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Before the Shepherd's Staff: How God Forms Leaders Before Entrusting Them with Authority
Paperback
Christian LivingGeneral Christianity
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jun 2 2026
Pages: 286
Weight: 0.85
Height: 0.64 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Before the Shepherd's Staff
How God Forms Leaders Before Entrusting Them with Authority
The staff does not create the leader. It reveals what has been formed in him.
Most leadership books tell you what to do after you get the position.
This book is about what God does before.
Before Pharaoh, there was Midian. Before the plagues, there was silence. Before the sea opened, there was a man faithfully leading another man's sheep in a wilderness where no one knew his name.
That order matters. God forms the leader before He entrusts the staff.
In Before the Shepherd's Staff, pastor and missionary Marcos Bueno takes you deep into Exodus 2-4 to uncover 50 lessons God taught Moses before he ever faced Pharaoh. If you feel hidden, overlooked, or stuck in a season that looks nothing like your calling, this book will show you that Midian was never a punishment. It was a workshop.
You will discover how to:
- Lead when you feel like you have nothing in your hand - and why God always starts with what is already there
- Understand that limits are not a punishment, but protection for the responsibility you are not yet ready to carry
- Take off your sandals - learning to strip off ego, vanity, and self-sufficiency before stepping onto holy ground
- Stop comparing your rod to Pharaoh's scepter - what is in Pharaoh's hand does not determine what God can do with what is in yours
- Carry authority without letting authority carry you away - why a staff must never become a scepter
This is not a book about how to grow your platform. It is a book about how to have a life that can sustain the weight of the platform God will entrust to you.
Who this book is for: Pastors and ministry leaders in a waiting season, marketplace leaders who want to lead like shepherds not kings, and anyone who knows they are called to more but feels God has them hidden in Midian.
God is not late. He is forming you.
The question is not, Do I have what it takes?
The question is, What is that in your hand?
About the Author
Marcos Bueno is a pastor, church planter, and missionary based in Porto, Portugal. For decades he has trained leaders across Brazil, Europe, and beyond to shepherd with reverence and responsibility. He writes at @revmarcosbueno.
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