“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?”
(Luke 15:4)
I suspect Jesus wouldn’t last long in churches today before being fired for “irresponsible” leadership. What pastor in his right mind would ditch 99 in order to seek after one lost sheep?
When we have a low turnout to our youth events, I often console myself by telling myself, “Just minister to the people present.” Gulp. If I was following Jesus’ leadership example I might say, “Sorry guys, this is unacceptable. I’m going to hunt down those others who didn’t show up.”
I have an idea. I motion that we start a new annual event where pastors choose a random Sunday where they ditch their congregation without warning to go have coffee with an unbeliever. Can you imagine the murmuring in the congregation as they try to figure out where Pastor is and what they’re going to do without him or her? When the time comes for the sermon, a deacon will simply say, “Sorry, Pastor isn’t going to make it today. She ditched us to go find the one lost sheep.”
I think that 10 second announcement will speak more powerfully than any 30 minute sermon the pastor would have preached if present.
What do you think?
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Jeremy L. Berg 
I think it’s a great idea to go find those lost sheep within your flock, but why ditch on a Sunday when the pastor has the rest of the week to locate the lost.