From Psalm 23 to became the true Shepherds of Men

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David, the shepherd boy, built up his shepherding skills from being a shepherd in the wilderness. But to become the true shepherd of Israel, he learned it though God’s school of shepherding while attending his father’s flock as stated on page 114 that [the shepherd ruler of Israel had first learned to trust YHWH as his personal shepherd in the desert. There he was privately prepared to tend the flock of God. Psalm 23 is a reminder that even the king – especially the king – was dependent on the God of Israel for personal nurture and guidance. Israel’s kings had to understand that being a member of the flock of God was more fundamental than being an appointed shepherd over that flock].

God will not arbitrarily call people to become full-time shepherd ministers; and God will not entrust His flock to people until they are willing to learn how to shepherd through various people ministries, that was the process David went through by attending the domestic animals goats and sheep for his father (as David said to Saul, Your servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb out of its mouth. And when it rose against me, I caught it by the beard, and struck it and killed it. 1Sam 17:34-35); after such intensive training God called him out of His flock to shepherd God’s people.

What I meant to say is that before we get into the full-time position to minister, to shepherd the congregation, God must have provided many opportunities for us to learn people ministry and shepherding, we need to learn how to shepherd through local church’s small group ministry and pastoral care ministry. During the course of it, God will allow some good or bad ministerial experience in those pre-fulltime ministries to humble us, to equip us for the full-time calling. Like David in the wilderness to shepherd his father’s flocks, usually those are the best training grounds for us before becoming the full-time shepherd minister. From those, we learn how to count on God, learn how to protect, provide and guide the flock and we learn how to grow the maturity of the flocks.