These are two different roles and functions altogether.  As I am sure you are aware, in the natural we are a fatherless generation, a parentless generation and as it is in the natural, so it is in the Spirit.  For the most part in the church there is a lack of real discipleship.  It has become the lost art of discipleship.  Many of us were birthed into the kingdom in some evangelistic way, but no one ever really discipled us. The great commission is not to make converts but to make disciples.  Discipleship is a form of shepherding.

Shepherding, or discipleship is pastoral in nature.  It includes setting the foundations of relationships in place in an individual’s life.  It is placement in relationship to the body.  It is personal to home, church, family and career and it’s a time of laying a foundation for a successful Christian life. It encompasses counseling, visitation, and relationship.

It is getting a foundational understanding of the Word, the Cross, the Blood, the armor of God and how to apply the Word of God to my life so that I can live a successful Christian experience.  Its about the victorious life.  Many people want to become leaders, but in the kingdom, before you can become a leader you have to be a good disciple.  Some people come to me looking to be mentored as leaders, but they are not yet good disciples.  We have to first be a disciple before we can be a leader.  So then I send them back to the pastor, to their shepherd, to get that sure foundation that they can build their spiritual future on.

Malachi 4:6 “He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”

Psalm 34:8 “O taste and see that the Lord is good” I have tasted and found that the Lord is good.  I do testify that the Lord is good.  Join me to taste him.”

Proverbs 1-9 is Solomon’s advice written to his son, Rehoboam.

2 Chronicles 10:1 “And Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king.”

Counsel and Wisdom

Proverbs 4:7 “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom and with all they getting get understanding.”

1 Corinthians 3:18, 19 “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness.”

Counsel with Older Men

2 Chronicles 10:6-7 “Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who stood before his father Solomon while he still lived, saying, “How do you advise me to answer these people?” 7 And they spoke to him, saying, “If you are kind to these people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be your servants forever.”

Counsel with Younger Men

2 Chronicles 10:8-10 “But he rejected the advice which the elders had given him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him. 9 And he said to them, “What advice do you give? How should we answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father put on us’?” 10 Then the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, “Thus you should speak to the people who have spoken to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter on us’—thus you shall say to them: ‘My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s waist!” He took counsel with younger men.

Godly not Ungodly Counsel

Psalm 1:1-3 “Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law does he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”