There is an old story about a village situated on the bank of a quickly-moving river.
One day, the villagers noticed people floating down the river shouting, “Help! Help!” Alarmed, they began to wade into the moving waters and rescue people but the number of people floating down the river continued to increase.
They began to call out for help, asking more and more people to come and wade into the water to help rescue people as they came. One person, however, asked a question...
How are all of these people falling into the river anyway?
This curious, intrepid soul called together a group that headed up river to find what was causing the whole mess. They noticed a railing that had fallen into disrepair, and as a result people coming to enjoy the river had instead fallen in.
They repaired the railing, and as a result the villagers downstream were able to rest from their rescue efforts.
WHERE'S THE PROBLEM—REALLY?
The lessons of this story seems simple, but I’d like to turn the story in a bit of a different direction.
Sometimes the source of the chaos is a group of people committed to doing wonderful, Gospel-centered work.
They are motivated and focused on the mission to transform the world with the beautiful news of Jesus. These organizations can be complex, long-standing, and even well-known.
At the same time, they don’t always see the broken “railings.” Those who come to be a part of the beautiful work often lose their grip on their soul, whether because of pace or because of energy expended towards the mission that cannot then be given to their own souls.
SHIFTING YOUR FOCUS TO "UPSTREAM" SOLUTIONS
For many years, Soul Care has held a position "downstream" as an organization.
We tend to the people suffering from burnout, vocational confusion, spiritual dryness, and other forms of soul decay. Pulling them out of the fast-moving waters, we give them time to breathe and recapture God’s vision for their soul —a whole life that is flourishing, not languishing.
At some point, however, the railing needs to be repaired.
We will continue to rescue folks from the fast-moving stream, but what if we were able to keep people from losing grip on their souls in the first place?
What if organizations and teams could continue their beautiful work under the story of Jesus while also tending to the health of their staff and volunteers’ souls?
WHAT SOLUTIONS CAN LOOK LIKE—FOR YOU
In a recent post by Gravity Leadership, they cite a 2021 survey by the Barna Group that said 38% of pastors have thought about quitting in the last year. Only 1 in 3 rate themselves as healthy across all "5 Dimensions of Flourishing"—Spiritual, Physical, Emotional, Vocational, and Financial.
The railing is wobbling, if not broken, but what if we could reinforce it before the rapids claim another soul?
Your team's partnership with Soul Care is built to care for those who care for the world.
We believe deeply in “helping the helpers”—attending to the soul health of those who are never asked the question, “How is your soul?”
We offer an opportunity for your team to elevate the conversation around God’s vision for the flourishing of the human soul while also maintaining focus on the mission to which God has invited them.
So, here are 3 ways to support your team's soul health—and flourish together.
1. Kickstart the conversation about soul health in your team—and keep it rolling.
The majority of church, non-for-profit, and parachurch organizations care about their own souls and the souls of their team. However, they may not know what to do when soul health issues emerge.
Much of the time, we see burnout or soul neglect and say “That’s not good.” But how do we correct, guide, and encourage people in those scenarios? How do organizational leaders take care of their own souls when they don’t know what to do next?
Take the free Soul Health Assessment to kickstart your conversation around caring for the soul:
Our team is made up of people who are not only passionate about soul health and flourishing, but also people who have experience working on a church staff or a non-for-profit or parachurch organization.
Through tools like the Soul Health Assessment and SOS (Strengthen Our Souls) curriculum, we help organizations put the conversation about soul health within reach for their teams.
We know the question isn’t “is the soul important?”.
The question in most teams is this: “What do we do with the important questions about soul health?”
2. Connect personally with a team experienced in soul health solutions.
All the best efforts to take care of the souls of our teams fall apart if we miss connecting with each person directly.
Soul Care provides Spiritual Direction and Leadership Coaching to teams and organizations because the vocation and passion of individuals are all different, regardless of how well they come together to serve the bigger mission and vision.
Spiritual Direction is a one-on-one experience where a trained director creates a non-anxious space for people to listen to what God is up to in their everyday life. We talk about dryness in the spiritual life, transitions between spiritual stages, and vocational discernment questions such as “Should I stay?” Or “Should I go?” Or “How should I stay/go?”
Begin your Spiritual Direction journey by answering our quick questionnaire and scheduling a free, 15-minute discovery session:
Leadership Coaching engages individuals around their gifts, abilities, and values so that they can live out their vocation without losing their souls. Teams with soul healthy leaders are healthier teams.
We also help leaders plan for sabbaticals, because the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take a sabbatical is one that can’t be wasted. We work to guide leaders through a pinnacle moment in recovering their strength and returning to the heart of their vocation.
3. Empower your team to move from a sprint mindset to a marathon mindset.
The whole point of helping your team “repair the railing” is so that as individuals learn to take care of their souls, the team can become more and more what God made them to be.
The great mistake of ministry is believing that faster pace and longer hours equals greater faithfulness.
Quite the contrary, it is possible that when Jesus says “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?,” Jesus may have the “world” of ministry in mind.
Teams that are clear on the value of the soul health of their team and incorporate that value into their vision and mission are able to move from a ministry sprint to a ministry marathon.
Plus, soul-healthy leaders reproduce themselves into soul-healthy future leaders. Soul-healthy organizations are able to cultivate a vision for the whole world, showing a different way than the busy, hurried, performance-oriented drivenness that so quickly erases that God-given identity deep within us all.
So the question is this: how solid are your railings?
We’d love to help you and your team walk forward in all that God has for you—and flourish together.
Want to explore what it would look like for your team to partner with Soul Care?
Casey Tygrett
Soul Care Spiritual Direction