The Shepherd and the Flock (Leading a House Church): Leading God's people, #10

By Zacharias Tanee Fomum

This book is a ROADMAP for Pastors and House Church Leaders!

The training of church leaders has been one of Z.T. Fomum's main areas of contribution to church growth. Leading a House Church was born out of the burden and need for competent pastors for the growing number of House Churches in the city of Yaounde. The lessons in the book are practical applications of the theory and doctrine developed in The Ministers and the Ministry of the New Covenant—The Challenge of Missions—also written by the author.

According to the author, a pastor is a person who bears the flock on his heart. He focuses on the character and personality of the one called to take the flock in their arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to bring them to the Promised Land of God.

As a veteran on the subject, Z.T. Fomum presents a heart-to-heart exposé on the disciplines of the pastoral ministry, including a broad spectrum of both the practical aspects and the dynamics of leading a house church before God.

If you desire to be a pastor, this book will help you on the journey of seeking and receiving the pastor's heart.

We send these messages out with a heart cry that they contribute to produce the type of leaders that are needed for the Lord's flock on the eve of His imminent return.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Books4revival
• Release date: Dec 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781507007136

Zacharias Tanee Fomum

For FREE books from Zacharias Tanee Fomum: https://books.bookfunnel.com/ztf-free-ebooks. Professor Zacharias Tanee FOMUM was a man of uncommon spirituality, a leading voice for revival, a workaholic, a prophet-teacher, and a world-shaping spiritual genius. He was a bestselling Christian author (with over 350 books, over 10 million copies in circulation in over 100 languages) and a professor of Organic Chemistry (with over 160 published scientific works of high distinction (earning him the award of a Doctor of Science degree from the University of Durham, Great Britain). His books and the millions of people he influenced in more than 40 years of Christian ministry continue to impact the world with the Gospel today. He founded Christian Missionary Fellowship International (CMFI), a missionary movement that has planted churches in more than 120 nations on all continents. He believed in a life of simplicity and with the support and dedication of his wife and their seven children, his all—time, money, heart, and soul— was dedicated to spreading the Gospel. He carried out exploits for God through the making of disciples for Christ, planting of churches, building spiritual leaders according to the model of the Bible, and serving the body of Christ, especially as a teacher on prayer. Learn more and read exclusive excerpts at: https://ztfomum.org

Book preview

1

THE PASTORAL MINISTRY

We have been planning this course for four years now. It is different from all the other leadership courses. It is not a leadership course of the Work. It is a leadership course of the church in Yaounde. It is not a course on general principles.

The course is for the church in Yaounde and those in Yaounde who should be hearing are listening. Nobody who is not here can get into the spirit of it. We believe with all our hearts that there will be 250 house churches in Yaounde. We are gathered here to ensure that by 31 December 1996 there would be 250 house churches in this city. If you are not committed to that goal, you had better leave because you are in the wrong place. It is a course for very narrow-minded people who have only one goal—the 250 house churches. They dream about it at night and work at it in the day. The question before us is:

What must we do to ensure that these 250 house churches come into existence?

The course is for people who are fully committed to ensuring that at any price, those 250 house churches would become a reality. That is all we are here for. The goal is not to prepare super-spiritual men who float in the air. The goal is:

To have 250 house churches in the city of Yaounde by December 31st.

So, in the course of

teaching,

praying,

reflection, and

application,

that goal must be borne in mind unchangingly.

A prerequisite reading for the course, if you are thinking about the theory, is our book: The Ministers And The Ministry of The New Covenant. We are going to presume that people know what is in this book and that they want to go into the application of it.

Christian Publishing House has had to work night and day to ensure that the book is available. Buying a copy will be a good investment of your money. The book could also be entitled: The Challenge of Missions. Everybody else who has a slight dream of going to the mission field should read it. It is the missionary's handbook. It is the leader's handbook.

We are looking for 250 pastors. If we have 250 pastors, the goal will be accomplished. So, in a sense, we are asking:

How can we have 250 pastors?

How can we have 250 real pastors?

WHO IS A PASTOR?

A pastor is a person who bears the flock on his heart. If you tell him, Leave your flock and go to Obala, he will feel as if a knife has been driven through his heart. If you tell him to leave his flock and go to Obala for two million francs, he will rather forgo or burn the two million francs and stay with the flock than accept this tempting offer.

He is radically committed to the flock. The pastor is the man who says: Woe to me, if I don't take care of the flock. In 1982, we defined spiritual leadership as a life sacrificed on the altar for the flock.

Spiritual Leadership is a life sacrificed on the altar for the flock. So, for the pastor, even the most fabulous gains cannot take him away from the flock. He will consider everything that takes him away from the flock as a trick of the devil. The pastor considers everything that will take him away from the flock as a trick of the devil, and that no sacrifice is ever too great to make for the flock. His eyes are fixed on the flock. Night and day he asks: What will happen when I am not there?

If I go away, what will the wolf do? It requires radical personal sacrifices for there to be the pastoral ministry. A pastor's life is a life sacrificed on the altar for the flock. The pastor thinks only about the flock. He cannot be seduced to look at other gains! We say it again and again in the Lord's name: The pastor will not consider any gain too great to be sacrificed for the flock. He is a narrow-minded man, bound only to the flock. At night he trembles, wondering, What is happening to the flock? At night he stands up to pray for the flock, for fear that the flock might be attacked. He wakes up at night to build a hedge around the flock. Sometimes he is so disturbed that he goes out at midnight to visit the sheep because, as he prayed for the flock, there was worry in his heart. A pastor goes out regularly to check on the flock.

The shepherd is oriented towards the flock.

He has only one goal: the flock.

He has only one joy: the flock.

He has only one success: the flock.

We want 250 people like that in this city by the end of this year.

For the shepherd, the sacrifice of personal gain at any level is a daily way of life. Personal holidays are sacrificed for the flock. The shepherd cannot go to the village to see his parents. He will ask, What will happen to the flock? The call to be a shepherd separated him from all these things. If he is working in a place where people are sent on mission, he will pray against being sent on mission, even though missions carry heavy financial benefits. He will shatter all kinds of missions proposed to him because he cannot go away from the flock. The pastoral ministry is something from inside. If the shepherd is sick, he will stay where his flock can come and see him on his sick bed, because on his sick bed he will continue to minister to the flock. He knows that just the simple fact that the flock sees him means that the flock will be ministered to. He has sacrificed all the other interests on the altar for the flock. There is a fear written by the Holy Spirit on his heart: What will happen to the flock when you are not there?

It is only such people who are called by God to shepherding. We repeat, everything is sacrificed on the altar for the flock.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep (John 10:11‒15).

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away (John 10:11b‒12a).

He may run away to go and make money.

He may run away to go and take care of his family.

He may run away to go and obtain his diplomas.

He may run away for very many reasons, but he has run away. And that running away confirms the fact that he is not a shepherd. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the flock and runs away; then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. I want to ask you:

Was an assembly opened in your house? Did it grow and multiply or did the sheep reduce in number until the last ones were transferred to join another assembly? That is evidence of the heart of a hireling. And we have seen this same thing happen over and over. I want to say it to the elders this day that they will be responsible for the blood of the sheep, if they give them to hirelings. There have to be commitments from the people that they would lay down their lives for the flock, that they would lay down everything for the flock. It takes a sick man to appoint a hireling a shepherd. What will happen to the flock?

The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep (John 10:13).

He does not ask: How will this trip affect the flock? or How will this absence of mine affect the flock? The shepherd has abandoned and placed all gains on the altar for the flock.

Again it is written:

... I lay down my life for the sheep (John 10:15).

I lay down My life for the flock.

WHO IS A SHEPHERD?

A shepherd is a man or a woman who lays down his or her life for the sheep. When he began to shepherd, he began to give his life for the flock. As he grew as a shepherd, he gave his life more and more for the flock until ultimately there was nothing left, because all had been given for the flock. To illustrate what we are talking about, our daughter, Ruth Angum, will be getting married soon. Two nights ago, Emmanuel Bayiha and I were in Bamenda. My younger brother, who is the pastor of the church in Bamenda, said to me, Ah! I'm coming to Yaounde for the wedding. I replied, First go and resign from being a pastor and then come for the wedding, for you cannot be an itinerant pastor. He did not come for the wedding! People who run away from the flock to attend weddings are not shepherds. What will happen to the flock while they are attending weddings in another city? The shepherd is possessed by one thing: My flock!!!

There must be harsh renunciations in order that there may be shepherds. There must be very harsh renunciations for there to be pastoral careers. We say it again: There must be very harsh renunciations, bleeding renunciations, in order that there may be pastoral careers. If this is understood, 50% of the problem will already be solved.

There must be lives bleedingly laid on the altar for the flock by people who will be considered to be unbalanced in their commitment to the flock because they only see the flock!!! Everything they do is for the flock. Everyone they talk to is for the benefit of the flock. They judge everyone by one standard: Will he help me to take care of the flock? Those who are for the flock are friends, those who are against the flock are enemies. Something may even be wonderful and beneficial, but as long as it does not advance the flock, it is considered as rubbish. The shepherd says: I lay down my life for the sheep! I lay down my life for the flock!! We are asking God for 250 people who lay down their lives for the flock. What it means is that hirelings have to acknowledge: I am a hireling. I am not a shepherd. I am corrupt at heart because I have pretended to be a shepherd, whereas I am a hireling. I have betrayed the Chief Shepherd by pretending to step into His shoes, without a commitment to lay down my life for the flock.

There have to be honest proclamations: I am no shepherd. or I have betrayed the flock all this while. or My heart has been deceitful, wicked above all things. The good shepherd lays down his life for the flock.

WHO IS A SHEPHERD?

Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers? Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, 'Give us meat to eat!' (Numbers 11:12–13).

Did I conceive all these people? (Numbers 10:12a).

The shepherd is the one who considers himself as the one who conceived all the sheep.

Did I give them birth? (Numbers 10:12b).

The shepherd is the one who considers himself as the one who gave them birth.

Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms? (Numbers 10:12c).

The shepherd is the one who carries them in his arms as a nurse carries an infant to the land God promised on oath to their forefathers. He carries them in his arms as a nurse carries an infant.

They keep wailing to me, 'Give us meat to eat!' (Numbers 10:13b).

The shepherd is the one to whom the sheep cry, 'Give us meat to eat!'

When a person seeks a home away from the flock, he has resigned from the pastoral ministry, and God will seal his resignation. When a person is discontent because of the disturbance from the flock, he was never in the pastoral ministry; and God will do something to ensure that he does not continue to pretend. God told Moses, Carry them in your arms. That is the pastor, ... carry them in your arms as a nurse carries an infant; not for a short while, but until you get them to the Promised Land, the Promised Land of mature leadership. The shepherd carries the infant flock until the baby sheep become mature leaders. His joy is the flock. The greater the flock, the greater his joy. He does not complain about the inconveniences caused him by the flock. To him, that is his crown. The shepherd's crown is the inconveniences that the sheep cause him. They are his joy. He will feel like a dead man if those inconveniences do not come his way any more, because he will know that it means that God has put him aside. The shepherd will always be asking, "How can I get a bigger house, so that more and more of the flock