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Loving Oversight Builds UpThe Watchtower—1976 | July 1
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2, 3. (a) What “gifts” did Christ give to the congregation, and for what purpose? (b) What fine example should overseers try to follow?
2 “And [Christ] gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelizers, some as shepherds and teachers,
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Loving Oversight Builds UpThe Watchtower—1976 | July 1
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3 Though we may not have the “apostles” and “prophets” who served by special assignment in the early congregation, yet ‘evangelizers, shepherds and teachers’ are still appointed by holy spirit to take the lead in God’s service. What a fine example these have in Jehovah himself, “the shepherd and overseer of [our] souls”! (1 Pet. 2:25) How tenderly he leads the sheep in “tracks of righteousness for his name’s sake”! (Ps. 23:1-6) How kindly and understandingly he cares for the sheep! “For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: ‘Here I am, I myself, and I will search for my sheep and care for them. . . . In a good pasturage I shall feed them. . . . The lost one I shall search for, and the dispersed one I shall bring back, and the broken one I shall bandage and the ailing one I shall strengthen.’” (Ezek. 34:11-16) Jehovah sees to it that all the “sheep” are taught through his wifelike organization, their “mother,” so that they may have abundant peace and be firmly established in righteousness.—Isa. 54:13, 14; Gal. 4:26.
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