Course Recording

Q&A Recording
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Pastoral Theory Foundation Training (Course 301) - Lesson 2 Homework Assignment

1. Please listen to the recording above.
2. Take good notes.
3. Based on the topic of this lesson, raise your confusions or questions.
4. Submit your notes and questions to your pastoral zone leader.
5. Then proceed to the next lesson.

(06:00)

1. Several biblical viewpoints: 1. The Lord is my shepherd; 2. Jesus said, "If you love me, feed my sheep"; 3. The church is the army of the Lord. I would like the pastor to briefly introduce how to connect these viewpoints. For those who are new to seeking, how to start a dialogue with them and provoke their reflection on the concept of "church"? (Qinqin)

(15:40)

2. A new sister is facing problems with her homework. She doesn't know how to type, so I taught her to share using voice messages. She feels that her education level is not good and that she is illiterate. She values prayer. How should I teach her in this situation? (Suni)

Issues in Establishing Pastoral Relationships

1. I find that most people like to teach others. Sometimes, even when they are talking nonsense, when you correct them, they turn around and try to teach you, resulting in a life filled with conflict. Is the pastoral relationship a top-down relationship? Must the friendship aspect be removed to have a pastoral relationship? Can a pastoral relationship coexist with a peer relationship? (Ben)

(25:30)

2. Teacher, in building relationships with the sisters I pastor, I can help them solve problems by teaching the word of God, dealing with their bad habits, conveying faith, and expressing love in various forms. In what other ways can I improve myself and promote pastoral relationships?

3. Please tell me, the pastoral relationship is service in love. How should this "love" be measured so that both the pastor and the one being pastored can benefit? (Xuanyun)

4. Teacher, please tell me, when we are serious about pastoring, and the person being pastored seems serious at first, but then we slowly discover that they seem to be playing a game, what should we do? (Xuanyun)

(34:10)

5. The teacher mentioned in the course that we are a loving whole, and whether we can transmit God's love depends entirely on the pastoral relationship. How can this sentence be better understood? (Xiaonai)

6. Teacher, if a pastor has the heart of a parent, does it depend on the extent of the relationship with each person being served? (Ruying)

7. To build a pastoral relationship in love, some of the sheep being pastored are passive, not actively contacting the pastor or reporting their situation. How can we encourage the sheep being pastored to be more proactive? (David)

8. Teacher, does someone who has some discernment of good and evil still need to build a relationship? If a pastoral relationship needs to be established, how should it be done? What are some good ways to build a relationship? (Ma Xile)

9. In the process of pastoring, some people do not have needs for healing and deliverance, and their finances are okay, so they rarely contact the pastor. They just like to listen to the teacher's sermons, but they don't put them into practice. Although it is clear that they love the world and love money, the curse doesn't seem to have come upon them yet. It seems that no matter how much you teach, it doesn't have much effect. Teacher, how can we establish a close pastoral relationship with such a person and help them grow?

(40:10)

10. Teacher, do you have any special strategies when building pastoral relationships with people who are like silent gourds?

11. I am currently serving a sister, and the establishment of the pastoral relationship has been quite bumpy. What should I do to push it forward? Specific situation: After serving for a few months, I recently started leading her in healing, deliverance, and casting out demons. Currently, the idea of "I don't need to listen to you" is quite obvious. Some basic requirements for new believer training and developing learning habits, such as attending meetings on time and taking notes, are ignored after I ask her to do them. She only moves after being pushed a few times. When I try to understand if she is encountering difficulties, her descriptions are of problems that can be solved, but she stubbornly believes that there is no way to solve them, and she doesn't listen to other teachings. I can feel that she doesn't want to follow the growth path designed by the church and prefers to follow her own preferences. I think this is related to her not recognizing the pastoral relationship between us. How can we truly establish a relationship next?

(46:15)

12. When pastoring a certain sister, she initially showed a strong aversion to me, didn't mention any prayer requests, and only posted things in the group that she thought needed "prayer." She was also impatient to listen to teachings. Later, she said that she suddenly didn't dislike me anymore and was willing to take the initiative to ask me to pray, and she had a lot of deliverance every time I led her in prayer. Then I found that although she wouldn't argue directly, she didn't really listen to the teachings. Her views on giving, the church, and pastoral relationships were all based on her own internal logic system. When I pointed out her problems in the hope that she would be blessed, she just didn't understand and kept explaining. In this process, I often don't know to what extent I have established a relationship with her. How should I move forward?

13. The person being pastored doesn't tell the pastor all their problems, but only comes to the pastor when they really can't solve them themselves. What is the extent of this pastoral relationship? (Baiga)

(53:30)

14. As a pastor, I am very willing to be serious about pastoring, but some people (usually those without physical illnesses or who are unwilling to talk about other problems) just want to follow the church to listen to the pastor's Bible study and sermons and pray, and don't want to be pastored. They don't think they have any problems, and they consider the pastor's active concern as a disturbance and control, and they are not grateful. When the pastor points out areas where they need to grow, they don't accept it. It makes the pastor feel like they are trying too hard and not getting anything in return. How can we establish a pastoral relationship with such a person? How can we inspire a desire to be pastored? (Yanzi)

(1:00:30)

15. How do we judge a healthy relationship between a pastor and a servant, and what aspects does it manifest in? (Kuailefen)

16. The person being served is very obedient and completes everything the pastor arranges for them. Is this a healthy relationship? (Kuailefen)

17. Is "paying the price" the most important thing in pastoring? (Liangliang)

(1:06:30)
18. In the process of pastoring, I start to become lazy and not as passionate and willing to pay the price as I was at the beginning. Now I am pastoring someone who has the same problem as me. How can we grow together? (Meishaonv)

19. Whether I am pastoring my own family or other people, my heart is full of enthusiasm, and I feel like I am being serious, but the results of pastoring are not optimistic. What is the problem? Teacher, what does it mean to be serious about pastoring?

20. Is the relationship of mutual love mentioned in the church only between the pastor and the sheep? Like our current situation, different pastoral zones, different pastors, and sheep may not know each other. Does this mean that because we are in the same church and have the same Mingding Doctrine, we have a loving relationship? (Qianqian)

(1:16:30)

21. Teacher, how do we establish a good pastoral relationship? What specific work needs to be done?

22. Teacher, when the person being pastored and the pastor have different views on the same issue, what should the person being pastored do?

23. Teacher, the person being pastored has the bad habit of pretending. Are there any special methods to deal with this in the process of building a relationship with them?

24. If a person is lukewarm, how do we determine whether it is a spiritual bondage or a matter of the person's own attitude? How do we build a pastoral relationship with a lukewarm person?

(1:21:00)

25. I once pastored Sister XX and was truly willing to pay the price to serve her. She couldn't lie down to sleep and often felt suffocated. I took her to pray day and night, but later, when I was teaching her and dealing with some of her fleshly bad habits, she was very unwilling to listen and didn't like to listen to my teachings. She just wanted me to lead her in prayer. I thought that my pastoral relationship with her was very good and that I loved her because I brought her into our Chinese Mingding Doctrine and wanted to solve her problems. Please tell me, what went wrong with my pastoring? Why are my teachings annoying? I am clearly loving her, but she thinks I don't love her. How should I handle this situation? (Meizi)

Fleshly Bad Habits

1. Teacher, please tell me, sometimes dealing with the bad habits of the person being served requires severity, but also requires grasping the strength. However, it is difficult for me to be severe, and I don't know how to grasp the strength. Can you give me some tips?
2. How do we pastor people who are "losers"?
3. Please tell me, "When you see a person growing, the most important thing is to deal with their bad habits. If you want to deal with them, it will be a conflict." If there is a conflict, how should it be handled afterwards? (Xuanyun)
4. Teacher, how can we build up the other person's faith while breaking down the flesh? How do we grasp the relationship and degree between the two? Is it that in the process of breaking down the flesh, the other person sees their own growth, and their faith is built up at the same time? (Suni)
5. About when to push for work. There is a full-time mother who just picks up and drops off her children every day and doesn't have a job. She has been with us for more than half a year. When is a good time to encourage her to work? (Jidian)

(1:25:30)

6. Some sheep have experienced many of God's graces. When you deal with their flesh, they become anxious, and sometimes they can't hear the word of God, are unwilling to leave, and can't move forward. How do we pastor in this situation?
7. In the process of pastoring, dealing with people's bad habits will inevitably cause conflict. Sometimes, even if there is no conflict, you have to create conflict. Teacher, can you talk about how to create conflict, manage conflict, and transform conflict?

Loving the World (1:27:15)

1. Through the study of this lesson, I learned how to establish a loving pastoral relationship with the person being pastored, which is to serve with the heart of a father and mother, weeping with those who weep. Then the teacher also said that pastoring requires learning to deal with people's problems. I don't think this point is easy to grasp. A sister is very enthusiastic about serving her father and often writes in her notes about how she pays the price to serve her father. She also often runs outside to serve brothers and sisters in other churches. However, when it comes to dealing with her own problems, she often sits on the bed and prays during prayer meetings and then falls asleep. Teacher, is this person playing a game? This sister expresses the hope that I can serve her father, but her father has always loved the world and is unwilling to believe in God, so the situation keeps repeating. I don't think serving in this way is effective. So I would like to ask the teacher, how can we both weep with those who weep and deal with this sister's bad habits in this situation?

(1:32:30)

2. The person being pastored went to the hospital because of a serious illness. In this situation, what else do we need to do besides showing concern and asking about their condition? (Xuelian)

About Lack of Understanding

1. About lack of understanding. A sister often listens to sermons, but her understanding never becomes clear. For example, she keeps an eye on whether her husband is reading the Bible and praying. If he does, she is happy. How do we teach this type of person? (Jidian)

Healing and Deliverance

1. Teacher, I am very selfish and indulge in my flesh, but I really want to become a person who is serious and pays the price to serve. The biggest challenge is sleep. Sometimes after staying up late, I am very energetic the next day and my faith is multiplied. Sometimes my head is very dizzy and my body is uncomfortable, so I indulge in my flesh again, and then I blame myself. The pastor said to have a developmental perspective and look at the trend of my growth, but I have never been able to implement this point. I always feel like this is accepting my sin. Teacher, should I just let go of these messy thoughts and believe that God will definitely help me?

Pastoring Children

(1:39:15)

1. I started pastoring my children. My son is 16 years old and my daughter is 13 years old. They have both been in the church with us for many years. After studying this lesson, I feel that in terms of pastoral relationships, I have fatherly love for them, but many times I feel that I am too considerate of them. Many times I feel that if I push them too hard, they will be disgusted and the effect will be counterproductive. Is it more difficult for parents to pastor their own children than for ordinary brothers and sisters? Is pastoring one's own children a suitable start for a Christian who is just beginning to learn how to pastor? (Bryan)

Financial Problems

(1:41:45)

1. I have been serving a sister for about 4 months. When she first came, it was because of financial problems. She and her husband used to invest every time, but they were either scammed or the investment failed, and they had been struggling for decades. Not long ago, they borrowed 600,000 yuan to invest in tungsten mines, but because various procedures could not be completed, it has been stalled. The partner said they would refund the money to them, but it has been delayed for more than a month. This sister is very worried. My question is, should I be concerned about her financial problems or the problems behind her financial problems? This sister is easily worried about worldly things and has a very lacking mentality, so my idea is to build her faith in God so that she can become a person who trusts in God. Is this correct? (WeWeiAn)

About Pastoring Family Members

(1:47:30)

1. The church teaches us about the relationship between pastoring and being pastored. If we are not in the church, such as in family relationships and workplace relationships, how should we build healthy interpersonal relationships? Can we apply this spiritual principle? How do we apply it? Thank you, teacher, for your guidance. (Anqi)

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