Wolves in sheep's clothing

Spotting the wolves and fake shepherds

How do you spot the wolves lurking among the flock?  

Some are pretty obvious, some are not. In this blog, I’d like to share some experiences on the wolves in our midst.

Firstly, wolves don't advertise themselves as wolves, they come as angels of light.  This is stating the obvious but I need to emphasise this. Real wolves are more difficult to spot than you think. 

Forget the cult person, you’ll spot him straight away. Forget the prosperity ‘name-it claim-it grab-it’ preacher, you’ll spot him too. I'm referring to bible believing evangelical churches, not some way off cults. 

But what if the wolf is actually one of your trusted leaders, your bible study leader, or even your popular pastor?  Can you spot him before damage is done?  Most wolves survive long because they have developed a charming personality and have strong personal charisma. It is because of these human traits that they have succeeded in remaining hidden as wolves for so long.

Unless you're in the inner circle, or you have been abused personally, you will likely not know you are sitting under the ministry of a wolf in sheep's clothing.  The majority sitting in pews each week do not have the discernment to see though the masks and are contended to think well of the leadership.  "Do not judge' seems to be the text used to silence those with enough courage to voice out.  Another I've heard often repeated is that the pastor is the Lord's anointed, don't judge him or God will punish you.  How do you know he is the Lord's anointed in the first place? Has anyone validated his 'calling'?  Has his 'calling' been validated by his godly fruits?  Anyone can claim to be called by God - just look at the TV preachers.

Before I continue, I'd like to say that there are many people serving in the local church sincerely, people whose aim is to please God.  At the same time, there are many who are in the institutional church who are out to exploit, abuse, bully or manipulate the flock for their own gain. It could be for their career, for money, for power,  or just to boost their egos.  It is this latter group that I must warn you about.

These are the seemingly nice people in the church, but the danger is much more subtle. They are seen to ‘feed’ the flock, but the flock remains hungry, never growing spiritually after years of pastoral ministry.  When the flock wanders away, no one goes out to seek after and restore that person.  Some are even treated like disloyal enemies.  When someone in the church is involved in sinful living, no one bothers to provide counsel and the person is left to wallow in sin for years. These wolves are more dangerous than your cult person because they lead whole congregrations astray without anyone realising it.

There is a facade of pastoral care, but in reality, there is none.   I recall one elderly person told the pastor that she was going to have an operation.  He prayed for her in public, fully aware that everyone around could see him pray.  Nothing wrong with praying in public. But after the operation, no visit, not even a phone call about the operation. After the person returns to church, not even a hello to ask how the operation went.  Not surprising, the elderly person was a bit upset at the lack of concern and felt ‘used’.  What was done was for show like your politician before an election.  He has got the publicity he covets already, why spend any more time on this person?

In order to spot them we need to look at their fruits over a period, otherwise we could jump to a hasty conclusion. After all, we don’t want to fall into the trap of judging falsely. Nor do we want to draw conclusions based on one or two isolated incidents as people can make mistakes.   However if it is a consistent behaviour that can be observed by several mature Christians, then chances are, you may have a wolf or at very least, a fake shepherd, in your midst.

Here are some pointers  (take what you can, ignore everything else).

Does he love the flock?  Pastors and elders are under-shepherds. They are tasked to care for the whole flock.  Does your leader just care for a select group in the church – the people he gets along with, or those who never question his authority, or those he need in order to move ahead in his career?   A pastor feeds and nourishes the flock, not ‘use’ them for his own agenda.  Does he create artificial boundaries within the church, e.g. talk about ‘old’ vs. young’ people, and show special affiliation with one group?   Does he encourage one group against another or does he genuinely try to reconcile the groups and attempt to break down barriers. Does he show love and respect to Christians who are not part of his local flock, or does he habitually run down other Christian groups?

Jesus talked about a shepherd going after the one lost sheep and leaving the 99 behind (Luke 15:3-7) .  Does your pastor go out of the way to win back the lost sheep?  Does he care enough to reconcile them back to the church.  Does he demonstrate the heart of a real shepherd like our Lord? 

Look at the marks of a false shepherd in Ezekiel 34.

Ezekiel 34:1-10

1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. 4 The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. 6 My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.

7 “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 10 Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.

How many church pastors and elders do the things mentioned above?  Very few have the heart to go after the lost sheep.

How is his prayer life?  Is the prayer meeting a place where he thinks he should go only because he is a ‘leader’?  Is he enthusiastic about the prayer meetings?   I know of a pastor who leaves his mobile phone on during the prayer meeting, and takes calls right in the middle of the prayer meeting. He would walk out and in during the prayer meeting very casually.  Try doing the same thing  when you are having a meeting with your company's CEO.  This pastor shows little reverence for God by his actions.

I have found that the prayers of the pastor can be quite revealing. 
Just listen to his prayer. Is he praying to God, or is he preaching to the audience during his prayer?  There was a pastor who prayed at the end of a visiting preacher’s sermon.  He prayed and prayed, but I couldn’t work out if he has started praying or he was preaching before he prayed. I looked up and saw that he was praying - but his audience wasn’t God.  He literally preached a mini sermon during his prayer.  It destroyed the atmosphere created by the visiting preacher.   I’ve also heard great theology being preached during prayer meetings as if the person is ‘educating’ God. 
Sometimes nasty insinuating comments are made in the guise of pious prayers to attack members of the flock or drive them out of the church.  Such cowardly attacks are not from any Spirit filled Christian.

When Andrew Murray walked into a prayer meeting, one person who was praying knew it was him because he could sense the presence of God.  Can you sense that in your pastor or elders?  Do all your elders actually show up for prayer meetings?  A church is only as healthy as its leaders.

Is there a fear of God in your leader’s behaviour?  Does he make decisions based on practicality or convenience?  Does he actually seek God’s will or does he say ‘let’s pray about it’ but then goes and does his own thing.  Does he guard his tongue so that there is no falsehood or misleading statements that come out?   I know a pastor who habitually misrepresents the truth for his own agenda.  He would use facts out of context or withhold some information so that the audience is lead to a certain conclusion. A trick I’ve heard often used is not disclosing the time frame e.g. “we’ve had 200 new comers”. What he hasn’t said is that these 200 new comers came 10 years ago, but it gives the impression that it happened recently.  Words are chosen to manipulate the audience.  If this happens once, its probably a mistake or a slip of the tongue. But if this happens again and again, we have a habitual liar on the pulpit.  There is no sense of any fear of God.  Truth has been thrown out of the door.

Is there observable growth in his life over a period?  Is he the same pastor that he was 10 or 15 years ago?  Does his life or his teaching show that God is working on him?  If there no growth, beware. His theology is all in the head.  When a person is learning from God as he studies his bible, it will change him. Our study of the bible must first be for our own personal growth and not ‘here is a good point to use in my next sermon’.  How can you help others to grow when you have not grown yourself?  Feed the sheep what you have learnt from the Great Shepherd himself.

Does he understand the true principles from the bible or just parrot its teachings without understanding its meaning. E.g. does he preach that a person should show humility, but refuses to talk with different church members?  Does he preach ‘repentance’ but doesn’t know anything of the brokenness caused by sin.  There is so much theology in the heads of some pastors, but so little real spirituality.   I recall Paul Washer saying that when he went to Bible College, he was not trained to minister to others, but he was the one being trained and disciplined.   We must first be fed ourselves before we can feed others, otherwise it’s all head knowledge.

Does his sermons reveal that God is speaking to him or are they copies of other people’s sermons or extracts from text books?   Pastors today feed second hand sermons to the audience – things they copied from books or other people’s sermons instead of what God has revealed to them.  There is no conviction in the sermon because he has not learnt the lesson himself except in the head.

Does he focus on entertaining the audience and giving them what they want to hear? I’ve see coke bottles, broken eggs and magic tricks being used to ‘illustrate’ a point.  Sometimes the ‘illustration’ is as long as the sermon.  The purpose of the sermon seems to be to show how good an orator the preacher is, or to entertain the audience so that the preacher is seen as a 'good' speaker, rather than as someone who faithfully passes on God’s message.

When the sermon topic covers a common topic like ‘suffering’, out comes the standard texts for suffering – everyone suffers, it’s not fair, but Jesus also suffered, it was the most unfair treatment, etc.  How many times have I heard this flow of logic being preached by different preachers?  The logic is true, but lets not repeat it every time the word ‘suffering’ is found in the text.   It’s like every preacher coming out of Bible College was given the same preaching handbook. Why don’t they look at the text and see what it is trying to say instead of copying from a standard source.   One pastor read a text about two people resting after a long journey. Then he started preaching about how God rested on the 7th day, and there is a Sabbath rest of Christians.  This is forcing his interpretation on a text. 

Does he seek out the gifts of the church members for the edification of others or does he organise people based on how they fit his agenda?  Anyone not fitting his version of church growth or who does not ‘listen’ to him is moved to one side.  When Christ has given his church various gifts to build up one another, the pastor or elders play God and reject the gifts. They are building their own kingdom and not Christ’s.

Does his teachings result in the flock becoming more and more like Christ? Have the church grown closer in their walk with God?    This is the critical test – when the church grows in maturity, we know the Spirit of God is at work.  If the church is the same after years under a pastor, a question must be raised as to what he is feeding the church with.  Is he one of those who sound nice and pleasant all the time – never offending anyone, never challenging sin, never addressing moral issues of the day.    If you look at the Old Testament, every prophet had one core message – repent and turn back to God or else…

When was the last time your pastor preached against sin in the church?  Have you heard your pastor preach against same sex marriage or other politically incorrect moral issues?  I've heard a pastor who uses the sermon to put people in the church down in the guise of preaching against sin, but he was preaching against people whom he doesn't like.    If you haven’t heard your pastor preach about sin and repentance, beware, he may be a nice guy, but he is a false shepherd.   He is not a man lead by the Spirit of God.  He's there to tingle your ears with nice feel good words. You shall know them by their fruits, not just his own spiritual growth, but in the growth of the members.

Is he humble?  Does he listen to criticism and feedback well or does he treat all such feedback as attacks on his authority or person?  Does he serve, or does he expect to be 'respected' and 'listened to'?   Does he retaliate or treat people who gives him negative feedback as enemies?
I know one pastor who uses the pulpit to attack any sheep who dares question him on any issue.  Instead of speaking to the person in private and resolving the issue, he would respond publicly using the sermon.  Sermons after sermons contain sniding remarks that the target in the audience will understand (because of the personal details but these details are not obvious to others). He may talk about unity and people who break the peace in the church but he would never take the first steps to reconcile with the member. This particular pastor has been doing this for over 10 years but he couldn't be removed as he has replaced the eldership with his own little posse of yes- men.

I am also aware that the people whom this pastor has abused from the pulpit have actually tried to meet up with him in private, which he refused.   Can you ever imagine the sheep asking the shepherd to come and reconcile, and the shepherd refusing? Who is serving who? Such people do not deserve to be called pastors as they are not pastoring the sheep but fleecing them.

So why do these pastors behave this way?  It's just a job to many of these.    John 10:13 tells us 'The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep'. This is the risk with hiring a full time paid pastor - you assume he has been called by God and not by his ambition.  How many elders check this out before hiring the pastor?  Are the elders mature enough spiritually to even know to check this out?   If the eldership is a group of worldly people, you'll get a pastor cut from the same cloth.  A spiritual man who applies for a pastoral job will get rejected by worldly elders for sure. The irony is that we often get what we deserve.

I'd like to hear some of your experiences. Please share as it might help others

..More to come