Just For the Pastors 08: You Can’t Pastor Goats!

Jesus says on a number of times that some people are sheep and some people are goats. Every pastor realizes this but often cannot articulate and often does not know what to do about it.

Here is what pastoring looks like when you cannot tell the difference between sheep and goats:

• You feel like you fail with certain people because you didn’t meet their needs during church
• You feel condemned and beat up by the people
• You feel hurt by people leaving

You need to realize that not everyone in your church is a sheep person. There are some goat people. We have some people in some of our Tree of Life Churches that act like our church has a revolving door. They treat church like a restaurant. They will leave and walk right out the door and never once think to call or text you. And yes, even when you understand they are goats, it will still sting, but the worst of it is taken out.

Here is the difference – sheep eat green grass, goats eat any old rubbish. That means that if you are leading the people forward, maybe teaching a series over months, the sheep eat it up. If they have to miss a Sunday message for any reason, they have listened to it by Monday evening. They are at the conferences, they are at the Wednesday live stream. They know what you are teaching and they love it. They come to get fed, and because they are fed in the church, they love the church. So they start serving, they start investing, they start tithing, they start becoming part of the furniture. They are the people who are going with God – and it starts and is perceived with a love of what you are feeding them as the shepherd.

Goats eat any old rubbish. They are the ones that give you the CDS or post you the videos of the speakers they are always listening to. You know the ones that are talking about chem trails, or how God wants us poor and sick, or that contradict what you just taught on Sunday. Because their soul diet is rubbish, they end up thinking rubbish. Goats are easily offended, they do not plug into what you are doing, they are always looking around for more rubbish to eat. They are the spectators of the church, watching as the sheep serve, love and prepare the service for them. But even during the service, they are not hungry for the good food.

It’s goats who are telling you the worship is all wrong, it’s goats that come against what you are teaching. They think they are sheep, but they butt all the time – but this, but that. Oh, they would happily lead worship, happily preach for you. One goat told me that for years he had prayed every Sunday that I would give the mic to him! Sheep are different – sheep can be corrected, sheep can be taught.

If you want to want to know where someone is, look beyond Sunday morning. Ask them – did you watch the Wednesday live stream? No. Oh, but you have watched it since then? No! You missed Sunday, did you catch up online? No. Do you know why they are not listening – because goats think they know best. They think their way of doing Christianity is the best way.

It’s the goats that come to you and say “pastor, why doesn’t this church have a youth ministry” – “pastor, why doesn’t this church help the homeless”, “pastor, why doesn’t this church have this or that”. And if you do not personalize the church specifically to them and their needs, they will leave.

You will beat yourself up every time someone leaves unless you realize this: some people are goats. They were never with you even when they were with you. The church is there for them, but they are not there for the church. They like the benefits of the church, not the vision. They love the pen but not the grass.

Goats are not really with you, so mourning their loss is mourning what was inevitable. Selah. You cannot pastor goats because the first step of pastoring and being a good shepherd is providing good grass – and goats don’t love grass.