was that he did not know what to do. I felt his pain, and did some research to try and find resources for him. I felt his pain even more when nothing significant turned up. (This was 1993, before the Internet had a presence in Latin America.)
The 'ah-ha' moment was this: the tremendous growth of Christianity in Latin America over the past 50 years would amount to little if not met with serious endeavors to train pastors to "feed God's sheep". God's people in Latin America will suffer and be made vulnerable if shepherds are not prepared to care for God's sheep. Said in a more crass manner, What good is new birth if these babes in Christ are simply left to starve to death?
These experiences in Chile some 15 years ago now (wow, I am getting old!) have shaped our calling. Both Marietta and I have offered up our lives to God and asked Him to use us to help equip pastors to "feed their sheep".
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