The shepherding and discipleship movement

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By the late 1960s the charismatic renewal had produced thousands of independent prayer groups and fellowships with no pastors, no discipline and no structure. A group of Bible teachers based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, set out to remedy that. Their answer was shepherding (also called discipleship): every believer should be personally submitted to a "shepherd", who would be submitted to another, and so on up a chain of authority. Being "under covering" was the believer's protection; being without it was rebellion.

The teachers - Derek Prince, Don Basham, Ern Baxter and two others not named here because they were living when this was written - became known as the "Fort Lauderdale Five". Through their magazine New Wine and their network, the teaching reached tens of thousands. In many places shepherds came to direct their disciples' marriages, jobs, purchases and moves, and to receive their tithes.

The charismatic world was soon divided. In 1975 Pat Robertson barred their teaching from his television network and publicly challenged them; Kathryn Kuhlman refused to share a platform with one of them. Former members described shepherds controlling every area of their lives and the spiritual damage that followed.

Then the founders themselves turned back. Derek Prince withdrew in 1983, calling the movement's error the "Galatian error" - trying to perfect by human control what the Spirit began. The network dissolved in 1986. In 1989 another of the founders publicly repented, acknowledging that the movement had led to "unhealthy submission" and abuse.

The historic Church has always had spiritual direction and pastoral authority. But it sets both within the Church's law and order, protects the conscience of the faithful, and forbids pastors to be "lords over God's heritage" (1 Peter 5:3).

Verdict: shepherding was an attempt to create apostolic order without the Church. It became a chain of personal authority answerable to no one, and its founders came to say so themselves.

What is believed

A shepherding teacher of the 1970s would have put it like this:

• God works through delegated authority. Every Christian needs to be under the covering of a spiritual authority who watches over his soul (Hebrews 13:17).
• Every believer should be in a covenant relationship with a shepherd, to whom he submits his life - not only in doctrine but in practical matters - and from whom he receives oversight, correction and blessing.
• Shepherds are themselves submitted to other shepherds, so that the whole body is held together in lines of relationship and accountability.
• Independence is rebellion. A Christian who will not submit is out from under God's protection.
• Tithes are paid to one's shepherd.

Where it came from

The Holy Spirit Teaching Mission

In 1966 a group in Fort Lauderdale formed the Holy Spirit Teaching Mission, a ministry to the charismatic renewal. Its magazine New Wine began in 1969. In 1970 the leader of the ministry was found to have fallen into moral failure, and four Bible teachers associated with it - Derek Prince, a former Cambridge philosophy fellow turned Pentecostal teacher, Don Basham, a former Disciples of Christ pastor, and two other charismatic teachers - committed themselves to mutual submission and accountability, so that none of them would fall in the same way. Ern Baxter, a Canadian who had worked with William Branham in the healing revival, joined them in

1. The ministry was renamed Christian Growth Ministries in 1972.

Their concern was real: the charismatic renewal was full of immature, unaccountable groups and self-appointed leaders. Their solution was to extend their own covenant of mutual submission into a teaching for every believer.

The system

By the mid-1970s, shepherding networks connected to the Fort Lauderdale teachers counted tens of thousands of members across North America and beyond. The teaching took different forms in different places, but common features included:

• every member assigned to a shepherd, usually in a small "cell" or "house group";
• shepherds consulted, and in many groups required to approve, decisions about marriage, employment, housing, moving and major purchases;
• tithes paid to the shepherd, who passed a portion up the chain;
• loyalty to the network's leaders, and suspicion of other ministries;
• a strong emphasis on authority, submission and the dangers of "rebellion".

The 1975 controversy

In 1975 the controversy broke open. Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, ordered the destruction of the teachers' tapes held by CBN and, on 27 June 1975, wrote an open letter challenging their teaching. Kathryn Kuhlman refused to appear on the same platform as one of them at a conference in Jerusalem that year. The Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship barred them from its platforms. A meeting of charismatic leaders in Minneapolis in August 1975, intended to reconcile the two sides, ended in bitter disagreement and became known as the "shoot-out at the Curtis Hotel".^†

Harm

Accounts by former members, gathered most fully in Ron and Vicki Burks's Damaged Disciples (1992), describe shepherds who forbade or arranged marriages, told members where to work and live, controlled their money, and treated questioning as rebellion; and members who, after leaving, struggled for years with guilt, fear and loss of faith. Similar patterns appeared in campus ministries and covenant communities influenced by the teaching, several of which were disbanded or reorganised in the late 1980s and early 1990s.^†

Repentance

The founders themselves turned back.

Derek Prince withdrew from the movement in 1983. He described its fault as the "Galatian error"

• "having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:3) - that is,

trying to bring about by human structures of control the maturity only the Spirit can produce. New Wine ceased publication and Christian Growth Ministries dissolved in 1986.

In November 1989 one of the other founders issued a public statement of repentance, published in Charisma in early 1990, acknowledging that the movement had produced "an unhealthy submission" resulting in "perverse and unbiblical obedience to human leaders", and asking forgiveness of those who had been hurt.^† Others of the group made their own statements of regret in later years.

What the historic Church taught

On pastors. "Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:2-3). Christ: "the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them... But it shall not be so among you" (Matthew 20:25-26).

On freedom. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Galatians 5:1). Paul refused to "have dominion over your faith" (2 Corinthians 1:24).

On spiritual direction. The Desert Fathers, the monastic rules and the confessors of every age practised the spiritual guidance of souls, often with great demands on those who chose it. But the obedience of a monk to his abbot was given within a vowed life, under a written rule, under the bishop, and the abbot was himself bound by the rule and answerable to God and the Church. The Church's tradition has always distinguished between this freely chosen obedience and the ordinary Christian's freedom in the affairs of life.

The verdict

The shepherding movement began with a real problem - unaccountable charismatic groups and leaders - and tried to solve it by inventing a structure of authority from nothing. Having left behind or never known the historic Church's order, it built a chain of personal relationships in its place, with authority over the whole of life and accountability to no one at the top.

It is a clear case of the second thread in this section: when creeds, councils and an ordained ministry under the Church's law are set aside, authority does not disappear. It flows to individuals, and without limits it becomes control. The movement's own founders reached that conclusion and repented publicly, which is to their great credit.

How the four traditionsthe Catholic Churchthe Orthodox Churchthe Lutheran Churchthe Anglican Communion responded

Key personalities

Answering a modern Christian

"You need to be under covering. Who are you accountable to?" A good question, and every Christian should be able to answer it. In the four traditions the answer is: to Christ, through His Church - its Scriptures, creeds and sacraments, a pastor under a bishop, and the Church's discipline. That is real accountability. What the New Testament does not teach is a private chain of personal shepherds with authority over one's marriage, job and money.

"The Bible says to obey your leaders." It does (Hebrews 13:17), and in the same breath it tells leaders not to be "lords over God's heritage" (1 Peter 5:3). Christ said that among His disciples it should not be as among the rulers of the Gentiles. Pastoral authority is real and limited. The founders of the shepherding movement came to say exactly this when they repented.

"Our church practises discipleship, not shepherding." Discipleship is a good word and a good thing. The questions to ask are: does anyone in your church claim authority over your personal decisions? Are the leaders accountable to anyone outside the group? Is questioning treated as rebellion? If the answers are no, yes and no, you are probably safe.