Soul Training
At the recent South Central Conference Pastor/Leader/Spouse retreat, the featured speaker was Matt Johnson. The thesis for one of his messages was that the entry into a missional life is a deeply transformed heart, radiating love, peace and joy. Because we need to continually nurture and care for our souls, Matt described a series of Soul Training Exercises (STE), for which the key concept is nurturing our relationship with God and not functioning with a to-do list. The essentials of STE are:
(1) training, not trying: doing what we can do (including adequate sleep which is a spiritual discipline), moving toward the challenging.
(2) wisdom, not righteousness: living life wisely, in gratitude, moving with God and his guidelines.
(3) therapeutic, not meritorious: “God loves you and there is nothing you can do about it.” This is the nature of grace, which is opposed to earning but not to effort.
Matt identifies the #1 spiritual malady of our time as hurry sickness. We are so focused on doing that we have lost the ability to be. Soul work is slow work–we are transformed slowly. There is no microwave for the soul.
Posted on November 17, 2015 in Events Ministry