You will often hear pastors talking about how they own the sheep. They claim their church members belong to them. Is such a claim Biblical? Are pastors the owners of the sheep in their care?

"The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly;" (1Per 5:1,2).

“So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock—his church, purchased with his own blood—over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders." (Acts 20:28).

"Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly;" (1Pet 5:2).

It is clear in Scripture that the pastors do not own any sheep. The sheep belongs to God and God alone. In the body of Christ the leaders do not own the people. In fact, it is the other way around. It is the people who own the leaders.

"So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you whether Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God." (1Cor 3:21-23)

Paul, Apollos and Peter are all spiritual leaders. Yet Scripture tells us that they do not own the people, rather the people owned them. The people own the ministers, the people are the inheritance of Christ — Christ owns them — and God owns Christ. Can you see the structure? Today in the body of Christ we have turned the structure the wrong way. We feel God own Christ, Christ own the pastors, and the pastors own the people. This is unbiblical, it is not how the early Christians practice this faith, and it is not how Jesus taught us to practice Christianity.

"Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up." (Eph 4:11-12).

The ministers are slaves given to serve the people. Jesus gave these ministers as gifts to his people. Jesus love his bride so much that he gave her slaves to serve are, dress her up and prepare her for the wedding party.

"Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honor to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself." (Rev 19:7).

The bride has prepared herself. Jesus is not the one that will prepare her, she will have to prepare herself for the wedding. But how would she prepare herself? This is where Jesus comes in to help by giving her slaves who will dress her up. This was how it was during the first century. Slave was is how you know how wealthy one is. A king who is very wealthy will not only have many slaves, but he would have the best slaves. He would have the best cook, the best cup bearer, the best maid, the best launder, and so on.

If this king is about to marry and he wants to show how much he loves his bride and wants her to look absolutely glorious on the wedding day, he would give her the best of his slaves to prepare her and make her glorious for the wedding. Yes, he would give her the best hair stylist in his court, the best dress maker, the best makeup artist, and all of his bests slaves that are skilled in preparing a bride for wedding. This is exactly what Jesus did for the Church. These ministers are our hair stylist, dress maker, makeup artist, and all the slaves we need to prepare ourselves for the wedding.

They are our slaves because they belong to our bridegroom. He gave them to us in order that they might serve us. If they are not doing their work properly we can report them to our bridegroom to deal with them and send us a more qualified and diligent slave. Yes, they must be very careful otherwise we would report them to our bridegroom and they will be in big trouble. Note that anything done carnally has no power in heaven. If you are acting in the flesh and not as the bride, then the bridegroom has no business responding to you. He is committed only to his bride and not the flesh.

The flesh is condemned to the cross and the bridegroom has no business with it. The bridegroom doesn't even want to see the flesh, much less listen to anything it has to say. So as long as we are being the bride and acting as the bride, we have the right to rebuke and report slaves (ministers) that are not doing their work well. They are meant to serve us, they belong to us. This is how it is in the Kingdom, and it is time we start living out this reality.

"Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock." (1Pet 5:3).

The people not the ministers are the special ones. They are God's heritage and treasure. As such, the ministers are to treat them the way they would treat a king's bride, giving them special care and serve them humbly. Ministry is meant for spiritually mature people, and if you are truly spiritual mature you will realize how special these sheep are to God. They are so precious to the Father that he would do anything for them. Ministers are to look at the people through the eyes of the Father and see them as very precious people that are to be cared for.

"If anyone causes one of these little ones--those who believe in me--to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea." (Mark 9:42).
"We are weak, but you are so powerful! You are honored, but we are ridiculed." (1Cor 4:10).

Can't you see, the people are the special ones. They are the ones that gets the special treatment. The Lord guards them very jealously. They are the ones that are honoured, not the minister, and that was how it was in the first century. That was how Jesus taught Peter and John to practice Christianity. The little ones must be given special care, and they must be honoured. Paul came on the scene and did the same thing, for he was trained by the Spirit into a mature minister. A minister that treat the people like trash is carnal and babyish. A minister that treat the people like they are his property is not fit to be a minister for he is spiritually immature.

One of the marks of immaturity is being too possessive. It is just immature to go about claiming these people are your sheep and that you own them like some kind of property. Grow up, and stop being such a baby. You have been given a responsibility to care for the sheep and prepare the bride. Do it with all humility and let the people feel that they are the special ones and the father loves them very much. It is immaturity to be so focused on trying to make the people feel you are special. You are still full of yourself, still a baby. We need mature ministers in the body of Christ.

[b]Note: [/b]I am not trying to divide the body into clergy and laity. My point is that the moment you are playing the role of a minister, it means you are being a servant — a slave. The word "minister" means servant. Each time you play the role of a minister you are coming out of the body to serve as a slave to the bride. The bridesmaids do not own the bride, they can never own the bride no matter how much value they add to the bride. It is the bridegroom that owns the bride. In the medieval time the bridesmaids are slaves and servants, serving under the bride. The bride owns them, they belong to her, for they are her servants. This was what Paul was trying to say when he said to the Corinthians, "everything belongs to you whether Paul or Apollos or Peter" (1Cor 3:21-22).

Yes, even apostles do not own the people, rather the people own them. They are all slaves and servants to the bride. To understand more about authority, service and submission, check out this post:
[url]https://www.hiswordxray.com/2018/10/authority-service-and-submission.html [/url]

In Christianity, a true spiritual leader is a servant leader

Can human being own fellow humans by association?

Hiswordxray:
You will often hear pastors talking about how they own the sheep. They claim their church members belong to them. Is such a claim Biblical? Are pastors the owners of the sheep in their care?

There is no Pastor that claim ownership of members. Just as youe earthly father can't claim he owns you. When we say " he's my member or my sheep " or he's my pastor and my shepherd. It is not about ownership. Its the fact that we are members of one another .

Ephesians 4:25
. . .for we are members of one another.

petra1:


There is no Pastor that claim ownership of members. Just as youe earthly father can't claim he owns you. When we say " he's my member or my sheep " or he's my pastor and my shepherd. It is not about ownership. Its the fact that we are members of one another .

Ephesians 4:25
. . .for we are members of one another.

If that is the way most pastors see it then there will be no need for this post. But it isn't so. There is an issue that needs to be addressed — something that is even gaining more power due to our choice of words.

When you keep saying things like, "my sheep... my sheep", even if you mean it in a none possessive way, you are already passing an idea to other ministers that they own the sheep under them. The carnal nature is originally possessive. Hereby, promoting the use of a possessive tone, will end up bringing out that possessiveness in ministers.

Yes, if you continue to say, "my sheep... my sheep", you are tempting and provoking that possessiveness in your carnal nature. And in just a matter of time this possessiveness will grow and start finding other expression in you. The servant of God must remain empty and poor in spirit, like Job that after he lost everything he got up and said, "well, there were never mine in the first place. I was only a steward". We are to be stewards of whatever God put in our care.

It will be dangerous to give the devil a chance to cause you to become possessive. No one in the Bible ever said, "my sheep" or "my flocks". If we say we are following the Bible then why insist on going down that path?

"Shepherd the flock of God which is among you," (1Per 5:2). These are the kind of language the apostles used. And if we are truly following their examples then we would be saying things like, "the sheep of God who attend the church I pastor", or, "these are the Lord's sheep that I pastor".

Why did we have to change our language, if not because at some point in the history of the Church the clergy became possessive, laying claim of members and exerting control over them? This same spirit of possessiveness and control have been passed down to us through the simple use of the term, "my sheep". We must return back to that state of emptiness and poverty that a slave — a true servant of God — is supposed to possess.