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Date Posted: 17:02:39 10/12/04 Tue
Author: John
Subject: Sheep
In reply to: Joe 's message, "shepherds & sheep in the ICC" on 14:24:51 10/12/04 Tue

>I'm looking into whether other abusive "shepherding"
>groups misapply Jesus' pre-ascension command to Peter
>to "feed his sheep" (John 21:15-18).

The ICC didn't use this verse for most members or even leaders. It was a charge given to an evangelist that lead a church.

>Are there "sheep"
>in the ICC (i.e., is the term "sheep" even used) and
>are they 1) the unconverted recruits (targets of
>evangelism), 2) the core membership (disciples) or 3)
>a combination of 1 and 2? Is the term "shepherd" used
>in the ICC and, if so, who are considered the
>"shepherds?"

The ICC didn't use the terms sheep and shepherd. Targets of evangelism were called different things depending on where they were in the process.

A person that had promised to attend church service was a "commitment".
A person that was involved in studying the Bible to become an ICC member was called a "study".
A person that came to a small group or church service, but wasn't someone you invited was called a "visitor".

All three categories of people were counted on a regular basis to measure how "spiritual" a person was at a given point in time.

Shepherding as you may call it was called "Discipling" in the ICC. Members of the church refer to themselves as 'disciples'. In the past, that meant that you were discipled by another person who was called your 'discipler' or 'discipleship partner'. The theory was that older Christians discipled younger christians in order to bring them into maturity. Often, Proverbs 27:17 was used to describe the perfect discipling relationship - iron sharpening iron. Olde Christian were told to 'disciple a person below you and be discipled by a person above you'. You were expected to give and receive discipling regularly. So, to answer your question, a discipler was expected to be a shepherd. Older Christians were expected to be a shepherd and to be shepherded by someone else.

The practice became that the more zealous would disciple the less zealous. Over time, that meant that a three month member would disciple a three year member and so on. The older Christian in those cases were told that they were not 'fired up' or zealous enough and that they needed to be humble to learn. This also caused new converts to be promoted into leadership, even into the ministry during their first few months as members.

Hope that helps.

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Replies:

Re: Sheep -- Joe, 13:52:12 10/13/04 Wed