Course Recording

Q&A Recording
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Pastoral Ministry Foundations Training (Course 301) - Lesson 2 Assignment

1. Listen to the above recordings.
2. Take notes diligently.
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 perspectives: 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 perspectives. When engaging with newcomers, how can we initiate a dialogue that prompts them to reflect on their view of "church"? (Qinqin)

(15:40)

2. A new sister is facing difficulties with the assignment, as she is unable to type. I taught her to share via voice messages. She feels inadequate due to her limited education and illiteracy. She values prayer highly. How should I guide her in this situation? (Suni)

Establishing Pastoral Relationships

1. I've noticed that most people enjoy teaching others, even when they are clearly talking nonsense. When corrected, they tend to turn around and try to teach you, resulting in a constant state of tension. Is a pastoral relationship necessarily a hierarchical one, requiring the removal of friendship? 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 by teaching the Word of God, addressing their bad habits, conveying faith, and expressing love in addressing certain issues. In what other areas can I improve myself to foster the pastoral relationship?

3. Please advise on how to gauge this "love" in a pastoral relationship, which is a service in love, so that both the pastor and the one being pastored can benefit. (Xuanyun)

4. Teacher, what should we do when we are genuinely committed to pastoring someone, and they initially seem genuine as well, but gradually we discover they are only pretending? (Xuanyun)

(34:10)

5. 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 statement be better understood? (Xiaonai)

6. Teacher, if a pastor has the heart of a parent, does the extent to which this is reflected in each person being ministered to depend on the depth of the relationship? (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 establish a relationship? If a pastoral relationship is needed, how should it be established? What are some good ways to build a relationship? (Ma Xile)

9. In the process of pastoral ministry, some people do not have needs for inner healing and deliverance, and their finances are in order, so they rarely contact the pastor proactively. They enjoy listening to the teacher's sermons but do not put them into practice. Although it is clear that they love the world and money, the curse does not seem to have come upon them yet. It seems that no matter how much teaching is given, it has little effect. Teacher, how can we establish a close pastoral relationship with such a person to help them grow?

(40:10)

10. Teacher, do you have any special strategies when building a pastoral relationship with someone who is taciturn?

11. I am currently ministering to a sister, and the establishment of a pastoral relationship has been quite challenging. What should I do to move forward? Specific situation: After ministering for a few months, I recently started leading her in inner healing and deliverance, but she now has a strong "I don't need to listen to you" attitude. Basic new believer training and requirements for developing study habits, such as attending meetings on time and taking notes, are often ignored after I request them. She only moves after being pushed several times. When I try to understand if she is facing difficulties, her descriptions reveal problems that can be solved, but she stubbornly believes that there is no way to resolve them and is unreceptive to other teachings. I sense that she does not want to follow the growth path designed by the church and prefers to follow her own preferences. I believe this is related to her not recognizing our pastoral relationship. How can we truly establish a relationship going forward?

(46:15)

12. When pastoring a certain sister, she initially showed a strong aversion to me and did not mention any prayer requests, only posting things in the group that she thought needed "prayer." She was also impatient with teachings. Later, she said that she suddenly no longer felt averse and was willing to proactively seek me out for prayer, and she experienced a lot of deliverance each time I led her in prayer. Then I discovered that although she would not argue directly, she did not really listen to the teachings. Her views on giving, the church, and pastoral relationships were all based on her own internal logic. When I pointed out her problems in the hope that she would be blessed, she simply did not understand and kept explaining. In this process, I am often unclear about the extent to which I have established a relationship with her. How should I move forward?

13. What is the extent of a pastoral relationship when the person being pastored does not tell the pastor all their problems but only seeks the pastor when they cannot solve them themselves? (Baiga)

(53:30)

14. As a pastor, I am very willing to genuinely pastor, but some people (usually those without physical ailments or who are unwilling to talk about other problems) only want to follow the church to listen to the pastor's Bible studies and prayers and do not want to be pastored or believe that they have any problems. They consider the pastor's proactive concern as a disturbance or control and are very unappreciative. When the pastor points out areas where they need to grow, they are also unreceptive, giving the pastor the feeling of "chasing after something that is not a good deal." 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 can we judge a healthy relationship between a pastor and a minister, and what aspects does it manifest in? (Kuailefen)

16. Is it a healthy relationship when the person being ministered to is very obedient and completes everything the pastor assigns them? (Kuailefen)

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

(1:06:30)

18. In the process of pastoral ministry, I start to become lazy and not as fervent and willing to pay the price as I was initially. 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 others, my heart is full of enthusiasm, and I feel like I am genuinely committed, but the results of my pastoral ministry are not optimistic. What is the problem? Teacher, what does it mean to be a genuinely committed shepherd?

20. Does the relationship of mutual love mentioned in the church only exist between the pastor and the sheep? In our current situation, with different pastoral zones and different pastors, there are cases where sheep do not know each other. Does this mean that there is a loving relationship due to being in the same church and having the same Mingding Doctrine? (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 a habit of pretending. What special methods can be used 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 oppression or a matter of their own attitude? How do we build a pastoral relationship with someone who is lukewarm?

(1:21:00)

25. I used to be truly willing to pay the price to minister to Sister XX. She could not 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 did not like to listen to my teachings, only wanting me to lead her in prayer. I believed that my pastoral relationship with her was very good and that I loved her because I brought her into our Chinese Mingding Doctrine, wanting to solve her problems. What went wrong with my pastoral ministry? Why are my teachings annoying? How do I handle the situation when I am clearly loving her but am perceived as not loving her? (Meizi)

Fleshly Bad Habits

1. Teacher, please advise on how to be strict when dealing with the bad habits of the person being ministered to while also grasping the right amount of force. I find it difficult to be strict, and I don't know how to grasp the right amount of force. Can you give me some tips?
2. How do we pastor "loser" types of people?
3. Please advise, "When seeing someone grow, the most important thing is to deal with their bad habits, and dealing with them is a conflict." If there is a conflict, how should it be handled afterward? (Xuanyun)
4. Teacher, how do we build 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. When should we push someone to work? There is a full-time mother who only picks up and drops off her children every day and does not 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, but when we deal with their flesh, they become anxious, and sometimes they cannot hear God's word, are unwilling to leave, and cannot move forward. How should we pastor in this situation?
7. In the process of pastoral ministry, dealing with people's bad habits will inevitably cause conflict. Sometimes, even if there is no conflict, we 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 this lesson, I have 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 mentioned that pastoral ministry should learn to deal with people's problems. I feel that this point is not easy to grasp. There is a sister who 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 goes outside to serve brothers and sisters in other churches, but when dealing with her own problems, she often sits on the bed and prays during prayer meetings and then falls asleep. Teacher, is this person pretending? This sister expresses a desire for me to serve her father, but her father has always loved the world and is unwilling to believe in God, so the situation is constantly recurring. I feel that serving in this way is also ineffective. 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 has gone 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)

Regarding Lack of Understanding

1. Regarding a lack of understanding. A sister often listens to sermons, but her understanding is always unclear. For example, she constantly monitors whether her husband is reading the Bible and praying. If he reads, she is happy. How should we teach this type of person? (Jidian)

Inner Healing and Deliverance

1. Teacher, I am very selfish and indulgent to my flesh, but I really want to become a genuinely committed person who 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 my flesh again and then feel guilty. The pastor said that we should look at the trend of our growth with a developmental perspective, but I have not been able to implement this point and always feel that this is accepting my sin. Teacher, should I put down these messy thoughts and believe that God will definitely help me?

Pastoring Children

(1:39:15)

1. I have started to pastor 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 resent it, 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 ministering to a sister for about four 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)

Regarding 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 establish 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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