-
Lesson OneHoly Tension: Leading People Toward the Cycle of Spiritual Movement3 Activities1 Assessment
-
Lesson TwoFour Kinds of Conversations: Provoking the Right Kind of Tension3 Activities1 Assessment
-
Lesson ThreeThe Rhythm of SoulCare: Four Movements3 Activities1 Assessment
-
Lesson FourThe Doctrine of First and Second Things: Beginning to Understand Radical Dependence on Supernatural Resources for Supernatural Living3 Activities1 Assessment
-
Lesson FiveNew Covenant Provisions: Entering Tension that the Spirit Creates and Resolves3 Activities1 Assessment
-
Lesson SixNew Covenant Community: What the Spirit Makes Possible3 Activities1 Assessment
-
Lesson SevenSafety and Excitement: What Makes Someone Willing to be Known and Explored3 Activities1 Assessment
-
Lesson EightThe Purity of Self-Awareness: Encouraging Trust in Another3 Activities1 Assessment
-
Lesson NineDiscernment: Building Confidence in the Process of Discovery3 Activities1 Assessment
-
Lesson TenReleasing What Is Alive: Touching the Soul with Power3 Activities1 Assessment
-
Course Wrap-UpCourse Completion1 Activity1 Assessment
Participants 184
Discussion Questions
-
Briefly review what role each of the following topics plays in SoulCare: passion, wisdom, journeying reality, vision, reframing, and categories of understanding.
-
Passion is the true emotion for both parties in the soul care situation. The feelings that may or may not be spoken.
• What wisdom that will guide me in the process of providing soul care?
• Am I being aware of my own shortfalls and readily turning to God for His provisions.
• Can I not jump into fixing the superficial issue?
• Will I be willing to see God’s goodness in the other person and not be afraid to journey down the path together. -
Passions are holy or unholy things that rule within us.
Wisdom is using the power of the spirit to speak truth, in a loving way.
Journeying Reality is where you are, right now, in this moment.
Vision is remembering that no matter where the person is on their journey, they bear the image of God. Thinking about what God is doing inside of them.
Re-framing is the transition from flesh dynamics to Spirit dynamics. -
Passion is being aware of what is inside of me, how I’m reacting. I need to be aware of whether I am acting out of some selfish motivation or out of love. Wisdom is seeking to learn what is happening inside the other person so that I can have some idea of which direction to move by the Spirits leading. The presenting problem that your friend shares is the journeying reality. Framed thus it faces the fact that at this point in that person’s life, this is the reality of what’s going on in their life. We have to think vision as we hear the journeying reality, to see things in a bigger picture and as part of what God is wanting to do in this persons life. Reframing the problem means viewing it in light of present important relationships, past important relationships, and present immediate relationships. These have a direct relationship to the current condition of this person’s soul. The categories of soul care are first that they are a disappointed image bearer who longs for relationship. They are demanding that things be set to rights in their relationships and feel justified in their demands. And they are also a redeemperson with a vital appetite for God, forgiven and having new heart. That appetite often is buried beneath the mess of demands.
-
Passions: the things that rule in you that can be holy or unholy
Wisdom: Speaking truth in love with the power of the Holy Spirit
Journeying Reality: Your “red dot”, where you are at any given time and join someone in their red dot
Vision: Seeing all people as fallen image-bearers and helping them see their deepest passion is for God, What is God up to in this person?
Reframing: A paradigm shift from Flesh dynamics to Spirit dynamics, looking at the interior world of a person and not the presenting problem
Categories of understanding: Keeping in mind all people are fallen image bearers who need God to change, flesh dynamics vs. spirit dynamics, Where is the person’s red dot, all people have a deep passion for God, but don’t always know it, all people desire, perceive, choose, and feel -
Passions are with us and we need to let the ruling passion of the flesh be uncovered and repented of or given over to the Holy Spirit’s passion. Journeying Reality is the issue that the person will present and vision is seeing them want God’s glory more than that which is brought out in relationships. Reframing is asking about, seeing, and reflecting on what is happening in relationships. Categories of understanding – Brokenness through Release help you process what is happening in both of you and let the Spirit work in you and share so that the Spirit can to work in them.
-
How might your experiences in the cycle of spiritual growth help you provide more effective SoulCare?
-
It helps me to realize how broken I am, my need for repentance and that I only grow as I abandon the idea that I can do anything without God. Having my confidence in Him and not myself will equip me to journey with people and release myself from trying to please them or me.
-
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?
-
Retreating just makes a person feel more abandoned and less likely to share their issues with someone. It can cause them to be more self reliant (lost) and less aware of their need for total dependence on God.
Advising is just rearrange behavior based on limited information and partial perspectives. It is outside in help. They need the Holy Spirit to guide them from the inside out. There are no recipes or prescriptions that soul care provides to fix people or problems.
Empathy agrees with the issue, but does nothing more. It’s like patting the back of someone with a paper cut or bullet wound.
In the past, I would say that I tend to retreat when I feel like I can’t help or the hole becomes too deep for me to see the light in the person’s life. I have to be VERY mindful NOT to give advice. Part of my job is to provide resources. I have to realize that most people don’t want advice, they just want a listening ear. Beyond that, they need the Lord. I struggle with that.
I think I am predisposed in that area because “it feels ” like the right thing to do. I want people to feel better, do better and find hope after talking to me. I really need to work to take ‘me’ out of the equation and be a lesser light to guide them to Jesus.