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Lesson OneIntroduction to SoulCare: Getting Started on the Journey3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson TwoThe First Task in Learning to Provide SoulCare: Knowing What You're After and What It Takes to Get There3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson ThreeA Personal Search: Beginning with an Inside Look3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson FourThe Concept of Ruling Passions: What Energy Carries You into the Life of Another3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson FiveBrokenness: The Key to Releasing the Power of SoulCare3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson SixThe Good and the Bad in the Human Soul: Self-Need vs. Soul-Thirst3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson SevenEntering the Battle for Another's Soul: The First Step3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson EightWisdom: A Roadmap for Entering the Soul Without Getting Lost3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson NineGetting into the Battle: Moving Below the Waterline from the Presenting Problem to the Story of the Soul3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson TenAgents of Growth: What SoulCare Can Do in Our Lives3 Activities1 Assessment
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Course Wrap-UpCourse Completion1 Activity1 Assessment
Participants 1
Discussion Questions
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Many people assume that learning the theory and skills of SoulCare is all that is needed to become an effective counselor. Dr. Crabb begins with a very different assumption, that discerning the passions that rule within you as a SoulCarer is essential. What do you perceive to be the dangers of ignoring this assumption? Illustrate your reasoning with examples from your own life or create a scenario that illustrates it.
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The danger of ignoring Dr. Crabb’s assumption is first and foremost that I will consider myself to be adequate for the job of doing SoulCare. I had a meeting with a friend in which she told me she was “overwhelmed”. Her house is a mess and she could rightly be called a “hoarder”. All I wanted to do was go home and have a rest after a very busy morning. So I told her I would pray for her and meet with her later in the week for lunch. So shallow! I was dealing with the ice above the surface of the water. I felt I was doing an adequate job by telling her I would pray. Consequently, she has not opened up with me again because I didn’t take the time to be real with her about my own inadequacies, which are many. I didn’t take time for her period.
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The dangers of not discerning the passions that rule within you as a SoulCarer is that you maybe depending on your own wisdom, or you may be trying help in a very superficial manner.
The result of both may be encouragement, or advice or counsel that doesn’t really go deep into another person’s true soul need. -
When thinking about Trinitarian relating amongst fellow Christians, not just in the SoulCarer position, but in everyday life, there are several dangers I can think of if we ignore discerning the passions that rule within each of us. First off, we are not relating like the trinity if we do ignore those passions. If we want to become like Christ and relate like the trinity, we will need and want to be aware of the “issues” or passions that block us from relating like the trinity and quelch the Holy Spirit from moving out of our souls and into another’s soul. We can damage our relationships if we relate to another by using only the skills of SoulCare: we dismiss people’s concerns they bring to us, we can come off as haughty and arrogant, which in turn wounds others’ souls. If the “experts” in SoulCare relate with just their head knowledge, they will forgo the essence of what SoulCare truly is: A relationship modeled after the trinity that uses both head knowledge and heart wisdom empowered by the Holy Spirit to touch anothers’ soul. Without it, people will only feel more unloved, unheard, and less understood, which leads to further frustration that can spiral down very quickly, even to the point of depression and feeling like giving up. There will be no hope that things can change for them. People will then resort back to what they did before and just try harder to do what is right, but others will simply give up.
I had a conversation with a former pastor of mine about some serious issues happening in the church. I brought to his attention what I thought was right, and maybe I was, but the spirit or energy that I had while talking to him pretty much invalidated everything I said because I did not discern the passions within me first. I came across as judgemental and condescending instead of speaking out of love and concern. This may not have been in a Soul Care situation, but if it had, I did more damage than good for the sake of being right. -
Having a relationship with Christ is the most important. If we do not read the Bible and pray everyday it will reflect in our duties. Ignoring the passions inside us is detrimental. Providing care to others we need to take care of ourselves first. I do not mean this selfishly. Taking the time to pray fervently, acting in obedience to His Word (and pursuing godliness) can provide us with wisdom in how to counsel. If we can humbly recognize that we need Jesus everyday-we can better equip those to seek and pursue God passionately.
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Discerning the passions that rule within us is essential to giving Soul Care because if we have the wrong motivation we will not see our need for God to meet us and the people we are ministering to. It is good to know empathy, but that alone does not lift us up out of the situation. If we try to give advice, especially when it is not asked for, we will be missing the real need. If we probe, we may stir up pain without the balm needed to help heal the pain. The real need is to see that we are flawed and sinful, that we need forgiveness, and that we need connection. Christ asks us to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Christ gave us this command out of His love for us and the world. We all have the shortcomings that do not allow us to do this. If we do not see our sin or mess, we will never know our salvation. This includes His forgiveness and the power of change. It includes replacing our lies and misbeliefs with His understanding, thoughts, and love for us and the person we are ministering to.
The strongest part of this God has dealt with in my life was giving advice. He confronted this in me through more than one person and when I learned that my spiritual gifts were shepherding and prophecy. Learning the latter one startled me, but when I learned the strengths and weaknesses of these it helped. Seeing the way things should be and sharing visionary goals without special care around the way I shared, came across as critical. Combining that with deep care for the way I thought God wanted things was more hurtful than helpful. Trying to earn God’s love rather than receiving it first and allowing Him to minister and heal my woundedness also affected this. A new pastor’s wife even told me, People did not want to be helped or fixed the way I wanted to help. This harmed my relationships. IHe is the only one that can do this for us and for others.
