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Rounding Up The Flock

Russ Matthews, Australia

After being in Australia for seven months, we have seen the opportunities for church planting here. Jesus refers to sheep throughout his ministry in reference to the church, and we have worked to apply this “shepherding” analogy to our ministry. The other day I received a call from my wife Cathy that brought the illustration to life.

Cathy had been talking with our daughter Becca when Becca began to stare out the window. An odd sight was outside our house—a small herd of ten sheep coming down the street. Because we live in a suburban neighborhood on the edge of the city, this is not a normal experience. The sheep were causing problems with traffic and walking all over the neighborhood lawns. At one point, they were hanging out in our neighbor’s carport.

Feeling adventurous, our son Josh wanted to help out. He rounded up the sheep, first on his scooter and then on his bicycle. With Cathy’s help, he got them corralled in our small backyard.

Cathy called around to all of the local animal authorities, and no one knew what to do with a small herd of sheep. After a bit of investigation, Cathy was able to contact the rangers here in New South Wales and explained the story. Without hesitation, the lady on the phone replied, “We can have someone out in about an hour to pick up the sheep. He is currently out on the interstate highway picking up some cows.”

As they waited, the kids watched the sheep and Cathy took numerous pictures. Our youngest daughter Caroline kept going up to the window and hitting the glass. The sheep would scatter and she would go to the next window, hit it, and they would run away again. She had great fun, which made us think we should get our own flock of sheep. The excitement around the house was electric.

About an hour later, the ranger showed up to pick up the herd. He backed up the truck to the edge of the yard and began to wrestle each sheep, tackling them and literally throwing them into the back of the truck while the kids watched in amazement. The ranger encouraged Josh to come out and “have a go” at wrestling the sheep, but Josh decided to leave it to the expert.

The ranger then came upon the last sheep and cornered it.  The terrified animal jumped into the air, leaping at the man. Incredibly, the ranger caught the frightened animal in midair, and wrestled him onto the truck, and bid the family a “G’day.” Just another day in the suburbs of Sydney.

This is one of those experiences that is rich with references to life in ministry. Many times, I have heard church attendees praying for more people to come to the church. What we forget sometimes is that to get the “sheep” to come in, we have to do the work of rounding them up.

The sheep on our street that day didn’t know that the safest place for them was our backyard. Joshua had to work hard to round them up and direct them down the correct path. He had to be careful to keep them from scattering, while being gentle but firm with his direction. Sometimes He had to use different means to get the flock to go the right direction. (A bike and scooter were his tools of choice.) He did have help, but it took initiative to go to the flock.

Sheep recognize their shepherd’s voice. As we spend time with Christ, the ultimate Shepherd, people will recognize and trust His voice through us. We need to be praying for more people to come to our churches, but then we need to put the action behind those prayers and direct the “sheep” to the safest place they can be—in God’s hands.