Shepherds & sheep: A biblical view of leading & following

by Jerram Barrs

Book by Barrs, Jerram

98 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Jerram Barrs is Professor of Christianity and Contemporary Culture at Covenant Theological Seminary, as well as a founder and Resident Scholar of the Francis Schaeffer Institute there. He was a part of Schaeffer's L'Abri Fellowship in Switzerland shortly after becoming a Christian and he and his wife were on staff at English L’Abri for many years. "During our 18 years at L’Abri and in my role as a pastor, we provided constant hospitality, talked through endless questions received from both believers and unbelievers, led discussions, taught and preached, offered pastoral care, participated in lots of practical work serving people and doing home and garden chores with them" (Interests).

Reviews

[Ryan Hawkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review 1 from 2017:

I'm surprised at how unpopular this book is on Goodreads. It is from 1983, and so apparently is just went out of print pretty early. I got it used on Amazon (and my copy is clearly from 1983).

But I enjoyed reading it. I had Jerram as a teacher at Covenant Seminary, and this book sounded a lot like him. In it, he basically is talking about leadership ministry in the church. One can tell it is definitely as response to much of Watchman Nee and his (terribly unbiblical) leadership. This may heavily contribute to why it went out of print, as it became less relevant.

But Barrs makes a handful of great points.

First, he really emphasizes that as leaders in the church we must not go beyond the Bible. This means not making structures that the Bible doesn't make, even if we think it is good and helpful. I love this and totally agree.

Second, he really is very helpful on prophecy. He does a great job explaining and proving that the 'word of Christ' in the NT isn't new prophesy, but in fact is the new message of the gospel focused around Christ. It was then solidified and written down by the apostles. As a result, no new words of Christ can be in prophesy. In fact, as he shows, prophecy in the NT wasn't this delivering of new 'words of Christ'. In this way, he agrees with Grudem, but explains it very succinctly.

Third, he has a proper view of the authority of elders. Elders are not new priests, as the whole church is priests. Elders are supposed to shepherd under Christ, guiding people, but not being between people and Christ–especially in individual decisions, etc.

Fourth, Barrs had some good advice on church discipline (but I wish he wrote more!). I had him for a pastoral theology/ministry class at Covenant, and I took literally 10+ pages of notes just on his wisdom in church discipline. I wish he would write a small booklet just on this subject. In this book, there was a couple pages (which were great!), but not a whole bunch.

Besides these four things, the book was an easy read, but nothing too special. I enjoyed it though.

___

Review 2 from 2019:

I read this two years ago, but just reread it because I remember it had some helpful insights on biblical rules, authority, and the sufficiency of Scripture. And it did. It really is a helpful little book to have—for any Christian, but especially for leaders in God’s church.

The reason I think it is no longer in print is because throughout the book Barrs is responding to some of the overly authoritative structures of Watchman Nee, which is an issue that is no longer relevant. But besides those points, Barrs’s biblical insights on form and freedom, the Word and the Spirit, and the New Testament offices of apostle and elder were all succinct and very helpful.

I’ll continue to keep it and read it again in a few years. I wish it was re-edited by Barrs with the Nee information taken out, and possibly polished a bit; if it was, I think it’d be a recommended resource for Christians and especially pastors.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jerram Barrs is one of my favourite living teachers. His lectures on church life, outreach, loving the lost, and apologetics are gold. He also has much to say about proper authority structures in the church. Sadly this book is dated and is written towards very specific issues he faced 30+ years ago with Watchmen Nee. There are gold nuggets to glean from Jerram, particularly, in chapter 4 related to biblical view of authority. I wish he would write a book just on authority structures. His warning to elders to resist the temptation to go beyond their office and "lord over others" is still relevant today in various church circles. If you can find a used copy of this, for a couple of dollars it may be worth it. Otherwise there are better books out there.

[Samuel Kassing · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know why this little book doesn’t get more love. It is a very straightforward and down to earth look at being an elder. I’d highly recommend it as a starting point for anyone thinking about pursuing the office of elder.

[Christian Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barrs provides a helpful introduction ecclesiology that emphasizes the role of the servant shepherd. A helpful book for clergy and laity alike as it has calls for both as they seek to walk in a more biblical ecclesiology.