The planet we live on is populated with billions of people, each having their own unique DNA, experiences, culture, and beliefs. But the entirety of the human population can essentially be boiled down to a few types of people. In his book On Combat, Dave Grossman, Army Ranger and Psychology Professor at West Point, wrote that that 80% of the world’s population are sheep. Just everyday people going about their business. People that don’t like to focus on the bad or the evil in this world. People that want to quietly enjoy their life. Sheep are often good hearted, well natured, and generally decent people. Being a sheep isn’t a bad thing, and doesn’t have to be a negative. To be honest, if the world was filled with only sheep, it would be a fairly pleasant place. Unfortunately, sheep aren’t alone in this world, and there are predators on the prowl.
Grossman also talked about those types of people when he classified about 10% as Wolves. Wolves are what they sound like: Predators. Wolves eat the sheep. They prey on sheep. They find and exploit vulnerabilities - physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and circumstantial. They aren’t worried about the destruction or collateral damage caused to others. Wolves are scammers, con artists, exploiters, liars, abusers, bullies, and manipulators.
Thankfully, there is another 10% of the population that are Sheepdogs. Protectors of the flock. One sheepdog can protect an entire flock by itself. They exist to make sure that sheep can be sheep without becoming the victim of wolves.
I love that Grossman uses sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs as his analogy, because Jesus used the analogy of sheep and wolves, with himself as our shepherd. It’s not hard to blend the two analogies together. Christians that fight for the sheep as sheepdogs, do so at the leading and command of the Great Shepherd. We resist Satan and fight against evil. We use our voices to warn the sheep and preach the Gospel.
Before Summer and I were married, when I was still in the process of meeting her family, one of her teenage cousins was surprised to find out that Summer was dating a pastor. She had two questions:
#1. Can you guys get married? (her catholic roots kicking in)
#2. So... what do you do for fun... read books?
We still laugh about it to this day. No I’m not a priest, so Summer and I have been happily married for almost 9 years now. And yes, although I do have plenty of nonreading hobbies, I actually do read books for fun.
A book I read a few years ago challenged me on many levels and opened my eyes to the critical nature of being a sheepdog in this world. I read the Biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Bonhoeffer was born in Germany on February 4th, 1906, and grew up to become a pastor, renown theologian, and spy against the Third Reich. He was also one of the lone audacious voices openly critical to the atrocities of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany during World War II. It didn’t happen overnight, but Dietrich Bonhoeffer spent the most significant years of his adult life as a sheepdog, fighting the wolves to protect the sheep. Bonhoeffer wasn’t willing to run from the greatest atrocity in world history. He penned these words to a friend:
"I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people...Christians in Germany will have to face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose but I cannot make that choice from security."
“Heroes aren’t born, they’re made” - R.K. Davenport
At the very least, overcoming fear and operating from a place of courage is something that has to be developed. Parents need to teach the sheepdog mindset from the time their kids are young. But how do you teach someone to be a sheepdog? They have to see it modeled, and have to hear it preached. It’s fairly common now to hear about the importance of modeling desired behaviors for kids. It may be unfamiliar, however, to think about parents as preachers, but the role of the parent as preacher is invaluable.
Bill Hull, Director of the Bonhoeffer Project said, “The Jesus we preach and the gospel we hold determine the disciple we get.”
If a child is going to defend someone being made fun of, ridiculed, or being bullied, they first need to see their parents taking a stand to protect the powerless in their life. But they also need to hear that Jesus befriended the friendless, spoke words of hope to the hopeless, and described God as one whom invites the outcasts of society into the honored party. They have to hear the heart of God if they are going to live out the heart of God.
“The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’” Matthew 25:40.
God has ordained parents as the primary spiritual guides of their children. Teach your kids to stand for the Gospel. The Gospel changes everything. It turns the victim into the victorious. God transforms His enemies into His evangelists. But the Gospel has to be heard. Romans 10:13-14 says, “‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”
So tell your children the stories of the Gospel. The Gospel that saved Zacchaeus, the woman at the well, the cast out leper, the woman caught in the act of adultery, the blind beggar, the paralytic, and the demon possessed man living in the catacombs. Tell your kids of Jesus’s promises of eternal life, hope, blessing, and forgiveness. Tell them of God’s mercy and grace.
Raise your children to be sheepdogs, led by the Great Shepherd. Embrace your role of Parent as Preacher.
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