Caring for souls

Something that's always been on my heart is a desire to minister to the broken-hearted. Experiencing sorrow in my own life has given me a measure of empathy for the pain others feel. Over the years I've had the opportunity to be both a giver and recipient of this kind of ministry, and I always wanted to take those experiences and pass them onto others. Over this past year that desire has gotten serious, as I approached the leadership of my church with a proposal to teach what has come to be called "soul care." I'm happy to say that last week I finally got to teach this stuff at Calvary, my home church. Now, what is soul care exactly? It's the act of partnering with God's work to heal the broken-hearted with the goal of becoming more like Jesus. It's about walking along side of those who suffer in a relational way, and even though it's called soul care it ministers to the whole person - spirit, soul and body. One of the things I learned from my studies at Prairie Bible College is that we need to find resolution with our past in order to grow presently into more mature Christians. As followers of Jesus our character defines our lives and gives credence to our faith. If the world doesn't know us for being people of love, compassion and integrity then this reflects poorly on the God we serve. It's so important to deal with the hurts of our past because, as a pastor I once knew said, "Hurt people hurt people."

Whenever you reach out to those who hurt you do so out of your understanding of who you are as a Christian. For followers of Jesus this comes out of their understanding of their identity as God's children. It's this understanding of one's identity in Christ that gives us compassion for the brokenhearted. Neil T. Anderson lists off the identity traits of God's children when he asks the question, "Who am I in Christ?" This was the first part of the class I taught, as it's so important to start with the soul "care-giver". If you're not a person who is compassionate, empathetic, trustworthy and models growth (not perfection) then people won't come to you with their problems. Resolving who we are in Christ is the key to becoming such a person. The next thing I taught was issues of loss. We really don't think about loss, and yet we experience losses on a regular basis. They can be material or relational losses, the loss of self image, loss of health, loss of a dream, job or role, or final losses (like death). They can be frequent or gradual, and accumulate over time; they can be ambiguous, be seen just over the horizon and also be unspeakable. The soul care-giver must be able to listen and show compassion, because we are called to "mourn with those who morn" (Romans 12:5). The last part of the course touched on developing listening skills and learning how to pray with those who you give an ear to.

Years ago when I began thinking about teaching soul care to others I was in a place where I was not only a giver of soul care, but also a recipient. Having lived with Clinical Depression deepened my empathy for others, especially Christians who had Depression. I'm ashamed to say that at one time I though that if you were a Christian and were depressed this meant there was something wrong with your faith. And while Depression obscures your faith, it doesn't mean a lack of faith caused it in the first place. So it's my hope that by bringing more awareness of people's emotional burdens that the church can become more of a safe place of healing. It should be in the first place, and I know many churches are. But there's an element in the Christian community that doesn't realize that this was the way in which Jesus reached out to people. In fact the Bible says in Luke 4:14-20 that Jesus kicked off His public ministry in this way. So basically when we do soul care we are carrying on the work that Jesus started 2000 years ago. I'm thankful for the people in my life who came alongside me and walked with me in my dark night of the soul. They were Jesus to me, and through my brokenness I experienced more of God's favor in my life. It's my hope and prayer that all believers learn the art of caring for souls. And this doesn't extend to just those inside the church. As our world drifts farther away from God there will be those who will come to the church, tired and broken from a life of sin. They will need to know that there is good news for them too; that they can be set free from their chains, find new sight, freedom from oppression and to receive God's favor.

May God touch all our lives with His favor, so that we can pass it onto those who are broken.