Sadly, we’ve all seen Christian leaders fail because they lacked emotional wholeness. Our godly intentions can be overrun by our personal shortcomings. Angry reactions, lustful impulses, conflict avoidance, emotional distance, prideful self-reliance, power plays, or the inability to work well with other people sabotage godly purposes and lead to failure. Usually when leaders fail or…
The warmth of God’s presence can be elusive. In his secret journal, Henri Nouwen is vulnerable about a dark season in which he couldn’t feel God’s love. He’d helped millions of other people around the world into a more tender and intimate experience with God, but he was in a Dark Night of the Soul.…
Listen to this episode of Soul Talks: Join Bill and Kristi as they share a great excerpt of teaching from the Soul Shepherding Institute. Spiritual Formation is relational and personal. The way we respond and react to even the small, daily experiences in our lives affect our formation. Bill and Kristi each share how they…
Many Christians are stunted in their spiritual growth because they don’t understand or express their deep emotions and desires. As pastors, ministry leaders, caregivers, or parents we may get so busy or so focused on other people that we become disconnected from our own emotions and needs. But being self-aware is crucial to our abilities…
Listen to this episode of Soul Talks: It is important to give ourselves space to think and process our life and Jesus’ teachings but it also important to understand our emotions connected to it. Join Bill and Kristi as they talk about the power of emotions and how valuable they are in our formation…
Join Bill and Kristi as they continue their talk about the Enneagram and discuss the theory of the three triads. They talk about the basic emotional postures and how it relates to our personalities and how God so graciously blesses us through them. Kristi shares a recent story of her personal experience in this.
“Do not worry… Do not worry… Do not worry…” The Psalmist repeats his counsel three times in Psalm 37. (vv 1, 7, 8) Just like Jesus did in Matthew 6. (vv 25, 31, 34) “Do not worry.” This is not the empty reassurance of “Don’t worry. Be happy!” The Bible never advises denial of emotion. The…
At the beginning of our marriage, Kristi and I were both working full-time jobs and going to graduate schools in psychology. Obviously, we didn’t have a lot of free time to be together. But we were very much in love as you can see in this picture taken in 1985! When we did have time…
You long to be pursued in love. So do I. “How are you… really? What do you need? What are you hoping for? How can I pray for you?” When someone expresses genuine personal interest in you, it is healing. When you open up to grace, it is life-giving. But somewhere along the line we…
The Enneagram is a tool that can help us see our dysfunction, sin, and unhealthy coping mechanisms. God wants to show us the truth about ourselves and look at the parts of ourselves that is sinful so that we can repent and experience true freedom. Join Bill and Kristi as they further unpack each types’ “signature sin” and the pathway to repentance.