“In the beginning the church was a fellowship of men and women centered on the living Christ. Then the church moved to Greece, where it became a philosophy. Then it moved to Rome, where it became an institution. Next, it moved to Europe [or Britain], where it became a culture. And, finally, it moved to America, where it became an enterprise.” – Richard C. Halverson (1916–1995), the former Chaplain of the United States Senate

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon (Money and Power).” – Jesus (Matthew 6:24)

There is a tragic sickness that seems to slowly infect the people of God whenever we start trading the cross for a crown… whenever we bow our knee to Mammon and those leaders driven by power and money instead of the humble servant King Jesus from the hood of Nazareth. 

We are seeing it everywhere right now in the empire churches of our day. Church scandals seem to be hitting our feeds every week. Pastors we thought stood for Kingdom values and the character portrayed by the Jesus they claim to serve, buckling under political pressure and seduced by promises of prestige and all its benefits from leaders making careers of mocking the risen Christ and those he loved and gave his life to serve and save.  Mega-ministry-platform expansion seems to be the goal as these ministry brands get built on the backs of bruised, burned-out saints… many who are finally coming forward with story after story of spiritual and sexual abuse from narcisitic leaders twisting the scriptures to build their own version of the tower of babel just like the world does. Even while quoting Biblical values, many CEO-like pastors and ministry executives will often fall into partnerships with political power-brokers and wealthy donors, scheming how to extract more capital and grow their buildings and budgets  (for god’s glory of course), while the single mom down the street is getting evicted and the traumatized kid in the margins is completely invisible.

The Western Church has largely bought into the logic of empire, especially this American one that always teaches that bigger, louder, richer, and more powerful is evidence of god’s blessing and favor. It’s not everyone, but I can’t help but notice in this political climate of moral decline, insane inflation and economic uncertainty, just how many ministries are tempted to side with the leaders of the empire who they believe can keep “God’s work” alive. I know because we are one of those ministries wrestling day in and day out as needs grow while donations decrease… The temptation is to bend the knee… not just so we don’t get persecuted, but so the lights can be kept on and salaries paid. It’s so easy in times like these to make decisions out of that fear, and form allegiances with systems that promise us power and money… The struggle is real, we can’t deny that reality, but how we respond to the struggle and what drives our solutions is what matters most: The end does not justify the means if the means of “success” involve selling out to the Empire’s system of doing things. 

When you trade the subversive, self-giving Shalom of the Kingdom of God for the mechanics of empire, you don’t end up with a Church that produces pastors following in the path of our servant King Jesus… You start seeing a Church producing more predators.

God has seen this play out before; centuries ago, through the prophet Ezekiel, who delivered an indictment against the religious and political leaders of Israel. It is an indictment that should shake every church board, every pulpit, and every Christian leader to their knees. Let’s unpack it. It just might speak to us today.

“The word of the Lord came to me: ‘Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?”’” (Ezekiel 34:1–2)

God begins with a basic question of cosmic order and justice: Who exists for whom? In the Kingdom of God, leadership is downward mobility. The shepherd exists to pour out his life for the sheep. But in the Empire Church, the sheep exist to serve the shepherd. The flock becomes a stepping stone for someone’s brand, a revenue stream to pay for multi-million-dollar campus expansions and first class or private travel. While leaders sit in gated comfort, entirely insulated from the cries of their people, the flock they were called to shepherd is starving as they strive to carry the burden of their “anointed” leader’s vision. The prophet says this:

“You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock.” (Ezekiel 34:3)

Look at the verbs: eat, clothe, slaughter. False shepherds consume the very people they are called to nourish. They fleece the sheep to clothe themselves in luxury. How many ministries do you know that build their entire strategy around courting the top 10% income bracket? They cater services to the affluent and influential because that’s where the resources. The time and energy must go toward gaining favor with the people on top who control the distribution of influence and money… The whole while the “least of these”—the addicted, the broke, the unhoused, the systemically broken—are treated as PR photo-ops or burdens to keep away from the green rooms or expensive meet and greets with the celebrity pastor or grammy award winning worship leader visiting. That is not pastoring; that is religious capitalism. It is serving Mammon with a cross pinned on it. The prophet goes on:

“You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.” (Ezekiel 34:4)

According to the Bible, true pastoral care turns its face toward  the weak, the sick, the injured, the stray and the lost. Notice who Ezekiel mentions: entirely vulnerable, low-yield people. The broken don’t give large tithes. The injured can’t volunteer multiple hours a week on the production team. The strays take messy, exhausting, inconvenient hours to track down in the wilderness.

So, what does the Empire Church do? It ignores them. Or worse, when a sheep cries out about abuse, manipulation, or injustice within the walls of the church, the leadership rules them “harshly and brutally.” They slap them with non-disclosure agreements. They weaponize “touch not God’s anointed” to silence whistleblowers. They crush the victim to protect the institution’s image and budget.

“So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.” (Ezekiel 34:5–6)

Walk the streets of any neighborhood, sit in the coffee shops, talk to the deconstructing, wounded souls who want nothing to do with organized religion anymore. They didn’t leave because they hate Jesus; they left because they were devoured by false shepherds. They were abused, discarded, and scattered across the hills of our culture, left defenseless against the wolves waiting to feed on them.  And the heartbreaking reality is that no one went looking for them (unless of course their top dollar tithe stopped coming in). The institution just replaced them with fresh bodies in the seats of “next Sunday.”

If Ezekial’s prophecy stopped there, we would be in utter despair. But the all powerful and personal God of the universe is a God of Mishpat (justice) and Hesed (unfailing covenant love). He hears the groaning of His plundered people. He sees and knows His lost and injured sheep.

“‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.’” (Ezekiel 34:7–10)

Let those terrifying words resonate: “I am against the shepherds.” God is against predator pastors.

God is not neutral when spiritual leaders exploit His people and church leaders build empires on the backs of abused sheep, Yahweh Himself becomes the adversary for the oppressed. He promises to rip the microphone out of their hands, strip them of their platforms, and literally rescue the sheep out of their mouths. The fall of celebrity pastors and abusive systems we see around us isn’t an accident—it is the holy, terrifying hand of God defending His traumatized flock. It is also a loving heavenly Father correcting and disciplining his kids for their lack of love for their siblings and their abuse of power and worship of mammon… The Father loves restoring his kids as they see their sin and repent… but He will take the false shepherds down if their position is being used to prey on the vulnerable. If they don’t repent for their empire building and spiritual abuse their pastoral ministry will go down in flames.

It’s important at this point to look at our Chief Shepherd for hope as we face the reality of just how many pastors have been produced into predators by a system that glorifies mammon over Jesus and those he came to save and serve.

Ezekiel brings a  turning point to the entire narrative by pointing us back to the heartbeat of the true Gospel of Grace:

“‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.’” (Ezekiel 34:11–12)

God doesn’t sub-contract out  this redemption. He says, “I myself will search for my sheep.”

This Ezekiel 34 prophecy is the exact lens through which you must understand Jesus walking onto the stage of human history. When Jesus looked out over the crowds in Matthew 9 and He had compassion on them because they were “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd,” He was looking through the eyes of Ezekiel 34.

When Jesus stood up in John 10 and proclaimed, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep,” He was declaring an end to the hirelings, the wolves, and the Empire shepherds.The True Shepherd of our souls had come, and he would never abuse His sheep.

My friend and fellow pastor Gabe Palmer told this story in one of his sermons. It goes like this: 

A tour guide in Israel was explaining to a group of tourists that shepherds in Israel lead their sheep from the front. They go before the flock, and the sheep follow because they know their shepherd’s voice. Shepherds don’t typically drive their sheep from behind. As the tour group traveled from one biblical site to another, they came across a flock of sheep being driven along the road by a man walking behind them.

One of the tourists spoke up and said, “I thought you told us that shepherds lead their sheep from the front. That man is walking behind them and driving them forward!”

The tour guide asked the bus driver to stop, stepped off the bus, and went over to speak with the man. After a brief conversation, the guide returned to the bus with a slight grin on his face.

“Well,” he said, “I have an explanation. That man isn’t the shepherd. He’s the butcher.”

A false shepherd is driving the sheep toward their slaughter. The Good Shepherd is calling to them with his gracious voice to follow him into green pastures. The false shepherd uses the sheep to preserve himself, the True Shepherd offers His own body on a Roman (Empire) Cross so the sheep might live. Where the false shepherd hides behind his ever upgrading overpriced wardrobe, Jesus allows himself to be stripped naked and flogged for all our sin… utterly exposed and shamed so we could be shame free and clothed in His eternal righteousness. In our True Shepherd we see a leader who gets down in the mud, touches the leper, dines with the tax collector, and defends the woman caught in adultery against the stone-wielding religious establishment of his day. We see a True Shepherd King who doesn’t lead his international flock from the top with worldly power and violent threats toward his enemies. No, He would rather die than lose one of his precious ones. We see a Shepherd who risks it all for the sake of His beloved lost sheep in danger of the wolves of this world. Listen to the metaphors of this prophecy and how it points to Jesus and what His cosmic redemptive work accomplishes for all. His people scattered amongst the mammon hungry abusive empires of man.

“‘I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord.’” (Ezekiel 34:13–15)

Here is the restoration of Shalom—nothing broken, nothing missing, everything functioning in holistic flourishing and peace. Jesus brings scattered exiles home. This includes those injured by empire churches and their CEO Pastors who built their brand on their backs. He takes the wounded, anxious survivors of every type of  trauma and says, “Lie down. You are safe now. The wolves cannot touch you here.”  He heals all the wounds (Psalm 103) with His tenderness and love and invites his sheep not into more striving, but into restful abiding.

It’s very important we finish with a warning to God’s people of our day to not be deceived by the empire and the false shepherds it promotes (some aware and some clueless).  As long as we are breathing there will always be two kingdoms at war with each other and two different types of shepherds leading the sheep.

How do we discern between the posture of Jesus and the spirit of the Empire church today? You know a tree by its fruit and you must follow the fruit to the root. The fruit cannot be hidden, and if we follow the fruit to the root we find mammon instead of Jesus. Here’s a few tell-tale signs.

False Shepherds prioritize donors and dignitaries; True Shepherds run to the margins. The false shepherd counts heads, assesses tithe potential, and builds green rooms for the top donor base. The true shepherd notices the quiet, trembling person in the corner, walks into the rough neighborhoods, and eats with the folks who have nothing to offer the church’s marketing deck.

False Shepherds use the sheep’s wool to cover themselves; True Shepherds bleed for the sheep. The false shepherd protects his reputation, silencing victims and burying abuse allegations to keep the revenue flowing (for god’s glory of course). The true shepherd takes the hit, exposes darkness, confesses corporate sin, and stands in front of the vulnerable to take the wolf’s bite.

False Shepherds try and motivate performance through harshness (and will even misuse passages to back up that harshness); True Shepherds create spaces of rest and healing and motivate through self sacrifice and love. Wherever empire leadership reigns, people end up exhausted, chewed up, and cast aside when they no longer produce. Where Christ-centered pastoring lives, there is genuine Sabbath, trauma is tended to, tears are wiped away, and sheep are restored to green pastures.

Ezekiel’s prophecy ends with a sobering guarantee that ties justice and mercy together:

“‘I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.’” (Ezekiel 34:16)

The gospel isn’t just cheap comfort; it is holy justice. The predatory, sleek, self-fattened exploiters will face the reckoning of the Sovereign Lord. But for every wounded soul reading this who has been bruised, plundered, or thrown out by an abusive system: the Chief Shepherd is out on the hills looking for you. He’d rather die than live without you. He doesn’t set you free from sin and death and the systems of the world so he can put new chains of empire religion on you… No, those the Son sets free are free indeed (John 8:36). He WILL NOT break a bruised reed (Isaiah 42:3).

This good news also offers hope for all of us Pastors in the midst of this empire system and in the wake of the rise of Christian Nationalism. There’s hope for us. We don’t need empire religion to empower Kingdom advancement.  If you are caught up in the predatory systems of empire religion the True Shepherd calls out to you as well before it’s too late and Mammon has its way with you. 

Jesus isn’t coming with a contract. He isn’t coming with a guilt trip. He IS coming with bandages, with rich pasture, and with a nail-scarred hand outstretched to bring us into His shalom. His grace never runs out and he is leading us by streams of water in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death. May we, as His missional body on earth, repent of our love affair with empires and their currencies of mammon, and join Jesus in His mission to shalom the hell out of this world.