In his book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, Phillip Keller vividly describes a delinquent neighbor whose indifferent management led to his neglected sheep:

In my memory I can still see one of the sheep ranches in our district that was operated by a tenant sheepman. He ought never to have been allowed to keep sheep. His stock were always thin, weak, and riddled with disease or parasites…He was not concerned about the condition of his sheep. His land was neglected. He gave little or no time to his flock, letting them pretty well forage for themselves as best they could, both summer and winter. They fell prey to dogs, cougars, and rustlers…Every winter there was a shortage of nourishing hay and wholesome grain to feed the hungry ewes. Shelter to safeguard and protect the suffering sheep from storms and blizzards was scanty and inadequate…In their thin, weak, and diseased condition these poor sheep were a pathetic sight… Had they been able to speak, I am sure they would have said, “Oh, to be set free from this awful owner!”

In contrast to the lush green fields Keller’s flock enjoyed, the unfaithful shepherd’s herd was forced to gnaw away at bare, impoverished pastures and drink from polluted streams, leaving them sickly, weakened, and vulnerable to prey.

This is the American evangelical Church at present: impoverished from years of theological neglect, having undiscerningly wandered into a toxic field of cultural ideology.

Church leadership has been entrusted with both examining themselves to ensure that their teaching and doctrine are pure (1 Timothy 4:16) and shepherding the flock through faithful oversight (1 Peter 5:1-2). Irrespective of increasing cultural pressure that seeks to push Christ’s Church to accommodate its biblical message and mission to prevailing societal norms, church elders must faithfully lead their flocks past toxic fields of unbiblical teaching both within the Church and the prevailing culture to the pasture of spiritual discernment found in faith study of God’s Word.