1. A Dream

Late on the morning of the 27th March I had a very clear dream.  It appeared that I was on a building site in Perth, my friend Phil Greaves (a builder) was there and I was having strong discussion with the workers.  I was advocating to those present the need for an on – site mediator of conflict resolution, but was having difficulty articulating exactly what I meant.  My wife Donna, a schoolteacher, appeared from the background and said, “What you are talking about is like the pastoral care (a term widely used even in secular schools) we offer to students.”  (I sensed she and Phil had an understanding I could not fully express.) The pastoral care in question would bring the presence of Jesus into the marketplace.  (I believe Donna is a pastor in the school world but not in the church. Phil runs a business that employs many ex –criminals and the like who Jesus the Good Shepherd has gathered to him.)

2. The Interpretation

Church professionals (like me) do not know how to reach into the Monday –Friday world where people spend most of their lives.  God through Jesus wants to fill the whole creation with his Son, through the church.  “He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things….And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” (Eph 4:10; 1:22- 23).
The scattered sheep that Jesus seeks are not to be found in church buildings, but in the world.  No amount of Christian gatherings will produce unity, only our going into the world to find the hungry, thirsty, sick, naked, prisoners etc. of Matthew 25:31- 46.  A focus on large –scale events like Church Together and the annual Hillsong conference is an error of priorities.  The 5 ministries of “apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher” (Eph 4:11) are to “equip the saints for the work of ministry” (4:12), not where we are found, but where the saints are found- outside the institutional form of the church.

3. What Have we Done?

It is a scandal before God and men that about 75% of the budget of the church goes on buildings and salaries.  There will be no lasting revival in Australia until we undo the cynicism in popular culture which says the church (Salvo’s excepted) are only interested in you for your money.  Since when has it become acceptable to God for his servants to become wealthy through the preaching of the gospel -  “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Matt 8:20), “I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel”(Acts 20:33).  Instead of being alongside workers in their trade, we now have traders in the house of God.  Instead of seeking for and supporting those called to the ethical and spiritual transformation of the marketplace, we have committed the sin of the wealthy religious leaders of Jesus day, “To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” (John 2:16).
The Christian circus of conferences, books, CD’s, videos etc. is making a few very wealthy, but failing to penetrate as salt and light a society that is increasingly corrupting (Matt 5:13- 16).
From the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine, who allied the state with the church, powerful political agents (Liberal and Labor are now both into this) are happy to appear at Christian events that do not challenge the status quo.  The church sphere is given dignity and autonomy while the state/world/marketplace is given autonomy because of the distant nature of a God who is pictured as removed from everyday life.  (Paul exposes these fallacies as pagan in his Areopagus speech in Acts 17.)

4. Where is God going?

He is trying to turn the church inside out, so that inside of being self- focussed and attractional in emphasis it is genuinely focussed on the lost in the world (not, “getting them into church”).  Instead of the hub of the church being superstar charismatic personalities with their jokes and (in some cases) boasts, our heroes will become ordinary people who sacrifice for Jesus in the office, school, sports club, factory and home.

This radical change of wineskin (Mark 2:22) will means apostolic churches (Eph 2:20), assemblies of God (1 Cor 11:16), churches of Christ (Rom 16:16), Christian brethren (Acts 15:23) etc. will be found scattered all over the city in localities that have no special religious features at all.  This “church without walls”, where only the location and not ecclesiastical property/signs/mottos etc. is a marker of identity, will facilitate unity like never before.

Most dynamically and excitingly, this means the whole people of God will be mobilised for mission into an everyday environment with which they are intimately familiar.  Let me quote someone who has seen this (as I have) in action in Argentina,
“The first thing I noticed was everyone moved in the anointing for ministry. It was not resting on a few.  I don’t mean they all were doing ministry in the church, but I could clearly see that everyone was immersed in and partaking of the ministry anointing that we usually see “at the front” or “on the leaders”…But in Argentina the Christians just soaked the ministry anointing up and took it out. I saw the same thing happen in the restaurants and shops. The presence of God was there and the Christians were all ministers in the marketplace. No wonder they have revival! The Lord began giving me the scriptures showing how the gospel is the blessing of God to the ungodly. We are called to minister it in a way that breaks the curse, yet I had been a man of complaining, accusation and even cursing the ungodly. As I began to repent and bless others around me and teach the church to bless, marvelous things began to happen…I’m becoming a man of blessing.” (Terry Somerville)

5. A Resistance to be encountered

There are some folks who have been believing and praying for this sort of transformation for decades.  What has always held back true revival, so that it has never broken out in a sustained manner within existing religious forms, is that we have made the church into an idol, we have confused it with the kingdom of God (which is everywhere) and even made church growth a greater passion than Jesus.

Some emphases, such as Peter Wagner’s “New Apostolic Reformation” and leadership obsession within elements of the contemporary church apparatus, are moving in the exact opposite direction to the Holy Spirit.

This means that as “marketplace ministry movement” (3 M) spontaneously grows (Mark 4:27; Col 2:19) we should expect misunderstanding, opposition and even persecution from power figures in the church.  Why?  “For he (the marketplace man, Pilate) perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up” (Mark 15:10; Acts 5:17; 13:45).

6. A Prophetic Picture

God is calling faithful stewards (1 Cor 4:2; 2 Tim 2:2) together into kingdom – centred relationships across this city.  These believers may not be spectacular in appearance (2 Cor 5:12; 10:10), but because they have been faithful with little Jesus can trust them with much (Luke 16:10- 12).  This was brought home to me recently by a picture inspired by the Spirit; it confirmed a dawn experience in prayer in Argentina over a decade ago.

On the left hand side is a clear white beam of light, it approaches an empty cross.  There are blood stains at 5 points on the cross corresponding to where Jesus was pierced: the head beam, the position of the feet, the 2 hands and Jesus side.  If these 5 points are joined laterally and vertically a diamond shape is formed.  When the pure light passes through the diamond, a spectrum emerges on the other side of the cross.

The white light is the light of Christ (John 8:12), the 5 blood stained points represent faithful people who know the crucified life (Gal 2:19- 20), the diamond shape or prism represents relationships/connection between these people in Perth.  The spectrum that is refracted through these cross –centred relationships represents the shekinah glory of God, as in a rainbow signifying the reign of grace and the end of judgement upon our city (Gen 9:13- 16; Rev 4:3).

This word is submitted for testing and in the context of calling together the faithful for prayer.  If you are interested in starting or joining a 3 M (marketplace ministry movement) in your locality or sphere of employment, please contact Tek Chong; Richard Foster or Tim Tay

Nowadays I see smiling faces and every time I walk pass anyone, we acknowledge each other and even at times we have the opportunity to stop and chat. During one of my chats with a lady that works in the building, she told me that her friend was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Immediately, I stood with her and prayed for her friend.  She was so happy and she readily re-committed herself to the Lord. Nowadays, we often talk about spiritual matters.

Now everyone in the building seems to know me by name, and often I spend time fellowshipping with them and be their friend. I know when the opportunity arises I will be able to share the gospel with them.

As for my accounting practice, I pray everyday with my key staff for God’s direction and guidance in our daily work. Often, we will pray for our clients who are going through financial and personal problems; some even ask us to pray for their health. We take these requests seriously and commit them to prayers in our morning devotion.

One such client is a recently converted Christian from a strict Hindu background. When he came to see me, he was in such a mess in his personal and business matters and has no clear vision of what the future lies. He was divorced and his business interests were giving him sleepless nights. We prayed for him on one of our Tuesday fellowship lunch (we have a weekly fellowship every Tuesday from 12pm to 1 pm) and the Lord spoke to me and directed me to tell him to forgive his ex-wife. He was not happy as he told us his ex-wife was the culprit in the divorce and he was the victim. We shared with him that the Lord commanded us to forgive before He can forgive us. He reluctantly accepted our explanation and proceeded verbally to forgive his ex-wife. Immediately after the lunch meeting, he felt so convicted that he went to see his ex-wife and asked for her forgiveness. She was surprised of his action. Because of what he has done, the Lord honors him. Nowadays, he can have access to his daughter anytime of the day and even allows him to take his daughter for an overseas trip which was denied previously. Now he knows that the Lord is behind all this. His faith has increased and he is now reading the Bible which is the first book he has read in his life and I was in awe when he related to me many times what the Lord spoke to him through His words. Not only his personal life but his business activities have also improved.

We praise God for that.

When God wants to do something great in a city, he does it by long preparation and deep foundation.   In 1994 a diverse group met to pray for revival from 6a.m. to 6 p.m. over seven consecutive days (January 1 – 7).  Jesus then revealed the direction of his plans for this city and state,   “For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7).

On the last day of prayer, during a period of desperately difficult intercession, with only a remnant remaining in the building, the Lord focused my attention on Acts 3:19- 21.
“Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the times for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.”

I had never realised before that we are in the time of universal restoration.  As this truth entered more deeply into my heart I had a profound revelatory experience.  In it the Lord was in his ascended position in heaven (Acts 1:11), below him were discernible all the spheres of society and culture (e.g. politics, business, arts, education, media, health and so on), he was active from heaven restoring all of these spheres of life to their original created purpose, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Hab 2:14)

I have been seeking to serve this vision ever since, Marketplace Connect is the latest means I see God raising up to fulfill this great purpose of restoration.

Once recognized, this theme burst out of other scriptures, “He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.” (Eph 4:10).  The purpose of Jesus is to fill all things – offices, homes, schools, sports arenas, factories…with his glorious presence.  How does he do this?  Through the church making Christ present everywhere.

2. The Role of the Church

Paul is the great expositor of this truth.  What Jesus described as the disciping of nations (Acts 28:19), the apostle describes in a Christ- centred way.  “And he (God) put all things under his (Jesus) feet and gave him (Jesus) as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” (Eph 1:22- 23).

The primary purpose of the church is not to meet once a week and bring more and more people into our assemblies, it is to be so filled with Christ’s Spirit that through us Jesus’ life penetrates everything.  As Abraham Kuyper, theologian, Dutch Prime Minister and founder of the Free University of Amsterdam exclaimed, “There is not a square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry, ‘This is mine! This belongs to me!’”

To embrace this vision calls for a radical restructuring of our priorities on the scale of the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago.

3. Marketplace Connect

The restoration of all things in Christ is the scope of the vision of Marketplace Connect.  No Christian in this state is excluded from participation in this vision, simply because there is no space in Western Australia that does not belong to Jesus.

How will this work out in practice?  Very simply, cells of mutually supportive Christ- centred believers meet together for prayer in all the spheres of existence seeking the coming of the kingdom of God with power in their specific places of marketplace service.  Eventually, the whole of our state is saturated with a lattice of prayer, and the reign of Christ comes with power – legislation becomes godly, school disciple is upheld, crime rates drop, corruption is removed, masses turn to the Lord, churches are planted in schools, offices, homes, factories …and so on.

Biblically, the role of the network is “to equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Eph 4:12) in all the spheres of life and culture, “he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (1 Cor 15:25).  We are at your service in supplying resources, connecting you with others in your field, raising and prayer and helping in any way we can.

In JESUS

Dr. John Yates yatesone@iprimus.com.au

While it is true that not all sheep are in the fold, or indeed any fold, this is the ultimate purpose of seeking them out. The fold that the sheep need to become part of is God’s fold, and Jesus is it’s chief shepherd. The fact that he is chief shepherd suggests that there are other shepherds of less authority; that’s where you and I come in. All of those who come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ can be said to be part of God’s fold and under the care and protection of the Good Shepherd, but this fold is made up of smaller folds scattered throughout the nations all of which have shepherds or pastors to care for them. Some folds are known by church names, while others are formed in households or business places, still others may be made up of groups that share a common identity such as surfies, bikies or athletes but they all have some things in common.

A fold that belongs to God will always have Jesus at its centre. It may assemble in different places and conduct itself in different ways, but Jesus will always be the focus. There is no right or wrong way that determines how a fold should organize itself, there are certainly some Biblical principles but they stop short of giving a prescription that has to be followed. What is certain however is that all sheep need to be brought into the fold. They need the protection and guidance that comes from God appointed shepherds. Predators easily pick off a sheep that does not have the security of the fold; those that wander the wilderness alone are obvious targets.

As you minister to men and women in the marketplace, it will be your desire to bring them into the fold and it may be that there is readily available a group of like minded people that will accept the new sheep. Unfortunately however this is not always the case and you might experience difficulty in finding a ‘fold’ that is right for them. Of course like any metaphor we can push the sheep and the fold illustration too far. You and I suffer something of an identity crisis in that we are both sheep and shepherds at the same time. We identify with fellow sheep and may enjoy the company of others in the same fold as them, but at the same time we are fulfilling our role as shepherds to the sheep God has made us responsible for. We are part of a fold, and indeed we must be if we want to flourish in our Christian life, but those we shepherd may not become part of this fold, what then should we do? Should we start new little folds wherever we go or do we take the new believer into an established fold somewhere else, often uncertain about how they will be treated? This is a tough question and there is no easy answer.

It is certain however that the sheep must be in the fold and it may be that in the short term (or even longer term) that the fold they become part of is a small group with you as the shepherd leading them along the first steps of their Christian life. This group may form in your workplace, your home or amongst other like minded people in some other place but like the first believers after Pentecost you will want to enjoy fellowship, learn together from the Word of God and worship. Your role as a shepherd in the marketplace will include bringing the sheep into the fold. It is possible that you are part of a worshiping community that your new sheep will comfortably fit into and your task will be simply to make the connection, but increasingly it seems that this is not the case and there needs at least to be a place of transition for the new believer. As the shepherd of these sheep you will lead them into good pasture and keep them safe from the wolves that will try to devour them.

God does not intend that his sheep be scattered on the hillside, he wants them safe in the fold. He has appointed shepherds in the marketplace to lead and care for them and this is the ministry to which you have been called.

In the days that the gospel was written the role of the shepherd was different from what it is now. In Australia today sheep stations can often be more than a million acres in size and the shepherd carries out his duties by motorbike or even helicopter. A flock of sheep consists of thousands of animals, but in Jesus’ day a flock was small enough that the shepherd would know everyone of them and they would recognize his voice. The sheep got to know the voice of the shepherd because he spent every waking minute with them; he fed them, led them to water, protected them from harm, attended their needs and even assisted in the birth of lambs when necessary.

Jesus was able to claim that his sheep would know his voice and would follow him anywhere. He was so intimately acquainted with his flock that they could tell his voice from others that might try to steal them or lead them astray. He was so concerned for his sheep that he was prepared to lay down his life for them. These are the same examples that we should follow.

Of course this suggests a number of things, in the first place the flock that we minister to must be small enough for us to know intimately. In these days of mega churches where the emphasis is often on numbers rather than intimacy of relationships the congregational pastor is more like a modern day rancher than a shepherd. He attends the needs of the sheep by remote control and calculates what are the acceptable losses that the business of sheep farming can bear. The idea of leaving 99 to fend for themselves while going to search for one that is missing would be laughable. What a far cry from the shepherds of Jesus’ day.

You are not called to be the shepherd of every sheep, just those that the father has given to you. There is a flock that you are responsible for and it is these sheep that you must answer for. Jesus was able to say that no one would ever snatch his sheep from him because he carried the authority of his Father in heaven and he is greater than any who would try to snatch his sheep from him. While you are not responsible for the salvation of the sheep in your care, or their eternal destiny, you do carry that same authority from your heavenly Father and you are expected to care for and protect them. Do you know who your sheep are? Paul instructed the elders at Ephesus to take heed to the condition of their flocks, what’s the condition of yours?

As you show compassion to the sheep in your flock, praying for them, meeting their needs when you can and extending mercy and grace out of the treasury of God they will come to recognize your love and genuine concern for their welfare. They will begin to recognize your voice and will follow you when you lead. There is an old adage that a shepherd leads the sheep, but a butcher drives them. A butcher is not concerned for the welfare of the animals he is about to slaughter; they are just a means to an end for him. They are the stuff of business, the more he kills and processes the more profit he will make – so he drives them to the slaughterhouse. On the other hand the shepherd is concerned for his sheep’s welfare, it matters to him if they get sick or lame. He leads them gently along the way that they should travel; he feeds and nurtures them. The sheep in our care need to be led, not driven. Their welfare is important. Do you drive your sheep so that your profits increase, or do you lead them into good pasture?

Do your sheep know your voice? Do they trust you to care for them even more than you care for yourself? Will you put their welfare beyond your profit margin; will you put aside your busy program to meet their needs? If you do, then God will enlarge your flock.

The great example to shepherds, as in all things, is the lord Jesus Christ. He is the model on which to base all that we do, and this is no less so with his role as chief shepherd. Jesus combines the role of shepherd and Great High Priest in a way that we cannot because it is he who became the sacrifice that satisfied God’s demand for justice and took away the penalty of sin. It is in his role as High Priest that he mediates this sacrifice and secures salvation for all those who exercise faith in him. But we are all called to be priests and to exercise this office in a pastoral way.

A priest makes representation to God on behalf of those that he or she is responsible for. This applies especially to those who are not yet in the fold. In other words those people that have yet to come to faith in the lord Jesus Christ do not have access to the father and they need someone to pray on their behalf. The priest also speaks to the people on behalf of God. In this way the priest mediates between God and his people. The writer to the Hebrews explains that a priest was ‘taken from among men on behalf of men in things pertaining to God’. It was their responsibility to take a stand for those who did not have access to God and to act on their behalf. In your part of the marketplace there are many men, women, boys and girls who have not yet come to faith in the lord Jesus Christ, they need someone to intercede on their behalf. More than that they need someone who understands their needs and their weaknesses, someone who is just like them.

When the person who prays for someone else comes from the same circumstances and background as they do they understand and can treat them and their needs gently. The priest that is taken from among men can ‘deal gently with the ignorant and the misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness’. As a priest in your part of the marketplace you are God’s representative – it is your responsibility to speak on his behalf to those in your care. You are to extend his mercy and love to those who stand in need, offering healing and relief to the broken and sick and giving guidance and direction to the lost. But you are also the representative of the people. It is up to you to bring the needs, hurts and burdens of the people to God and ask on their behalf. You stand in the gap between God and them.

God has chosen you because you understand the needs of those in your community; you have suffered the same pain and frustration. You know what it is like to be rejected and hurt. You have experienced lack of direction, confusion and loss. You have faced similar temptations and trials and you can empathise with those around you. Because of this you can treat them gently and pray on their behalf. You will not be quick to judge because you know that except by God’s grace you would be in the same situation. God can use you because you have experienced his mercy, love and grace and now you have hope you can offer it to others. God also depends on your ability to make his word clear to those you care for and he places confidence in your ability to make his good news plain.

This is why you are in the place you are, as a shepherd of God’s sheep he has given you a priestly role. He has chosen you to act on behalf of the men, women and children in your world and to speak to them on his behalf. He has appointed you to intercede for them so that they will receive mercy and help in their time of need. You are there by Divine appointment, God knows that you are able to be a witness to his grace and is relying on you to make him known in you marketplace.

The words spoken through Ezekiel are very harsh; they make for uncomfortable reading for those who consider themselves to be shepherds. And of course this means you and me. God condemns the shepherds of Israel for the things they had not done and finished up by telling them that he had rejected them. We must remember that the things that apply to shepherds apply to all of us in our responsibility to the sheep in our care, whether this is in ‘pastoral’ ministry, the workplace or as mothers and fathers.

The shepherds are first of all condemned for feeding themselves while not looking after the flock, they had not only provided for their own basic needs but in fact had lived luxuriously while failing to care for those in their charge. For those in business this is a serious message, how dare we live in luxury while denying reasonable income to those who work for us? How can we enjoy the pleasures of life while those from whom our profits are derived struggle to make ends meet? The judgment goes further, these shepherds had failed to look after the sick, bind up the broken, bring back those that had gone astray or seek for those that were lost. In fact their severity had caused some of the sheep to go astray and become prey to those that would feed on them.

From this list of offences it becomes clear what sort of things that God expects of his shepherds. They are to look after the sick, help to alleviate emotional and practical needs, assist some to find their way and provide help to those in need. They are to do this in the context of justice and mercy. The shepherd was to care for his sheep before he looked to his own needs. A good shepherd would not go to sleep at night until he was certain that all of his sheep were safe and in the fold. And if there was danger, he may not go to sleep at all.

God looks out at our communities and marketplaces and he expects to see shepherds caring for the sheep. I suspect that too often he will see pastors who are more concerned about their personal needs, salary levels and creature comforts than the lives of the people they are responsible for. And while I do not refer only to paid ‘pastors’ I do not exclude them either. Too often pastors in congregations are more concerned about their budget, buildings and the numbers who turn up on Sunday than they are the personal and spiritual needs of the people in their charge. They work ‘business’ hours and surround themselves with the trappings of office that often make it difficult for hurting people to even get an audience. Pastors in the marketplace do likewise. They are so consumed about the bottom line that they fail to see the hurt in their employee’s faces. The size and furnishing of their offices reflects their image and position while the workers struggle for reasonable facilities to eat in. The manager’s office is air-conditioned but the factory staff swelter in unrelieved heat, dust and dirt.

God demands better from his shepherds. He has appointed them to lead his sheep into good pasture and to keep them safe. Whether those sheep are in the congregation, the community or the marketplace it makes no difference, the shepherd’s responsibility is the same. Who are the sheep that God has entrusted to you? Start with your family, then your neighbourhood, the part of the marketplace you are engaged in, either at work or as you carry out your day-to-day activities and if you pastor a local congregation, then those as well. But remember not all of the flock are in the fold, some are outside and need to be brought in, others have gone astray and need to be brought back. Wherever you are you have sheep to care for, their needs are greater than yours, God has given them to you because he trusts you to look after them – but if you don’t he will take them from you and give them to somebody else!

As the people of Israel came to the end of their wandering through the wilderness God spoke to Moses and reminded him that he would not be the one to lead them into the Promised Land. Even though Moses tried he could not change God’s mind so his concern immediately transferred to the people that he had been leading. These people had given Moses a lot of grief, they had been stubborn, disobedient, had argued and complained, had threatened to kill him and more than once rebelled against his leadership, but even now as he was facing his own death his prayer was for them.

Moses asked that God would appoint a leader for these people, someone to teach them what to do and where to go, otherwise they would be like sheep without a shepherd. This same thought was reflected in Jesus’ words in Matthew 9. Whether Jesus voiced his cares aloud or in private conversation to Matthew is not stated but we do know that he had compassion on the people because they were like sheep without a shepherd, distressed and dispirited. He was presumably thinking back to the request of Moses many years before. The people that Jesus saw were poised to enter the Promised Land but they didn’t know what to do or how to get there. The Promise for these people was not a geographic locality but eternal life in the Kingdom of God, and the entrance was through faith in Jesus Christ, but they needed a shepherd to show them the way.

Jesus said that the people were distressed and dispirited because they had no shepherd. He saw the people and he had compassion on them, they didn’t know where to go or how to get there, how would they without anyone to lead them? As you look out at your marketplace what do you see? Do you see people who are lost and lonely and do you have compassion on them? The people in your world need shepherds; they need men and women who are called by God to lead the sheep into good pasture and to protect them against wolves. As Jesus looks at these same people what does he see? Does he see sheep without shepherds or does he see faithful men and women caring for the sheep that have been entrusted to them?

Ed Silvoso writes that the conditions are right for revival in a community when every sheep has a shepherd. In other words when every man, woman and child has someone looking out for and caring for him or her. Revival actually comes when these people know who their shepherds are. Wherever you have been placed in the marketplace you have been given sheep to care for. Not all of these sheep are in the fold yet, some are still wandering the hillside waiting for someone to find them and lead them into safety. The first step is for you and I to take seriously our responsibility for the spiritual well being of the sheep in our care. We do this by praying for them and meeting their needs when we can. You don’t need to go and announce to your workmates and associates that you are their shepherd, just start bringing them and their needs to God. After a while your compassion will be obvious and so will the answers to your prayers and at the right time God will let you lead the sheep into the fold.

Sometimes your ‘sheep’ will give you grief, in the workplace you will probably have to exercise discipline and that may even result in an employees dismissal, but it is essential that just like Moses, you continue to pray for them and seek their welfare. You are their shepherd and it is your responsibility to ‘lead them out and bring them in’, pray that God will give to you, just as he gave to Joshua, the empowering of his Holy Spirit so that you can accomplish the task.

Some years ago I was in Argentina attending a conference on evangelism with delegates from around the world. As part of the conference we traveled by bus or air to various towns and cities to assist the local church in ministering to their community. It was a great time of blessing, miracles were experienced, people saved and lives changed. One morning however God lead me to read Matthew 9:38 and it wasn’t until later in the day that I realized the import of what he was saying. As a group of us traveled by bus to the city of Rosario we enjoyed fellowship and encouragement together anticipating what God was going to do, but as we approached the city the bus rounded a bend and came upon what can only be described as a slum. The contrast between the green fields, comparatively affluent travelers, the luxury coach and the slum and its inhabitants was stark.

God reminded me of the passage I had read that morning. These verses relate the activities of Jesus as he traveled through towns and villages preaching the gospel, healing the sick and teaching in the synagogues, all of the things we were doing on our conference. But the significant thing that God lead me to in this passage was that Jesus stopped what he was doing and saw the people. Depending on the version of the Bible you use, this verse may be translated slightly differently, but in any event – he saw the people. What God was saying to me at that time was ‘don’t get so caught up in your agenda, the things you are doing and even the miracles and the blessings that you fail to see the people’. At that time I was a ‘full-time pulpit minister’, by that I mean I was employed to be a pastor in a local congregation, and I confess that there were many times that I got so caught up in the next part of the church program, the next activity, conference, spiritual retreat or evangelistic endeavour that I failed to see the people. In fact sometimes the whole thing would have gone a lot better if there weren’t any people, especially those with needs. God was very clear, I had to stop and see the people; this is what it is all about.

A little while ago I was getting ready to attend a breakfast with a visiting Christian politician from Asia and once again God drew me to this passage. In the past I had been ‘full-time’ in the pulpit and worked in the secular world in order to pay the bills and fund the ministry, but now I was ‘full-time’ in the business world and pastored a church ‘part-time’ – these descriptions are all wrong – but you know what I mean! Now I saw my primary place of ministry as the marketplace I was engaged in, but God brought me back to this passage of scripture. What he told me was ‘the message I gave you in Argentina when you were a pastor, is the same for you in the marketplace – in other words stop what you are doing and see the people’. God was telling me that my primary role in ministry whether it was in the pulpit or in the marketplace is to see the people.

In business it is very easy to get caught up in making profits, increasing sales and reducing costs so that the people become a commodity or a resource. In fact the language we use reflects that – we don’t refer to our employees as people but human resources. As a minister in the marketplace our primary responsibility is to care for the people that God has given us responsibility for, of course we need to make a profit, otherwise we won’t be in business very long – but we must not get so caught up in our agenda that we fail to see the people and their needs. We can start by learning their names and finding out a little about them. We may discover their needs and probably also their strengths. Once we know them and the things that are important to them we are better able to pray for them and on their behalf and start to fulfill our pastoral responsibility in the marketplace to which we have been called. This week as you go about your day-to-day business in the marketplace remember to stop and see the people, and have compassion on them.

See the People
1.    In what way are we to ‘see the people’ in our part of the marketplace?

2.    What happens when we see the people as Jesus saw them?

3.    Why do the people need a shepherd?
Sheep Without A shepherd
1.    Who are the people in your world that need shepherds?

2.    Who are those in your flock?

3.    What can you do to shepherd the sheep you have been given?
A Shepherd’s Code of Practice
1.    What are the elements of a shepherd’s code of practice?

2.    What sort of things can distract the shepherd from the things he or she should be doing?

3.    What happens if we don’t do the things God requires of shepherds?
The Great Example
1.    What was the example Jesus gave us?

2.    Why is it important that the shepherd be drawn from the sheep?

3.    What is Jesus depending on you to do?
Sheep Know Their Shepherds
1.    How can the sheep know their shepherd’s voice?

2.    Who of us would leave 99 sheep to look for one that is missing? Why?

3.    What do you think of the statement ‘the shepherd leads the sheep, but the butcher drives them?’
The Sheep and the Fold
1.    What is the difference between the sheep and the fold?

2.    What are things that all of God’s folds have in common?

3.    How do you bring sheep into the fold?
Fleecing the Sheep
1.    How do shepherds fleece the sheep?

2.    How important are numbers?

3.    What are the new generation of shepherds that God is going to raise?