Under Nehemiah's leadership many Jews returned from Babylon. They determined to rebuild the wall and gates of the city of Jerusalem.

The first gate to be built was the sheep gate.

The second gate was the fish gate.

The rebuilding of the sheep gate represents the building up of the members of the Body of Christ.

The rebuilding of the fish gate represents the work of evangelism.

This order is not accidental, it is symbolic.

We have it backwards today. We are trying to build the fish gate before the sheep gate.

As long as I can remember as a Christian the emphasis in the churches has been on evangelism, sometimes even on Sunday morning. I cannot remember any pastor, in my limited experience, stressing the building up of the saints. There always has been a mighty emphasis on the numbers of people attending, but as to the actual building up the saints spiritually, "deeper life" or whatever you want to call it, this was reserved for a week-night meeting or ignored altogether.

The idea is, we don't want saints "getting fat sitting in their pews." "Get out and bring in the lost and dying!"

You know what? The sheep gate needs building. The purpose of the gifts and ministries given to the Body of Christ is to build each believer to maturity as measured by the fullness of the stature of Christ.

The Bride is to be without spot or wrinkle. Right? Do you see any Christians around here without spots or wrinkles? Probably not.

Why? Because we are not emphasizing what Christ emphasizes.

Sometimes numbers of people is our criterion of "success." Spiritual growth probably is God's criterion of success.

The sheep are not being fed. They are not growing. Sometimes they are unchanged after fifty years. "You Are Odious" is still fighting with "Soon Touchy."

One reason the believers experience little spiritual growth is that the only way Christians can be built up to the measure of Christ is by the exercise of all the gifts and ministries of the Spirit. We have to have apostles, evangelists, prophets, pastors, teachers, gifts of healing, wisdom, knowledge, discernment, and so forth operating throughout the churches if the saints are going to grow.

The need today is for the saints to be fed!

The main purpose of the gathering of the believers is to build up the saints.

If Sunday after Sunday the emphasis is on "getting souls saved" you can bet the saints are not going to grow.

If the pastor is chief cook and bottle washer, leading the songs, giving the announcements, taking the offering, preaching, and everything else, the saints are not going to grow. The Holy Spirit assigns gifts to every member of the church and until those gifts are operating the saints are not going to grow as they should.

We need to minimize or abolish the clergy-laity distinction.

The primary job of the pastor is to feed the sheep with the riches of the Word of God, or at least to see to it that the primary attention of the main service is dedicated to this goal. Pastor-teacher is really one ministry, I believe.

If the pastor doesn't feel capable of feeding the sheep he needs to find someone who can. That does not mean he has to step down as pastor; he just needs to be a good administrator.

There are millions of believers in the United States but it appears many of them are spiritual babies. This is the army of the Lord?

First the sheep gate, then the fish gate. This is God's order.

If you love me, feed My sheep!