When anxiety grips us, it can feel like the walls are closing in. Anxiety disorders affect 31% of Americans, and all of us will experience anxiety and stress overload at some point in our lives. Even though this feels like an inescapable part of life, it is possible to experience freedom from anxiety!

 Join us for this episode of Soul Talks as Bill and Kristi explore anxiety and panic attacks. Though it is common to think avoiding triggers is the answer, anxiety presents an opportunity from the Lord to dig deeper into underlying emotions. You will understand the roots of anxiety, find pathways for dealing with these feelings, and access the support you need. You don’t have to let anxiety limit your life.

Resources for this Episode:

• Soul Shepherding’s Enneagram & Emotions Course
• Pre-order Healthy Feelings, Thriving Faith
• Soul Shepherding Institute
• Spiritual Direction Training Program
• Soul Shepherding Sr. Spiritual Directors
• Soul Shepherding Sr. Coaches

Many Christians are told their depression is a lack of faith, and if they only think differently and trust God their depression will go away. This sort of shaming holds us back from getting the help we need. Mental health conditions affect our ability to access our insight, intelligence, and brainpower and can disconnect us from God.  Depression is paralyzing, but action is curative.

Join us for this episode of Soul Talks as Bill and Kristi help us understand depression. You’ll learn about the spectrum of depression and various interventions that help so you can join Jesus in his love and ministry to those suffering in this way.

Resources for this Episode:

• Soul Shepherding Sr. Spiritual Directors
• Soul Shepherding Sr. Coaches
• Spiritual Direction Training Certificate
• Coaching Training Program

Suicide is an issue that isn’t often discussed in church. Yet it is the 12th leading cause of death in the US and the 3rd leading cause of death for ages 10-19. As soul shepherds, we have an opportunity to compassionately love those struggling with mental health challenges, and most tenderly, anyone who is suicidal.

Join us for this episode of Soul Talks as Bill and Kristi discuss suicide and God’s mercy for the hurting. You will learn some warning signs of suicide, ways to check in with someone who is struggling, and steps to get them help. As we care for those in a vulnerable state, we want to minister God’s kindness, empathy, and love to them.

Resources for this Episode:

• Soul Shepherding Institute

When you picture Jesus looking at you, do you see a smile? Many of us find we project a frown or a distant look on the face of God. But Jesus’ shining face is looking at you with a smile of love, and you can learn to see it! 

Join us for this episode of Soul Talks as Bill and Kristi discuss the shelter of Jesus’ smiling face against the attacks of the enemy. Reflecting on an older translation of Psalm 31:20, they share the importance of agreeing with God’s grace and the challenges we face with that based on our stage of faith and our personality. You’ll learn ways of training to overcome unhealthy aspects of your personality that limit you from seeing his smile for you.

Resources for this Episode:

• Soul Shepherding Institute
• Healthy Feelings, Thriving Faith: Growing Emotionally and Spiritually Through the Enneagram

Areas of stress are opportunities for the enemy to drive us down. The father of lies takes something that is true and twists it into a half-truth with a lie embedded in it, hitting us right in the most vulnerable parts of our personality. Yet, with God as our shield, we can refute the lies of the enemy!

Tune in for this episode of Soul Talks as Bill and Kristi share personally about recent attacks from the enemy. Understanding our emotions is the key to understanding our personality, particularly the four core emotions of anger, shame, anxiety and sadness. By working through those emotions we grow in self-awareness, intimacy with Jesus, and the ability to wake up and reject the lies of the enemy.

Resources for this Episode:

• Healthy Feelings, Thriving Faith: Growing Emotionally and Spiritually Through the Enneagram
• Breath Prayer Guides

Each day we experience the accusations and lies of the enemy that target our specific areas of weakness and bury us in fear, anxiety, resentment, shame, and isolation. Yet scripture tells us we are safe when we submit to God Almighty, our Creator and Redeemer, and resist the devil.

Join us for this episode of Soul Talks as Bill and Kristi unpack the accusations of the enemy and how we can learn to agree with God’s grace instead. As you understand the ways the enemy attacks you personally, you can resist his lies and seek the help of brothers and sisters to receive God’s grace.

Resources for this Episode:

• Soul Shepherding Institute
• Pre-order Healthy Feelings, Thriving Faith:Growing Emotionally and Spiritually Through the Enneagram

You don’t have to be perfect. God often does his best work of grace telling the story of Jesus through our brokenness. As he meets us right where we are, we can learn to move from the cycle of works to the cycle of grace. 

Join us for this episode of Soul Talks as Bill and Kristi discuss Spirit-led Ministry from the CHRIST stages. While there isn’t less stress during this stage, there is less striving. In Spirit-led ministry you can learn to depend on the presence of the Risen Christ at work to empower you with his strength, giftings, abilities, and power like a sailboat is activated by the wind. 

Resources for this Episode:

• Journey of the Soul: A Practical Guide to Emotional and Spiritual Growth
• Journey of the Soul: Leader Guide
• Journey of the Soul: Soul Talk Cards
• Spiritual Growth Path Assessment
• Soul Shepherding Institute
• Earn a Certificate in Spiritual Direction

Have you ever wondered if your current experience of spiritual life is all there is? Seasons of feeling distant and dry can be reframed as opportunities for a journey of deeper intimacy with God as you come to understand the stages of spiritual growth.

Tune in for this episode of Soul Talks as Bill and Kristi explore the pathway for a life-changing spiritual journey. Understanding this roadmap gives you language for your own experience and opens doors for greater emotional honesty, freedom from shame, and deeper connection with the grace and power of God in your life.

Resources for this Episode:

• Soul Shepherding Institute
• Journey of the Soul
• Spiritual Direction Training Program
• Spiritual Growth Path Assessment

As Jesus’ apprentices, we have an invitation to live a life that is immersed in God’s presence. But sometimes we default to serving him out of our own strength or trying to earn his love without realizing it. When we focus on our enthrallment with Jesus, we return to live with him as our ultimate mentor!

Tune in to this episode of Soul Talks as Bill and Kristi explore this immersive life expressed in the great commission. By reminding yourself of past times in God’s presence and discovering new ways to awaken to his presence all around you, you’ll cultivate habits of thinking and feeling that deepen your apprenticeship to Jesus.

Resources for this Episode:

• Soul Shepherding Institute
• Soul Shepherding Sr. Spiritual Directors
• Soul Shepherding Sr. Coaches

We tend to focus our attention and effort on our skills in ministry and the needs of those around us. Yet there is another way to encourage others to draw close to the Lord — through cultivating our own devotion to Jesus.

Join us for this episode of Soul Talks as Bill and Kristi discuss a meditation on Song of Solomon 1:3. “Draw me and we will run after the fragrance of your love,” from The Story of a Soul by St. Teresa of Lisieux.  You will be encouraged that your own devotion to Jesus can overflow and inspire others in their intimacy with Jesus, creating a community where we spur one another on to love and good deeds. 

Resources for this Episode:

• Soul Shepherding Institute
• Soul Care Groups — Soul Shepherding Network