In the New Testament, the Savior talks a lot about those who are charged with leading flocks. In one particular scripture, He makes the distinction between good shepherds and those He calls robbers, hirelings and thieves.

He says that the good shepherds will lay down their lives to save one lamb; that they will leave the 99 to go out and find the one that is lost. On the other side of the coin, He says that when the thief (or robber or hireling) comes in, the sheep "flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers."

The parable in John Chapter 10 contrasts the shepherd with a robber. We all know that thievery is -- and has always been -- a problem. At the time of Jesus, shepherds had to guard against robbers stealing their sheep. They built secured sheep yards, or folds, and kept watch over the sheep with a sling and/or a rod.

But even with all this security, the main thing the good shepherd had in his favor was that his sheep knew his voice.

Back then, flocks were small and the shepherd had a caregiver relationship with his sheep. When a number of flocks, for example, were resting near a watering hole or well, the shepherd could summon his own sheep just by calling them, thereby cutting his own sheep out of the fold. A stranger or a thief may try to call out the other shepherd's sheep by imitating their owner's call, but the sheep were not fooled.

Why? Because they knew their master's voice.

Jesus goes on to differentiate Himself from false prophets and those he calls "hirelings" when He says: "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. But he that is a hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and the wolf catches them and scatters the sheep."

In the first epistle of Peter, the apostle speaks specifically to elders and church leaders when he writes: "Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being (good) examples to the flock."

It seems there are many hungry, hurting and scattered sheep around these days. Are there really that many hirelings masquerading as shepherds? Are there that many shepherds out there who would abandon the flock at the first whiff of wolf dander? Or are the sheep simply choosing to flee because they do not recognize the voice they are hearing as the voice of one speaking for God?

When you study the word, and study the history of the shepherd, you come to see one truth as undeniable. This truth was brought to my attention several years ago by a wise pastor in central Oregon. The brother simply said, "Shepherds smell like sheep."

He went on to say that shepherd's don't look down on the sheep they tend. On the contrary, they love them; they feed them; they defend them; they nurture them.

So much for lording our "shepherd-hood" over others. So much for placing several layers of associate ministers between us and the people we serve. So much for thinking we're above the masses just because God has called us to preach the Word.

Pastors have a duty to lead and feed and care for the flock.

Anything less is a slap in the face of the Holy One who called us.