Course Recording

Q&A Recording
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Pastoral Ministry Foundations Training (Course 301) - Lesson 2 Homework 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 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. Could the pastor briefly introduce how to connect these viewpoints? 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 homework, as she cannot type. I taught her to share 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 often try to teach you instead, leading to constant friction. Is a pastoral relationship necessarily a top-down relationship, requiring the exclusion of friendship? Can pastoral relationships coexist with peer relationships? (Ben)

(25:30)

2. Teacher, in building a relationship with a sister I am pastoring, I can help her by teaching the Word of God, addressing her bad habits, conveying faith, and expressing love in helping her solve problems. In what other ways can I improve myself to foster the pastoral relationship?

3. The pastoral relationship is a service in love. How should this "love" be balanced to benefit both myself and the person being pastored? (Xuanyun)

4. Teacher, what should we do when we are serious about pastoring someone, and they initially seem serious too, but gradually we realize they are just 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, when 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 them to be more proactive? (David)

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

9. In the process of pastoral ministry, some people do not have needs for healing and deliverance, and their finances are fine, so they rarely contact the pastor. 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 they receive, it has little effect. Teacher, how can we establish a close pastoral relationship with such people to help them grow?

(40:10)

10. Teacher, do you have any special strategies for building pastoral relationships with people who are taciturn?

11. I am currently ministering to a sister, and the establishment of the 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 healing and deliverance, casting out demons. Currently, the idea of "I don't need to listen to you" is quite evident. Some basic requirements for new discipleship and developing learning habits, such as attending meetings on time and taking notes, are repeatedly ignored after I ask her to do them. She only moves after being pushed several times. When I try to understand if she is facing difficulties, her descriptions always involve problems that can be solved, but she stubbornly believes that there is no way to resolve them, and she does not listen to other teachings. I can sense that she does not 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 going forward?

(46:15)

12. I am pastoring a sister who 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 teaching. Later, she said that she suddenly no longer felt averse and was willing to actively 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? (Baijia)

(53:30)

14. As a pastor, I am very willing to be serious about pastoral ministry, but some people (usually those without physical ailments or other problems they are willing to talk about) only want to follow the church to listen to the pastor's Bible studies and prayers and do not want to be pastored. They do not think they have any problems, and they consider the pastor's active concern to be a disturbance and control, and they are very unappreciative. When the pastor points out areas where they need to grow, they do not accept it. This makes the pastor feel like they are trying too hard and not getting anywhere. How can we establish a pastoral relationship with such people? 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? (Kuailefen)

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

(1:06:30)

18. In pastoral ministry, I start to become lazy and not as zealous 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 being serious, but the results of pastoral ministry are not optimistic. What is the problem? Teacher, what does it mean to be a serious 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 having the same Mingding Doctrine in the same church? (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 this is a spiritual bondage or a matter of their own attitude? How do we establish a pastoral relationship with a lukewarm person?

(1:21:00)

25. I was once willing to pay the price to minister to Sister XX. She could not lie down to sleep and often had difficulty breathing. 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 unwilling to listen and did not like to listen to my teachings, only wanting me to lead her in prayer. I believe that my pastoral relationship with her was very good, 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 were 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, how can we be strict when dealing with the bad habits of those 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 people who are "losers"?
3. You mentioned, "When we see someone growing, 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 we handle it afterward? (Xuanyun)
4. Teacher, how do we build up someone's faith while breaking down their flesh? How do we grasp the relationship and degree between the two? Is it that in the process of breaking down the flesh, the 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 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 do 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 need to create conflict. Can the teacher talk about how to create conflict, manage conflict, and transform conflict?

Loving the World (1:27:15)

1. Through 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 pastoral ministry should learn to deal with people's problems. I feel that this point is not 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 goes 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 pretending? This sister hopes that I can minister to her father, but her father has always loved the world and is unwilling to believe in God, so the situation keeps repeating. I feel that this kind of service 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)

About Lack of Understanding

1. About lack of spiritual understanding. A sister often listens to sermons, but her understanding is never clear. For example, she is always watching to see if 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 selfish and indulge in my flesh, but I really want to become someone who is serious and pays the price to serve. A particular challenge is sleep. Sometimes, after staying up late, I am very energetic the next day, and my faith is multiplied. Other times, my head is very dizzy, and my body is uncomfortable, so I indulge in my flesh again and then feel guilty. The pastor said that we should have a developmental perspective and look at the trend of our growth, but I have not been able to put this into practice. 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 have 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. I often 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 had always been scammed or failed in their investments for decades. Not long ago, they took out a loan of 600,000 to invest in tungsten mining, but because various procedures could not be completed, it has been stalled. The partner said they would refund the money, but they have been dragging it on for more than a month. This sister is very worried. My question is, should I be concerned about her financial problems or the underlying issues that are causing her financial problems? This sister is easily worried about worldly things and has a lack mentality, so my idea is to build her faith in God so that she can become someone who trusts in God. Is this correct? (Vivian)

About Pastoring Family Members

(1:47:30)

1. The church teaches us about the relationship of being pastored and pastoring. If we are not inside 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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