Shepherds, CEOs, or Servant Leaders?
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The invisible flock
Where are the people who used to sit next to you on Sunday?
Not the ones who moved away, but those who quietly slipped out the back door
and never returned. Where are the wounded, the disillusioned youth, and the
elderly who built the foundation?
When did shepherd stop meaning "servant" and start
meaning "CEO"? Walk into almost any modern ministry and you will find
no shortage of vision statements, expansion plans, and personal branding. But
if the prophet Ezekiel walked into our gatherings today, would he see thriving
flocks—or leaders feeding on their own influence?
Statistics look great on a slide deck, but statistics don't
have names, hurts, or doubts. Behind the bright lights and growing budgets lies
a haunting divine query from Ezekiel 34: "Woe to the shepherds of
Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the
flock?"
Fifteen years ago, I first reflected on this severe warning.
Today, as platform-building continues to replace pastoral care, that passage
reads less like ancient history and more like a real-time diagnosis of
contemporary spiritual leadership.
The crisis facing the church today is not a lack of vision,
resources, or talent. It is a crisis of the shepherd's heart.
The rise of the platform and the decline of the flock
In many modern Christian circles, leadership has quietly
shifted from humble service to personal enterprise. The metrics of successful
ministry are no longer measured by how well the broken are healed or how deeply
the lonely are known, but by the size of the audience, the reach of the brand,
and the expansion of personal influence.
We see leaders who build platforms instead of people.
Success is calculated in social media followers, book sales, and building
projects, while the actual human beings within the community remain unseen. We
celebrate rising attendance figures on Sunday mornings while completely missing
the individuals who quietly drift away unnoticed through the back door.
When programs replace personal care, and statistics replace
names, the church ceases to be a refuge and becomes a corporation.
The institutional hold and the chaos left behind
This self-serving posture reveals itself most clearly in how
leadership is held and guarded. Across various denominations and independent
organizations, we observe leaders manipulating internal boards and rewriting
governance policies—often extending retirement ages simply to hold onto
authority, enjoy the perks of position, and prolong their reign.
Instead of preparing the next generation and stepping down
with grace, authority is hoarded. When these leaders finally depart—whether
through old age, scandal, or death—they frequently leave their churches and
institutions in utter chaos. The sheep are left with heavy financial burdens,
fractured communities, and deep spiritual disorientation.
Self-appointed apostles and modern "prophets"
arise, building personal empires at the explicit cost of the flock. They feed
on the fat and clothe themselves with the wool, but they do not strengthen the
weak, heal the sick, bound up the injured, or search for the lost.
The wounded and the invisible
Because the shepherd’s eyes are fixed on the stage, the most
vulnerable are routinely overlooked:
- The
young people: Disillusioned by hypocrisy, performance, and spiritual
superficiality, they leave the faith without anyone ever pursuing them or
asking why.
- The
silent suffering: Believers wounded by spiritual abuse, legalism, or
severe pastoral neglect sit in isolation, wary of organized church life.
- The
forgotten: The elderly, the widowed, the single parents, migrants, and
the economically poor who bring no prestige, big tithes, or social capital
to the organization remain completely invisible.
We are left with churches where hundreds or thousands
attend, but terribly few are truly shepherded.
God’s radical response: Decentralized, servant leadership
God’s answer to ancient Israel—and to us today—was not to
appoint a bigger earthly CEO, establish a tighter central hierarchy, or set up
a religious dynasty. God’s answer was to become the Shepherd Himself.
In Jesus Christ, the Chief Shepherd came down. He did not
come to be served, but to serve, setting a completely new model of leadership.
He left the ninety-nine to seek the one lost sheep. He washed feet, spoke to
outcasts, remembered names, and ultimately laid down His life for the flock.
Crucially, when Jesus passed on this responsibility, He did
not create a supreme earthly monarchy to be handed down from one patriarch to
another. When He commissioned Apostle Peter, He initiated a decentralized,
shared model of pastoral care.
As Peter later writes in 1 Peter 5:1–5, the responsibility
of shepherding is multiplied across local elders who are called to:
Be examples to the flock, leading by personal character rather than
dictatorial authority.
- Serve
willingly and eagerly, not for dishonest gain, financial greed, or
personal prestige.
- Refuse
to lord it over others, recognizing that the people belong to God, not
to the leader.
True biblical leadership is not centralized power that feeds
off the people; it is decentralized care that empowers, protects, and serves
them under the authority of the Chief Shepherd.
The three questions before us
Ezekiel 34 and the gospel of Jesus Christ present us with
three fundamental questions that every believer, pastor, and church body must
answer today:
1. Where are My people?
This is God's searching heart. He knows the names of the
invisible ones. He sees those sitting alone in hospital rooms, the youth
wrestling with doubt, the migrants struggling in silence, and the saints who
stopped coming to service because no one noticed their pain.
2. Where are My shepherds?
This is God's direct challenge to leaders. Are we caring for
the flock, or are we using the flock to build our own platforms? Are we
preparing others to lead, or are we clinging to power until everything falls
apart?
3. Who will go and find them?
This is Christ’s invitation to the entire body of believers.
Shepherding is not reserved for a clerical elite or a charismatic speaker on a
stage. Every Christian is called to participate in God's search—to visit the
sick, listen to the hurting, bring back the wandering, and offer genuine,
sacrificial love.
The true Shepherd’s promise
The ultimate hope of Ezekiel 34 is that God does not leave
His people at the mercy of bad shepherds. He declares in verse 11: "I
myself will search for my sheep and look after them."
Jesus fulfilled this promise on the cross and continues it
through His Spirit and His true, humble followers. The call today is to abandon
the lure of empire-building, tear down the platforms of self-promotion, and
return to the simple, costly, and beautiful work of shepherding God's
people—one person, one name, and one lost sheep at a time.
Stop reading here: Below is my first published blog:
See the New Release, Trekking the Tribal Trail Click Here
My Focus on People Groups
The First write up, published in 2010
They are in the cities; some say, due to rapid urbanization migration to cities is on the rise and the mainstream population will be in cities in a few years, they believe. They are in hi-tech jobs and in the multinational software field; that’s what the big industry is. They are in world markets; that’s where the business and the outsourcing are. They are in IT; that’s how the world is moving today…” The analysis goes on.
Most of the mass media messages today including Christian TV, are formatted for the upper-middle class. They are believed to be the opinion-makers and movers of society. It’s only a partial truth.
The builders of the nation are not just managers and professionals. Every individual, community, and people group (ethnic, linguistic, social, economic, and professional groups are important and they have a role to play in society and possess a place in God’s kingdom. But most often many are ignored or neglected. We need to acknowledge and identify every people and the people who are needy in different respects whether urban or rural.
Take for example urbanization. People move from villages to cities. The affluent use their brain to earn and build their citadels in posh environments while the poor and the uneducated use their muscle power to win their bread and weave their dreams under tin roofs and plastic sheets. If the population grows and moves to cities, the number and size of slums also will swell. The information-rich continue to become richer while the information-poor continue to live in perpetual poverty and struggle to live just for a day. The rich in India survive because of the poor, in all respects. In a country like India, the rich and poor live together in the same geographical area, especially in the cities. Before we can think of reaching them, before we formulate messages for them, we need to understand different layers of society- the powerful and the marginal.
One easy indicator for
this is to look at them from the perspective of their basic lifestyle- where
they live, what they eat, what they wear, how they communicate, and transport.
Where do they live?
What do they
wear?
What do they eat and
where do they eat?
How do they ‘convey’
and use conveyance?
When we assess their status we also need to think about the individuals who lead them.
WHO ARE THE LEADERS?
Who are the leaders of my People?
The leaders of my people
are powerful. Money and media have replaced muscles. Information and media
are powerful. They lead people so they can manipulate information. They are
dealers rather than leaders. Instead of helping their flock, they are helped;
instead of serving the needy, they are served. They thrive and prosper at the
cost of their followers. They boast that they do not own anything in this
world. But they live in the air, meet in five-star hotels, and once they land, they
move only by the costliest vehicles to meet their crowd. Since they are not
news-makers, they buy channels to make sure they will be on the mini-screen. Let
the land be swept by a tsunami or shudder by the quake; it means an opportunity
for them to serve and come into the limelight. The poor, vulnerable, underprivileged,
and unreached are essential for their sustenance.
Several social sector sponsorship programs in the name of the poor are deceptions. The slogans of justice and sustainability of the poor are on paper and on digital media. Not even 2% of the sponsorship reaches the sponsored children directly in kind!!
Heavy, thick management survives and serves them; stay on the leadership to the maximum to get fattened. The rest goes for publicity, mobilization, and managing systems and procedures. More people work on systems, tools, information processes, internet and intranet, designing, monitoring, and evaluation than on the field where the poor and needy are!
The disparity and injustice within their organization are Himalayan!
Can you imagine that a CEO of a certain social organization draws INR 8,25,000 per month, then an array of Senior Directors, Group Directors, senior managers in the leadership alone, and all their support staff, while a new staff in the field gets INR 15,000 to 20,000 per month?! The staff with 10 years of experience used to get INR 40,000 per month, and with the re-recruitment process, being given a pay of 15,000 to 20,000.
A sponsored child (all the children) used to receive a one-time benefit of Rs. 300 or 400 per year, but due to recent regulations, that benefit is still being reduced. Field staff who do the heavy work are heavily reduced, jobs are combined, and salaries are reduced, whereas there is only an increase in leadership positions. A couple of years ago, according to one of the auditors, the organization reduced 50 field staff to take care of the promotion of 5 directors to the level of senior directors.
We would pay a heavy price for this in the years to come!
The leaders of today are not very different from those of a few thousand years ago.
The leaders of Israel are rebuked by the Lord, and He still rebukes. The message is still relevant today. Ezekiel, the prophet of Israel, was urged by God to speak against them. The Word of God comes against the leaders who feed on their sheep. Let those who have an ear, let him hear!
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