Practicing Leadership

From Shepherd Leadership: Wisdom for Leaders from Psalm 23 by Blaine McCormick and David Davenport:

Lynn Anderson recounts an incident from some of his travels in the Holy Land. Anderson and his local guide had spent part of a day traveling around the region learning about sheep and shepherds. Late in the day, they observed a man cruelly driving a flock of sheep through the streets of a town. This man yelled at the sheep and whacked them with a stick…. Anderson commented to his guide that this harsh, driving man did not conform to the description of the kind, leading shepherd that his guide had given him throughout the day. “Oh, that man’s not the shepherd,” his guide replied. “That man’s the butcher.”

Unfortunately, some followers might feel as though they are in the care of a butcher rather than a shepherd (115).