What happens when shepherds become prodigals who leave home with their inheritance and journey to a ‘far country’ (Lk. 15:13)?
Some turn out to be wolves or hired hands. Regardless, there are many who carry the title of pastor who may be found behind pulpits while their hearts are lost in a perilous land, thousands of miles from their vocation.
Foreign Delicacies
“Let’s try Tarshish,” Eugene Peterson writes, exploring the Jonah story. “In Tarshish we can have a religious career without ever having to deal with God.”1
Like Jonah fleeing God’s presence on a ship to Tarshish, pastors become imperiled prodigals when they are enticed by distractions and dangerous paradigms for ministry. These enticements are external (success) and internal (idols). They include:
inflated numerical ambition
fixation on ‘winning’ in the name of Jesus
repackaged domineering
cults of personality
cultural gatekeeping & legalism
strength valued over weakness
success valued over suffering
and more
When you combine any number of these enticements together you get a sense of the topography of a ‘far country’, where many faith leaders are found intoxicated and estranged from their integrity.
But tragically in these foreign settings, it’s not just the faith leaders who suffer.
Squandered Gifts
The New International Version (NIV) states that when the younger son received his share of the estate from his father, he “squandered his wealth in wild living” (Lk. 15:13). A congregation is likewise a precious inheritance. When pastors are offered the immense privilege of shepherding a community, they receive profound gifts in the form of people they are responsible to love, whose vocations and stories are placed under their care.
But when shepherds leave home for a far country, image bearers will be held hostage on the journey. People become expendable currency rather than cherished relationships. Their talents get exploited beyond their capacity in order to develop distant-land projects; or wasted and left dormant due to pretentious favoritism and role rigidity.
The far country of pastoral malpractice is a place where collateral damage is lucrative—for a season. “After [the younger son] had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need” (Lk. 15:14).
The temporary and romantic rush of perceived prosperity away from home is exhilarating. It may last a few years or a few decades. But it always ends in barrenness. At some point, every faith leader lost in a far country must face the emptiness—and damage—of his or her pursuits. “What does it profit a person to gain…”
Homecoming Invitation
Every prompt to surrender to repentance is a homecoming invitation. In the prodigal story, the younger son was brought to his knees and finally “came to his senses” (Lk. 15:17). What will it take for shepherds who abandon their vocations to do the same?
God’s invitation home for wayward faith leaders often comes in the voices of those who say, “Hey! You’re crushing me!” Or, “this is not sustainable.” Or, “when will others have a voice?” Or, the voice of the leaders’ own besieged bodies keeping score of the tyranny.
When those in spiritual authority forsake their integrity in a remote land, God elevates the integrity of others who make desperate and courageous bids for dignity or justice. The shepherds will be welcomed home with outstretched arms. But the Voice of Love will not accommodate the hardened persistence of “ministry” operating oceans away from the Beautiful Kingdom. God will never champion scarcity.
As I mentioned earlier, some shepherds turn out to be wolves who intend only to devour. They have no interest in God’s presence or the homecoming feast. But for others, the invitation remains open. There is life available, not just in repentance and slow repair, but for flourishing. Some former faith leaders have decided to leave their position permanently in order to return home to fidelity, where God awaits tenderly.
In the meantime, the Good Shepherd continues to prepare tables in the wilderness for the crushed. No beloved sons, daughters, or families betrayed by prodigal pastors will be erased.
He holds their stories.
He binds up their wounds (Ezek. 34:16).
Peterson, E., 1992. Under the Unpredictable Plant. WB Eerdmans: WB Eerdmans.
Man, just had to reread this. And it resonates again. Maybe more acutely this time--at least, it hits differently. A little more pointedly at my own heart. I've just started Peterson's book this week and i find it both cathartic and convicting.
Thanks for your voice and vulnerability, Ryan!