Good shepherds go looking for lost sheep because they care. Hirelings value their pay check. Shepherds value sheep. Hirelings do not want to take the risks of encountering lions and bears, nor crawling down deep ravines. Shepherds go at risk to themselves to pull back one from the brink of death. Pastors, and the whole church, are supposed to be involved in sheep rescue.
“What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” Matthew 18:12-14 (ESV)
