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4.2 – Equipping and Training for Mission
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This verse reminds me of another verse in Matthew, where it talks about being as shrewd as a snake but as innocent as a dove. We need to have our hearts prepared before the Lord in order to lead his sheep. Let him lead us first before we lead others. But we also need to be using our brains and practically thinking about the way to do things. In Christian ministry, this looks like accountability. When accountable to others, we have the opportunity to flourish while also seeing fruit in the lives around us. It becomes harder to lose sight of the task God has put before us.
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I think I’ve seen a lot (certainly not all) of Christian ministry and specifically pastoral roles forsake the integrity of heart and shepherding and focus on leading with skilled hands. It seems to me like there is an emphasis on pastors being the “vision-casters” for the church and leaning towards the CEO mindset of offering a service rather than shepherding people. This is not necessarily out of a crooked heart, but certainly reveals a lack in this kind of leadership that David provided as a shepherd of people. I think that there needs to be a reset of focus of the internal ministry of a leader in the church to shepherd the people in the fellowship first, and part of this is just seeing how some pastors go about loving people well, listening, and providing counsel when needed rather than spending the bulk of the week perfecting a 40-minute sermon.
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In Christian ministry, we can follow the competencies of David listed in the psalms to better minister to others. First of all our heart needs to be in the right place. Shepherding with integrity of heart for us today means to align our hearts with the heart of God and truly love our neighbors as ourselves. we need to know that God loves the people we interact with in ministry, so we should love them the same.
in ministry today, leading with skilled hands means to base our ministry on scripture and studying the word of God. we need to be skilled with the sword he has given us and always keep learning to hear what he has to say for the church.
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Leading out of integrity is always 1st. If there isn’t any integrity the ministry will fail. Training either residential or on your own is needed.
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