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Lesson OneHoly Tension: Leading People Toward the Cycle of Spiritual Movement3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson TwoFour Kinds of Conversations: Provoking the Right Kind of Tension3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson ThreeThe Rhythm of SoulCare: Four Movements3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson FourThe Doctrine of First and Second Things: Beginning to Understand Radical Dependence on Supernatural Resources for Supernatural Living3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson FiveNew Covenant Provisions: Entering Tension that the Spirit Creates and Resolves3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson SixNew Covenant Community: What the Spirit Makes Possible3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson SevenSafety and Excitement: What Makes Someone Willing to be Known and Explored3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson EightThe Purity of Self-Awareness: Encouraging Trust in Another3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson NineDiscernment: Building Confidence in the Process of Discovery3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson TenReleasing What Is Alive: Touching the Soul with Power3 Activities1 Assessment
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Course Wrap-UpCourse Completion1 Activity1 Assessment
Participants 165
Discussion Questions
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Briefly review what role each of the following topics plays in SoulCare: passion, wisdom, journeying reality, vision, reframing, and categories of understanding.
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Passion is our motivating force. Are we passionate about doing well, being well thought of, impressing the person we are providing soul care for, or passionate about seeing God reveal things to us that will help the person, and move in this person through his Holy Spirit and refusing to give in to feelings of our own inadequacies.
Wisdom is what God is shaping in us and for the other person as we listen and interact with them. The Holy Spirit prompts and guides us for the other person’s good.
Journeying reality is the walk we take spiritually with the person we are providing SoulCare for. We go at their pace as the Holy Spirit prompts us. The journey is as long as it takes, whatever that may mean in this person’s case. We give ourselves to the person, not our advice or just empathy.
Vision (I love this) is when as we listen, God unfolds a vision for a person’s relationship with him to us. This directs where we take the SoulCare.
Reframing means to take the story of a soul including the mess and the relationships of the person and by asking questions reframe the person’s perspective to align it with what the Holy Spirit wishes to be and do for this person.
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Passion deals primarily with what’s happening in me as I provide SoulCare. Wisdom is moving into a person’s life by the leading of the Holy Spirit in a way that stirs their appetite for God. Journey reality is thinking about what the person is experiencing right now that you are talking to. How can I be present for them in a safe way so they will be willing to open up and discuss what’s really going on. Vision is thinking about what the Holy Spirit is doing in this person’s life right now. Where direction is the Holy Spirit moving in this persons’ life right now? Reframing is moving from a specific topic into the larger topic of the story of their soul, the story of their relationships.
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SourCare is possible when I am aware of my passions (my motives) and relying on wisdom (resting in and releasing the Holy Spirit to work through me). If the other person perceives me as inviting and safe, they will feel free to share their journeying reality (their red dot, what is happening in their soul now). With wisdom, you consider their journeying reality and have a vision of what the Spirit is up to in that person and of what that person could be like if they wanted God more than anything else. Reframing is exploring the larger, deeper story of their soul. It happens when you are curious to find out how they are relating to their spouses, children, parents, God and me as we talk. It includes their past and present relationships as a context to where they are now. Categories of Understanding include the nature of image-bearers, sin, God’s solution, how the Spirit works today to stir up their thirst for God, how life and suffering and blessings work, and the purpose of community.
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Passion is sensing what is alive in me and what I yearn for in myself and in another. Wisdom is what is happening in the other person that I need to understand well enough to move in certain directions as we chat. Journeying realities are the “red dot” of where the person is in this moment. Vision is seeing where God is taking them as they yearn for him above all else. Reframing moves the other to think about the relational impact of their ideas. Categories of understanding are the details , the specifics of what is true about someone’s soul.
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Passion – to look at the SoulCarer’s motivation, a self examination of your own interior in order to provide effective soul care
Wisdom – a recognition of the fact that the SoulCarer is inadequate and must rely on the Holy Spirit for guidance and direction in this process
Journey reality – a focus on where the person is instead of where they want to be
Vision – the possibilities , necessary goals
Reframing – taking the focus off of the presenting problem and focusing on the story of the soul
Categories of understanding – information provided in the telling of the story of the soul that informs the SoulCarer’s focus in this process
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How might your experiences in the cycle of spiritual growth help you provide more effective SoulCare?
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Being able to learn from my own experiences in knowing that we are all broken and need God’s grace. This will remind us to focus on God and His delivery during the spiritual growth cycle. We will be humbled and be aware that without his mercy and power, we can do nothing. This keeps me grounded and gained confidence overtime to trust in God’s faithfulness and have hope that there will be better outcome beyond my comprehension.
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It’s inevitable that the people whom we work with will have ups and downs, struggles, doubts, questions, etc. If we are aware, even if we are in a solid place in our confidence in our relationship with God and as we see the move of The Spirit, knowing what it’s like to be in a place of despair or difficulty will help us to enter into our friend’s mess.
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I think having gone through brokenness, repentance, abandoning myself to God, acknowledging confidence in the fact that He only, has the power to effect real change in the heart, and from that place release what is alive in me into the life of my friend.
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The more I become aware of my fallen nature and self-centeredness, and take to heart my need for repentance of trying to make life work on my own terms, God will supply me with His grace, which in turn will lead me to surrender and brokenness. As my heart continues to go through the cycle of Spiritual growth, my confidence\\ in myself will diminish as my confidence in God grows. The more I become aware of my “mess” and my “self” moves out of the way, the Spirit will have free movement into my soul and into another’s, as I humbly submit to Him.
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When you experience brokenness, repentance, abandonment, confidence and release you know that you have changed from living in and emphasizing the external world to the internal one and that God has done a lot of healing and it is He that will heal the person He has brought to you. You will be able to share it more effectively and they will be able to receive it because they will know you can understand and it will make sense. His Spirit bears witness with our Spirit.
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Why is it a mistake to focus on retreating, advising, or empathizing while attempting to provide SoulCare? Which of these three mistakes are you personally more likely to make as you attempt to engage in SoulCare? What do you think predisposes you to make that mistake?
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All of those things come completely from our own soul and experience, and leave no room for the Spirit to move. They use our own knowledge but not supernatural wisdom.
I used to be an “advisor” for many years, although I’ve learned to listen a bit better and become more of an “empathizer” lately. I care deeply about people and want to be a helper to them, and carry a bit of the burden. But ultimately, as I’ve journeyed in soul care, it is truly the best method! -
Retreating is a reaction to what I am hearing that makes me want to back away. As Dr Crabb describes it, I want to move or reframe the situation into something I think I can handle. This stops the opportunity for progress toward what the Spirit may want to do as we lean into the problem just the way it is. Advising without sufficient understanding of what is going on in the person’s interior stops the movement of the Spirit and offers short term fixes vs. what the Spirit may want to do in this person’s life. Empathy is ok but it has no vision for what God may be up to in the person’s life. We certainly want to be empathetic to a person’s pain but there needs to be vision beyond the immediate. I am very empathetic and would be the mistake I would most likely make. I think because of the emotional pain I have experienced myself have experience would be why I’d make this mistake most.
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All three leave out the power of God’s Spirit. Retreat is backing away from Soul Care. Advising only rearranges the person’s behavior and does address the core problem(s). Empathy isn’t necessarily all bad but once again it doesn’t change anything. It is easy for me to want to give solutions or offer a fix to someone. I guess often through my own experiences I see a similar problem and remember may solution and result.
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When we are attempting to provide Soul Care and focus on our tendencies of retreating, advising, and empathizing, we can get lost in our inadequacies instead of exploring our deepest passion, for God. Instead, we should acknowledge our inadequacies through repentance and then wait and listen for the Spirit to speak to us and provide the wisdom to move into another’s soul. I am sure I will make all three of the mistakes listed, but advising may be the one I am more tempted to use in my attempt to do Soul Care. I think what predisposes me to offer advice comes from a fear of not looking foolish. If I made a mistake growing up, I was often met with ridicule or shame.
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Retreating will make them think they are unlovable, advising is trying to fix them, empathizing is only the first step and leaves out the solution of allowing God to bring healing. It depends on the person and my energy level. Retreating if I am tired, advising is old behavior and empathizing is the one I would like to do so they will accept me.