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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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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. 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. -
It looks like the passions inside of me are going to have a pretty direct impact on the kind of care I give and the kind of outcomes that will occur. If I ignore these passions within me I am likely to have a goal different from what God has for my friend. I am an empathetic person. Without recognizing this passion my tendency will be to do and say empathetic things to try and make the other person feel better and more comfortable in the short term. I may not think about the fact that God may want to use this pain in my friends life to help them grow spiritually. If I’m not aware of this I will not be looking for what the Spirit is looking to do in my friend and I will not ask my friend to consider that.
If I have not discerned that God’s purposes and my passions are at odds, an opportunity for God to do something in my friend will or could be missed. -
It is so important to understand the mess that is happening beneath and inside me as I walk through experiences with others so I don’t get in the way. One of the passions that I have burning inside me is that everyone is seen when they walk through the doors of church. I want people to know that they’ve been seen and are wanted. That stems from the mess deep inside me of rejection. If I can’t acknowledge the mess in my life and the “why” behind it, my thoughts and Soul Care for others will be very self-driven rather than God-driven. I find that as I talk with people as a lay person, I pray as I listen that God will give me questions or words to speak. I don’t want to impose my thoughts and my ambitions onto someone. As I dig in deeper to this study, I see that I need to even be more intentional with guiding that person more towards God and finding out more about their relationship with Him. This isn’t a new perspective, but it is a fresh perspective that takes the burden off of me needing to have answers and putting it on God who has all of the answers, peace, joy and understanding if we just choose to pursue him.
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As Soulcarer, I must be cautious of what is my passion that boils in my heart for the person who comes to me and shares struggle. I friend of my mine called and wants to talk to me about her marriage and her relationship with her daughter. I have not heard her story yet, but in my mind and heart I am confident that with my marriage training, abilities and experience I can answer or give her solution as I felt I am equipped. However, when she told me about her struggle my mood swing into a judgmental mood, I even quoted Ephesians 5:22-23
“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the Saviour of the body” and there was the end of the conversation. My friend didn’t say anything and the conversation ends. Now I understand that Soulcare is not a spiritual activity, I need to examine myself and accept my inadequacy. -
Ignoring the discerning passions within me would be a very dangerous course of action. It would be dangerous not only in SoulCaring but in life. The passions that stir within us will always influence our actions. Even if we know the right action to take, our hearts must be sincere. We can not offer authentic kind words, or advice, without examining our own motives. A simple scenario would be one that happens often in secular counseling. The problem is heard, and the counselor points directions out based on learned training, but often misdiagnoses the problem. The symptoms may cease, but the problem, the heart problem, remains. Even worse, wrong advice is given due to wrong desires based on the passions within the counselor.
