Shepherding Like Jesus
Edited directly from the sermon transcript of Matthew Miller’s message at Highland Hills Church of Christ on August 30, 2026. Adapted for length and readability while preserving his voice and message.
I like to ask questions. Questions open doorways to deeper thinking. As we talk about leadership in the church, the first question has to be: What does God want his church to be?
Who does he want us to be as a people? How does he want us to live, gather, and go into our community?
We could ask who is most capable, respected, has good judgment, or can get things done. Those are important questions. But first we need to ask what God means when Scripture uses the word “elder.”
Our picture of a leader might be an executive, CEO, administrator, manager, or visionary. I chuckle a little when I read a preacher’s biography and see “cultural visionary.” I don’t know exactly what that means. I think “preacher” is good enough. Preaching God’s word creates vision and change.
The New Testament gives us a powerful picture of leadership rooted in Jesus’s own identity: shepherd. In John 10, he calls himself the good Shepherd. He knows his sheep, they know his voice, and they follow him. Peter calls him the chief Shepherd and tells elders to shepherd the flock too.
God wants his church to be people who flock together and follow him wherever he leads.
Shepherding may feel foreign in our technological society, but it gives us a deep picture. Shepherds lived with their flock. They stayed beside them, protected them, led them, and made sure they were cared for. One book title puts it beautifully: they smelled like sheep.
The biblical picture of eldership is shepherding shaped by Christ.
An elder is a man of maturity, someone whose faith has been tested and whose life demonstrates following Jesus. This is someone charting his course by where Jesus leads, with a life that continues to bear that out.
In Acts 20, Paul calls the Ephesian elders to meet him. He reminds them how he lived among them, serving with humility, tears, and trials. He taught publicly and from house to house, holding back nothing helpful and declaring the whole counsel of God.
Then he tells them, “Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood.”
He warns that wolves will come and that some will arise from within to draw disciples after themselves. He commends the elders to God and the word of his grace, which can build them up.
Paul models the care he is asking them to give. These are mature men entrusted to oversee the flock, feed it with God’s word, protect it, seek the sheep, and make sacrifices for them. Jesus is their model.
That includes guarding against false teaching, spiritual danger, and divisiveness. Division can begin subtly, through hurts, miscommunication, misunderstanding, or differences of opinion. A shepherd feeds the truth in love and helps people grow in holiness.
The question becomes, “Where is Christ leading?”
This is demanding work. The demands on someone’s spiritual character are extraordinary. Recognize the ways our shepherds serve, seek, and care for people. Let them know you’re praying for them.
In 1 Timothy 3, Paul describes the character needed for this work. An overseer must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, well-behaved, hospitable, and able to teach. He must not be given to wine, violent, greedy, quarrelsome, or covetous. He must be gentle, govern his household well, have his children in submission with reverence, be mature in faith, and have a good reputation outside the church.
Think of this as a portrait of a person’s life, a life that can bear the weight shepherding demands.
People inside and outside his circle see integrity and faithfulness. They see a life pointed toward Jesus, and care for the people closest to him. How he treats those people matters for how he will care for others.
A shepherd must be able to govern his own emotions, anger, appetites, ambitions, and tongue. We may look impressive publicly while our inner lives are in turmoil. Like an iceberg, there is much beneath the surface others don’t see.
He needs to love the sheep more than the position. His character shows a walk with Jesus through every part of life.
Years ago in Charleston, South Carolina, we walked through an old cemetery. I saw a headstone that really affected me. I wish I remembered the man’s name. He had lived in an era when child mortality was much higher, and he had lost seven children. Yet his epitaph described a faithful life before God.
That’s hard. This portrait asks, come what may, where is your life headed?
We also need to consider accountability. Whose flock is it? Acts 20 tells us the church was purchased with God’s own blood. The flock belongs to him.
Elders are really under-shepherds. That would sound strange in an announcement: “Our under-shepherds will come up now.” But we should think of them that way, because Jesus is the chief Shepherd. They steward his household under his leading and will answer to him.
Eldership is a sacred privilege and a sacred responsibility.
In 1 Peter 5, Peter tells elders to shepherd willingly and eagerly, serving as examples rather than lording it over the people entrusted to them. “When the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.”
What a promise. This work is demanding, and it is not everyone’s calling. But men who have a shepherd’s heart may need to consider whether God is inviting them into it. On the other side of that responsibility is an unfading crown of glory.
As we think about elders, ask who demonstrates a shepherd’s character, shows faithfulness, and has the heart of a servant. We are looking for men who discern the chief Shepherd’s leading and help us follow him.
Jesus gives us the picture of a shepherd counting his sheep and discovering one is missing. He goes to find that one, rejoices, puts it over his shoulder, and brings it home.
I wish I could say I’m always there with the ninety-nine. But sometimes my heart wants to become the one that starts wondering what’s over here.
We need shepherds who recognize the wandering one and want to bring them home, following and serving like Jesus.
Maybe you’re the one who is drifting and has lost the path. There is comfort, strength, and encouragement in coming back among brothers and sisters in Christ. Or maybe you’re ready to become part of that flock and follow Jesus wherever he leads.
The good Shepherd is calling.
