📝 Worksheet 1.4: My PhilMinistry Skills Baseline

Course: PhilMinistry Skills
Topic 1: What Are PhilMinistry Skills?
Worksheet Purpose: This worksheet helps you begin practicing PhilMinistry Skills by reflecting on how you currently think, listen, ask questions, avoid reductionism, and guide people toward faithful next steps. It follows the course framework for using Christian philosophy in whole-life ministry discernment.

Opening Thought

PhilMinistry Skills begins with humility.

Christian leaders are often tempted to answer quickly, especially when they care deeply. We want to help. We want to encourage. We want to give Scripture. We want to point people to Christ.

Those desires are good.

But wise ministry often begins with a slower posture:

Listen before speaking.
Discern before advising.
Notice the whole person before naming the solution.
Ask what is being treated as ultimate.
Ask what part of life is being ignored, reduced, wounded, or distorted.
Guide toward one faithful next step before God.

This worksheet is not a test. It is a starting point.

You are simply asking, “How do I currently listen, think, and respond in ministry?”

Part 1: Leader Self-Assessment

Rate yourself honestly.

Use this scale:

1 = Rarely true of me
2 = Sometimes true of me
3 = Often true of me
4 = Usually true of me
5 = Consistently true of me

Listening Posture

___ I listen carefully before giving advice.

___ I allow people to finish their story without rushing them.

___ I notice emotional tone, not just spoken words.

___ I ask clarifying questions before assuming I understand.

___ I can sit with silence without becoming anxious.

Biblical Discernment

___ I bring ministry conversations under the lordship of Christ.

___ I connect people’s questions to Scripture wisely and gently.

___ I avoid using Bible verses as quick slogans.

___ I distinguish between biblical truth and my personal opinion.

___ I help people see both grace and truth.

Whole-Person Awareness

___ I notice bodily, emotional, relational, social, moral, and spiritual layers.

___ I avoid reducing people to one problem.

___ I remember that a person is more than a diagnosis, label, sin, feeling, or failure.

___ I consider how family, work, health, church, culture, and habits may shape a person’s struggle.

___ I seek to honor the person as a whole embodied soul before God.

Ministry Safety and Role Clarity

___ I know when I should refer someone for pastoral, counseling, medical, legal, or crisis care.

___ I avoid acting like a therapist if that is not my role.

___ I ask permission before offering advice, prayer, Scripture, or structured reflection.

___ I understand confidentiality and its limits.

___ I take abuse, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, addiction, and crisis situations seriously.

Philosophical Discernment

___ I notice hidden assumptions in people’s statements.

___ I ask what is being treated as ultimate.

___ I recognize when a true insight has become too dominant.

___ I can compare cultural ideas with biblical truth without mockery.

___ I can help people think clearly without sounding cold or academic.

Reflection

Which section had your highest score?

My strongest current area is:

Why do you think this is a strength?

Which section had your lowest score?

My growth area is:

Why does this area matter for your ministry?

Part 2: My Common Ministry Instincts

When someone shares a difficult problem, what is your first instinct?

Check any that apply.

___ I give advice quickly.

___ I quote Scripture quickly.

___ I ask questions first.

___ I try to fix the situation.

___ I feel anxious.

___ I feel honored that they trusted me.

___ I move toward prayer.

___ I wonder if referral is needed.

___ I tell a story from my own life.

___ I try to identify the main issue.

___ I avoid saying much because I fear saying the wrong thing.

___ I spiritualize the problem.

___ I focus mostly on emotions.

___ I focus mostly on behavior.

___ I focus mostly on sin.

___ I focus mostly on wounds.

___ I focus mostly on practical steps.

___ I listen calmly.

___ I become overwhelmed by complexity.

___ I seek wisdom before responding.

Write Your Pattern

When people bring complex concerns to me, I usually tend to:

This tendency can help because:

This tendency can harm if:

Part 3: Clouser Ultimate-Belief Prompt

Roy Clouser helps Christian leaders ask:

What is being treated as ultimate?

In ministry, people may treat many created things as final, unquestionable, or god-like.

Examples include:

Success
Feelings
Money
Approval
Romance
Gender identity
Biology
Personal choice
Power
Politics
Family expectations
Comfort
Control
Religious performance
Ministry achievement

Think of one ministry conversation, family conversation, leadership issue, or personal struggle where something may have been treated as ultimate.

Situation

Briefly describe the situation.

What seemed ultimate?

What appeared to have the final say?

What fear protected that false ultimate?

What was the person afraid of losing?

What might God’s truth reveal?

How does Scripture re-center this concern before God?

Gentle Ministry Question

Write one question you could ask without shaming the person.

Example: “What feels like it would fall apart if this changed?”

My question:

Part 4: Dooyeweerd Whole-Life Discernment Prompts

The 15 aspects help leaders notice more of reality. They are not a rigid checklist, counseling diagnosis, or personality test. They are a way to slow down and ask, “What am I missing?”

Choose one real or fictional ministry situation.

Situation:

Now answer only the prompts that seem most relevant.

Quantitative

What numbers, frequency, scale, or patterns matter?

Spatial

What place, home, distance, space, or boundary matters?

Kinematic

What habit, rhythm, trend, movement, or direction matters?

Physical

What bodily, health, sleep, energy, substance, or material factor matters?

Biotic / Organic

What life, growth, aging, sexed embodiment, fertility, vitality, or biological reality matters?

Sensitive / Emotional

What feelings, fears, desires, pain, pleasure, or emotional patterns matter?

Analytical

What distinctions need to be made?

Formative / Historical

What habits, skills, tools, technology, leadership, or shaping experiences matter?

Lingual

What words, labels, names, stories, vows, or narratives matter?

Social

What family, friendship, church, marriage, community, or institutional relationship matters?

Economic

What stewardship, scarcity, time, money, attention, or priority issue matters?

Aesthetic

What harmony, disorder, beauty, joy, fittingness, or integration matters?

Juridical

What justice, responsibility, accountability, protection, rights, wrongs, or due process matters?

Ethical

What love, loyalty, mercy, forgiveness, sacrifice, betrayal, or self-giving matters?

Pistical / Faith

What ultimate trust, worship, fear, hope, idol, worldview, or Gospel promise matters?

Part 5: Reductionism Warning

Reductionism happens when one real part of life is treated as the whole truth.

Complete the statements below.

A person is not merely their:

A person is not merely their:

A person is not merely their:

A person is not merely their:

A person is not merely their:

Now write a fuller Christian sentence.

A person is a whole embodied soul before God who is:

Part 6: Consent and Safety Prompts

PhilMinistry Skills must be practiced with humility, consent, safety, and role clarity.

Permission Language

Write one sentence you could use before offering Scripture.

Write one sentence you could use before praying with someone.

Write one sentence you could use before giving advice.

Write one sentence you could use before using a structured discernment worksheet.

Referral Awareness

Check any situations where referral or additional support may be needed.

___ Suicidal thoughts

___ Self-harm

___ Abuse or domestic violence

___ Addiction crisis

___ Severe depression

___ Psychosis or loss of contact with reality

___ Medical symptoms

___ Legal danger

___ Trauma requiring specialized care

___ Threats of violence

___ Unsafe living situation

___ Eating disorder concerns

___ Severe anxiety or panic

___ Child abuse or elder abuse

___ A situation outside my training or role

Referral Sentence Practice

Write a caring referral sentence.

Example: “I care about you too much to oversimplify this. I can walk with you spiritually, and I also think we should involve someone trained for this level of care.”

My sentence:

Part 7: Fill-in-the-Blank Ministry Language

Complete each sentence in your own voice.

Before I answer, I want to understand:

That sounds like more than one layer. I hear:

Would it be helpful if we looked at this from:

I do not want to reduce you to:

Your feelings matter, but they may not be:

Your body matters because:

Your story matters, but it is not:

One faithful next step might be:

This may also require support from:

The hope of Christ speaks here by:

Part 8: Scripture Reflection

Read the following passages slowly.

“So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.”
— James 1:19, WEB

“He who answers before he hears,
that is folly and shame to him.”
— Proverbs 18:13, WEB

“Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.”
— Romans 12:2, WEB

Reflection

Which verse speaks most directly to your current ministry growth?

Why?

What would obedience to this Scripture look like in your next ministry conversation?

Part 9: My PhilMinistry Skills Baseline Summary

Complete the following statements.

Right now, I am strongest at:

Right now, I need to grow in:

One reductionist habit I need to watch for is:

One false ultimate I often see in myself or others is:

One aspect of life I often overlook is:

One ministry safety area I need to take seriously is:

One phrase I want to practice using is:

One faithful next step for me this week is:

Prayer

Lord God,

You created the heavens and the earth.
You made human beings in your image.
You know the whole person—body, story, emotion, calling, sin, suffering, faith, and hope.

Teach me to listen before I speak.
Teach me to see people as whole embodied souls before you.
Protect me from shallow answers, pride, fear, and careless words.
Help me recognize false ultimates.
Help me resist reductionism.
Help me honor Scripture, wisdom, safety, and my proper role.

Give me courage to speak truth.
Give me tenderness to show grace.
Give me humility to refer when needed.
Give me wisdom to help others take one faithful next step.

May my ministry point people not to my cleverness, but to Jesus Christ, who restores the whole life.

Amen.

Final Reflection

Write a short paragraph answering this question:

What kind of PhilMinistry leader do I want to become?

Simple Practice for This Week

In your next meaningful conversation, practice this sentence before offering advice:

“Before I respond, I want to make sure I understand what you are carrying.”

Then ask one gentle follow-up question.

After the conversation, reflect:

What did I hear that I might have missed if I had answered too quickly?