Shepherding Movement

False Teachings

Shepherding Movement

7 min read

The Shepherding Movement is a controversial church leadership approach that emerged in the 1980s, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Another name for the Shepherding Movement is the Discipleship Movement. This movement was initially developed in Charismatic circles, but today it can be found within many other circles, such as the New Apostolic Reformation.

Submission to authority is the foundation of the Shepherding Movement. The Shepherding Movement uses manipulation and intimidation tactics in order to make church members obey the church leader. This movement emphasizes the non-biblical idea of having a "spiritual covering."

History of the Shepherding Movement

Historically, this movement would set five leaders at the top of the leadership pyramid. Beneath each of those five "shepherds" were five other people who submitted to the authority of their shepherd. This structure was maintained all the way down the pyramid. Each group of five was called a "submission".

The Shepherding Movement was a pyramid scheme for discipleship. Each disciple would tithe directly to their shepherd. The leaders believed and advertised that submission to church authority provided the greatest spiritual protection available.

Each member of this group was required to show complete and absolute devotion and obedience to their shepherds. Individuals involved in these groups were not actually individuals. They could not make decisions without first speaking to their shepherd. They were decisions that ranged from career choices, to marriage, to even the smaller everyday choices. Obedience to one's leader was seen as equivalent to obeying God.

The Shepherding Movement presented submission to a church leader as the solution to the individualism and lack of spiritual discipline that was perceived among believers. This was a man-made solution rather than a biblical one.

Every believer was told to find a shepherd (a church authority figure) and to commit their life to that shepherd. Believers were told to share their lives as openly as possible to their shepherd. In this way, the shepherd became a replacement for Christ.

A believer's primary connection to a group had to first be to the shepherd, and then to the other church members. This helped ensure that the shepherds maintained full control over the entire group.

A Man-Made Leadership Structure

The leadership structure of the Shepherding Movement is not actually found in the Bible. Instead, the Bible describes Jesus as the head of the church, with everyone looking to Jesus for wisdom, provision, and protection.

Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. (Ephesians 5:23)

This movement's hierarchy, that is based on submission to authority, has created many victims of spiritual abuse at the hands of authoritarian leaders.

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 2:5

The Bible makes it clear that there is only one mediator between us and God, and that is Jesus, not a church leader or a church authority figure.

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
Romans 3:19

We should not be held accountable to a pyramid of church leaders. We are accountable to God alone.

For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," hare you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
1 Corinthians 3:4-7

Church leaders are supposed to be servants. They are not supposed to be authoritarian dictators. Servants should not be given all the attention that church leaders receive nowadays. Our focus should be on God. Even church leaders themselves are nothing without God.

Spiritual Covering

The "spiritual covering" teaching is a very dangerous teaching that emerged from the Shepherding Movement. This teaching declares that believers must be accountable not only to God, but to a spiritual leader as well. The teaching emphasizes the importance of every believer becoming a member of a church in order to receive a "spiritual covering". The leader of that church then becomes one's spiritual covering.

At this point, the believer is no longer independent. They are submitted to and accountable to their leader. The believer is tricked into believing that they receive a special protection from God because they are "under cover", that is, under their leader's covering.

The "spiritual covering" teaching has created many abuse victims. This teaching is wrong because it makes the church leader a substitute for God in the life of the person being "covered." A leader who demands blind submission and obedience from their members is attempting to establish a corrupt authority structure. These types of leaders are hungry for power, control, attention, and admiration. They are not fit to be leaders of a church.

Only one Good Shepherd

The Bible only speaks of one Good Shepherd, and his name is Jesus (John 10:11). He is the only Good Shepherd because he is the only one who laid down his life for his sheep (John 10:15). He is the only shepherd that we should give our full attention and obedience to.

There is only one hierarchy that matters in the Bible, and that hierarchy is found in 1 Corinthians 11:3.

...the head of every man is Jesus Christ...
1 Corinthians 11:3

The only hierarchy that should be part of our spiritual life is the one where Jesus Christ is Lord and King, and we respond by submitting to him and obeying him.

Every man and woman is an equal under Jesus Christ's headship and authority. The Spiritual Covering teaching ignores the important biblical truth that says, "we must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).

Do not blindly submit

Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus tell us that we should be blindly submitting to church leaders. Instead, Jesus tells us to watch out for power-hungry leaders who seek to be exalted above others only to demand their submission.

and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Matthew 23:6-12

Jesus warns us not to become like the false religious leaders of his time. We should not demand to be recognized and obeyed as teachers, because only one teacher really matters, and that is Jesus. We are all just brothers and sisters. If anyone wants to be a great leader, they should become a great servant.

Church leaders who try to exalt themselves using false teachings from the Shepherding Moment will be humbled by God himself.

Psalm 91:1 teaches us that the only "spiritual covering" we will ever need comes from God, not from the Shepherding Movement. When we live a life in relationship with God, through Jesus Christ, we dwell in the shelter of the Most High.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
Psalm 91:1

This verse doesn't mean that we can live a reckless life, or that nothing bad will ever happen to us. It simply means that God is our only secure refuge through the storms of life, not church leaders.

When the false teachings of the Shepherding Movement are exposed, our focus, attention, and adoration shifts from sinful church leaders to the perfect leadership of God in Christ.

  • Under Cover: A manual for abuse is a blog post about John Bevere's book, "Under Cover", that is heavily influenced by the Shepherding Movement's teachings.