The Responsibility of Shepherds
Why the series comes to pastors first: the watchman, the whole counsel of God, the stricter judgment — and the assurance that upholds the shepherd.
DRAFT — awaiting editorial review.
The watchman is answerable for the warning, not the outcome
The series is addressed first to those who shepherd God’s flock, and this treatise explains why — appealing not on the basis of what is required, but of what is fitting to the calling. The governing image is the watchman of Ezekiel 3: if he gives no warning, the blood is required at his hand; if he warns and they do not turn, he has delivered his soul.
Two things stand out, and both are a mercy rightly understood. The watchman is not answerable for the outcome — what is required is not success but faithfulness. And silence is not neutral: there is no third option between warning and guilt. So the first question for a shepherd is not “am I persuaded of every detail?” but “have I even looked?” It is possible to disagree with this series after examining it; what the watchman’s office does not permit is declining to examine it because the subject is uncomfortable.
The whole counsel of God, held back at no point
Taking leave of the Ephesian elders, Paul could say: “I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:26–27). Mark the ground of his innocence — not fruitfulness, not obedience in his hearers, but that he held nothing back. “He did not shrink” implies there were things it would have been easier to omit, and he declared them anyway.
The searching application: it is possible to preach much that is true, and faithfully, and yet to have shrunk — to have left one region of the counsel of God untouched because it was too costly or too intimate to raise. This series contends that the sanctity of the conceived life is, for much of the church, exactly such a region. Paul’s example does not permit a permanent silence there.
Teachers bear the stricter judgment
Scripture does not distribute this responsibility evenly. “Not many of you should become teachers… for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1). Hebrews presses the point in the language of accounting: leaders keep watch over souls “as those who will have to give an account” (Hebrews 13:17) — a steward before an owner, not an employee before a task.
This is said not to terrify but to dignify. The reason the watchman’s silence is so grave is precisely that his charge is so high. The treatise acknowledges it is pressing on a nerve — the pastoral office is already heavy — but “we would be poor watchmen ourselves if, for fear of adding to your load, we withheld the very Scriptures that define your calling.”
The courage the office lost, and can recover
The reluctance many faithful shepherds feel here is mostly not a considered theological judgment. It is a mood the church has breathed for a century — the assumption that questions of life, sexuality and law are “political” and off-limits to the pulpit. That assumption is itself recent, the fruit of the Great Reversal.
Consider the shepherds who went before. Wesley’s last letter urged Wilberforce on against the “execrable villainy” of a legal, profitable, national institution. Spurgeon preached against the slave trade at the cost of his American book sales, his sermons burned across the South. These men did not regard the naming of a national sin as a departure from their office — they regarded it as the office. The recovery asked for is not an innovation but a return.
Prepare before you warn — and the assurance that carries you
None of this counsels harshness. The same tradition that makes the shepherd a watchman makes him a nurse and a father to the flock (1 Thessalonians 2:7–11). So the treatise asks for a particular order: prepare gentle, confidential, gospel-centred care before the matter is taught from the pulpit. A shepherd who raises the subject without a refuge prepared has sounded an alarm with no refuge. And to the fear “I will devastate the women in my church”: that fear does him credit and must shape how and when — it cannot license never. The truth reaches them either from a man who loves them and has made ready to walk with them, or from a stranger who has not.
The treatise closes not with a demand but an assurance: the One who appointed the watchman does not abandon him to the city’s response. The Chief Shepherd, who laid down His life for the sheep, has promised the under-shepherd “the unfading crown of glory” (1 Peter 5:2–4). Taking this up will cost something — and the grace that has carried you through every other hard thing is sufficient for this one too.
Questions to sit with
- The treatise says the watchman’s question is not “am I persuaded of every detail?” but “have I even looked?” What would looking honestly involve for you?
- If you serve a congregation: what confidential care would need to be ready before this is taught — and who would provide it?
Go deeper
Further material on this subject from allied abolitionist ministries (these links open external sites):
- End Abortion Now — church equipping and pastoral resources (End Abortion Now)
- Abolitionists Rising — preaching and teaching resources (Abolitionists Rising)
Check yourself
5 questions on what you have just read. Answering is what makes it stick.
1For what is the watchman answerable, according to Ezekiel 3:18–19?
- For the outcome — whether the city listens
- For the warning — that the alarm be sounded clearly and in time — correct
- For the sins of the wicked in every case
- For nothing, provided he meant well
The watchman cannot compel a single heart to turn; what is required is faithfulness, not success. But silence is not neutral: "the blood is required at his hand precisely for the not-saying. There is no third option between warning and guilt."
2On what basis did Paul claim to be "innocent of the blood of all" (Acts 20:26–27)?
- His ministry had been fruitful
- Everyone he taught had obeyed
- He did not shrink from declaring the whole counsel of God — he held nothing back — correct
- He had avoided controversial subjects
His clean hands were the fruit of his complete message. A ministry that quietly edits out the hard or unpopular has, by that editing, forfeited the very thing that made Paul's hands clean — and the treatise contends the sanctity of conceived life is exactly such an untouched region.
3Why does responsibility fall most heavily on those who teach?
- Because teachers are paid for their work
- Because "we who teach will be judged with greater strictness" (James 3:1) — leaders keep watch over souls as those who will give an account (Hebrews 13:17) — correct
- Because congregations expect it
- Because teachers have more education
The stricter judgment is not the treatise's invention; it is James's. And it is said "not to terrify but to dignify" — the charge is high precisely because the shepherd keeps watch over souls.
4What does the treatise ask shepherds to do, in a particular order?
- Preach first, and prepare care for those affected afterwards
- Prepare gentle, confidential, gospel-centred care before the matter is taught from the pulpit — the refuge before the alarm — correct
- Leave the subject to parachurch ministries
- Raise it only in private conversations, never publicly
Some who hear this teaching will conclude they have done, in ignorance, a thing they would have died to prevent. "Truth told tenderly, by a man who has arranged in advance to walk with those it wounds, is a very different thing from truth flung from a distance. Only the former deserves the name of shepherding."
5How does the treatise close — with a demand, or something else?
- With a final warning of judgment
- With an assurance: God upholds the shepherd who walks faithfully through hard things, and the Chief Shepherd has promised the unfading crown of glory (1 Peter 5:2–4) — correct
- With a list of practical action points
- With a request for financial support
Paul, who did not shrink, was also the one whom the Lord stood by and strengthened when all deserted him (2 Timothy 4:16–17). "The God who calls the watchman to his post keeps him at it."