Published on: 09/06/2026
John 21:15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ he said, ‘you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed my lambs.’
In the last blog, we talked about having more nets to catch more fish. This time the question is, ‘Where do you put the fish when you have caught them?’ It turns out strangely, according to John’s gospel, that you put them in the sheepfold!
In John chapter 21, after the miraculous catch of fish, Jesus reinstates Peter by asking him to ‘feed my lambs’, ‘take care of my sheep’ and ‘feed my sheep’. If the miraculous catch of fish, is indeed an enacted parable of mission, then the follow on is feeding the catch. To put it another way, making disciples of all nations at least means teaching them something, and in this context, teaching them Jesus words and actions.
To expand on the previous blog, mission is not just about putting down nets where you hear the Holy Spirit telling you to do so, it’s also about actively bringing people to maturity. For feeding and caring for the sheep and lambs, we need sheepfolds. We need places of belonging where we can nurture faith and build community, sheep live best in flocks!
What sheepfolds do you have already?
Interestingly in terms of growing the church, Bob Jackson who has studied these things, says you can grow the church, year on year, by simply closing the back door of the church. What he means, is that people will join the church, but if they don’t find a place of belonging, they will leave again. If they do wind a place to grow in their discipleship, they will stay, and over time the church will grow.
Research and experience tell us that what we need in church are structures for creating community and for teaching and modelling discipleship with one another. We need to have something like home groups. Or fellowship groups. Or small groups. Or prayer and bible study groups. Or Rosary groups. Sunday morning on its own doesn’t cut it as the only place of belonging, we need Sunday and something else.
The Bible’s talk of fish and sheep is a metaphor, but it’s a metaphor that works like this, fish become sheep and sheep become shepherds. With intentional provision of places of belonging, the people who come in because we do mission, or the people who wander in of their own accord, are cared for, fed, and allowed to find their gifts. This is how the church grows, and through the creation of Christian community this is how God’s people grow into their calling as God’s people. They can then fulfil their calling and renew God’s creation, societally, environmentally, in everyway, through bringing in God’s Kingdom.
If you want to think a bit more about how to build effective sheepfolds visit our webpage, listen to the podcasts or email john.marsh@sheffield.anglican.org or hannah.sandoval@sheffield.anglican.org for a chat.
This week’s Blog post was written by John Marsh, Mission Development Adviser