We have a description of foolish and worthless shepherds. They desert the flock. They don’t care about those being destroyed. They don’t seek the young. They don’t heal the maimed. They don’t nourish the healthy.

Who are the shepherds? They are in charge of the flock. The flock is God’s people. In our experience, the flock is the church. The shepherd you would call is the pastor or maybe the elders. They are responsible for the flock, their congregation.

What would all those allegations mean? Deserting the flock, leaving. Both pastor and congregant shouldn’t be leaving because of offense, because there is something you don’t like. Family is always family. You don’t get to decide to leave.

They don’t seek the young. Are the children taught the gospel? In my times substituting in our Sunday school, I realized that all the kids were very well versed in knowing that Jesus died on the cross. But that seemed to be all they knew of the gospel. I had one kid once repeatedly say, “God died,” just in the middle of the lesson. I eventually answered back, “That doesn’t sound like very good news. Who knows what the good news is?”

They don’t heal the maimed. Does your church offer freedom to the maimed? Or are they left in their state? Is there freedom from addiction? Is there freedom from sin? Is there healing?

They don’t nourish the healthy. Do they feed the flock? When churches get focused on bringing in new people instead of caring for their flock, the message can get watered down to speak to the lowest denominator, and the flock can starve for lack of the Word being taught, or at least for a lack of meat, a lack of teaching for the mature to grow them strong.

If your church is failing in all these areas, don’t leave! The Body needs all its body parts. Don’t maim the Body. Stay and pray and ask God to shepherd His flock.