Sheep Stealing 101

There’s a dirty little secret that pastors often talk about behind closed doors but usually never openly admit to. It’s called sheep stealing. This is when another pastor overtly tries to get someone from a different congregation to join theirs. It’s considered quite reprehensible and morally questionable. The funny thing is that it happens ALL the time.

Most church growth these days happens through what is called transfer growth. People who are Christians and have left another church for various reasons: disappointed, called out, frustrated, ignored, not fed, moved, got married, kicked out, bored...

Pastors don’t usually try to do a poor job. In fact, they go out of their way to devise ways of getting new people into their church. Better programs, better communication skills, better facilities, better youth groups, better mission, better care… All of this is considered good pastoring. Good business is never mentioned. With all these enticements it’s hard for the consumer (parishioner) to not leave one church to go to another from time to time. Maybe the grass is greener…

The secret of being a good sheep stealer is that you never directly approach a Christian from a different church. You let what you are doing speak for itself. I touched on this back in the spring from a different perspective titling it “the circulation of the saints.”

Pastors don’t generally advertise good stuff that is going on in other churches and they don’t recommend books that might give their members alternate views of the group’s (his) philosophy. After all his sheep might leave if they realize they are being limited in their personal growth and that is simply not good business. When someone leaves their congregation they are generally none too pleased and are sometimes a little miffed at the church that they went to. (unless of course that person was asking too many “why” questions.) However, they don’t generally get too unhappy about people leaving other churches to join their congregation.

In all of this a fundamental question of “whose sheep are they?” is never asked. Pastors really do believe that his congregation are his sheep. The truth is that Jesus is the good shepherd and we are His sheep. He hasn’t stopped building His church and no pastor should ever think that he has dibs on Jesus’ sheep.

Of course, pastors will vehemently deny that they own or control anyone. They are simply servants. Really! Just ask them how they feel when someone leaves them. If a church had 25 families in it and 10 decided to go to another pasture (church) at the same time, the pastor’s job performance and reputation would be held up to close scrutiny. But if he is the recipient of those 10 families and the offerings took a significant increase he would be seen as being incredibly gifted.

Churches that offer great “whatevers” are naturally doing them to glorify Jesus and better serve their membership. Sheep stealing is simply collateral damage.