Sheep Need a Non-Robotic Shepherd
I’ve been writing a lot lately about sheep. Maybe it is just because my daily Bible reading has included a lot of Psalms lately. I don’t know.
Anyway, I came across an article very recently that just struck me in an odd way, especially in light of all the sheep writing I’ve been doing.
It spoke about how a couple of companies–one in the USA and one in New Zealand–have partnered together to create a robotic dog and they are testing it out with the task of herding sheep in New Zealand. (Oddly, they named the robotic dog with the same name as our family dog, Spot.) They claim that the dog is “learning” to do this task over various types of terrain, including the mountainous regions of New Zealand. [Source]
Now, I certainly have no knowledge of robotics or artificial intelligence. I also have extremely limited knowledge about sheep–basically what I have learned to help me understand Psalm 23 and related texts better. So, maybe this experiment will turn out to be an unqualified success and, who knows, maybe we’ll see robots herding all sorts of animals all over the world in future months and years.
That part, I honestly don’t care about. What I do care about is people.
In the Lord’s church, elders are also referred to as shepherds or pastors. They are tasked with the most demanding work any person could ever assume, looking after the souls of each man, woman, and child under their care and seeking to help more people be drawn nearer to the Lord. There is no greater work.
But, could it be, that in some places we have “reduced” the role of elders to nothing more than something that could be done by a robot? Budget decisions. Administrative tasks. Paperwork. Making organization charts.
Those things are important. There is an “overseeing” aspect to the eldership, and sometimes it is necessary to deal in things that seem mind-numbing. I’m sure elders sometimes wonder if a robot could do that part of the job.
But a robot can’t shepherd God’s sheep.
It takes men who love people, interact with people, know people, care for people, are willing to warn people, teach people, and pray for people. It takes men who make the time to visit the sick, pray with the erring, warn those who are going into falsehood, and celebrate victories in families. It takes men who are open able to deal with very uncomfortable situations with more than a digital, press-the-right-key-and-get-the-desired-outcome approach, but who are able to read people and strive to deal with their differences and quirks.
Thank God that He didn’t appoint robots to lead us…He requires us to raise up and have shepherds who know us and love us, and lead us in spite of our faults, so that we can be in heaven together one day.
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AUTHOR: Adam Faughn
