📝 Worksheet 3.4: Practicing the 15-Aspect Whole-Life Discernment Map

Course: PhilMinistry Skills
Topic 3: Herman Dooyeweerd and the 15 Aspects of Reality
Worksheet Purpose: This worksheet helps Christian leaders practice using the 15 aspects as humble ministry discernment questions, not as a rigid checklist, counseling diagnosis, or academic display.

Opening Thought

PhilMinistry Skills teaches leaders to see more before saying more.

The 15 aspects help us slow down and notice the many-sided reality of a person’s life before God. A person is not merely a body, feeling, story, social label, economic burden, legal case, sin pattern, or spiritual condition.

A person is a whole embodied soul before God.

This worksheet will help you practice using the Whole-Life Discernment Map with humility, consent, wisdom, and Gospel hope.

Part 1: Leader Self-Assessment

Check the statement that best describes your usual ministry instinct.

When someone brings me a problem, I usually notice first:

A. Spiritual issues: faith, prayer, sin, worship, hope
B. Emotional issues: fear, sadness, anger, shame, desire
C. Relational issues: family, marriage, church, friendship, community
D. Practical issues: time, money, habits, responsibilities, schedules
E. Justice issues: harm, accountability, protection, fairness
F. Body issues: sleep, health, energy, aging, substances, pain
G. Thought issues: confusion, wrong beliefs, unclear categories
H. Story issues: labels, memories, vows, identity, narratives

Reflection:
What do you tend to notice quickly?

Write your answer:

What do you tend to overlook?

Write your answer:

Part 2: The Reductionism Warning

Reductionism happens when one true part of reality is treated as the whole truth.

Complete these sentences:

A person is more than their body, but the body still matters because:

A person is more than their feelings, but feelings still matter because:

A person is more than their past, but the past still matters because:

A person is more than their social label, but social realities still matter because:

A person is more than their sin struggle, but sin still matters because:

A person is more than their spiritual condition, but faith still matters because:

Part 3: Clouser Ultimate-Belief Prompt

Roy Clouser helps leaders ask:

What is being treated as ultimate?

Think of a ministry situation you have encountered or could realistically encounter.

Briefly describe the situation:

Now ask:

What might the person be treating as ultimate?

What might the family, church, culture, or system be treating as ultimate?

What might I, as a leader, be tempted to treat as ultimate?

Examples of false ultimates may include:

being approved
being in control
being successful
being safe at all costs
being desired
being right
being needed
being free from pain
being productive
being seen as spiritual
having personal choice without limits
having peace without truth

What Gospel truth challenges this false ultimate?

Part 4: Dooyeweerd 15-Aspect Practice

Use the same ministry situation from Part 3.

You do not need to force every question. Circle or mark the aspects that seem most relevant.

1. Quantitative — Patterns and Frequency

What numbers, frequency, duration, or measurable patterns matter?

Examples: How often? How long? How many? How much?

Notes:

2. Spatial — Place and Boundaries

What place, environment, distance, closeness, or boundary matters?

Notes:

3. Kinematic — Movement and Direction

What rhythm, trend, momentum, or direction is shaping the situation?

Notes:

4. Physical — Body and Material Reality

What sleep, health, pain, energy, medication, substance, or material condition matters?

Notes:

5. Biotic / Organic — Life, Growth, Aging, and Embodiment

What life stage, growth issue, aging reality, sexuality, male/female embodiment, vitality, or bodily change matters?

Notes:

6. Sensitive / Psychic — Feelings and Desire

What emotions, fears, desires, pain, pleasure, or trauma responses are present?

Notes:

7. Analytical — Clarity and Distinctions

What needs to be clarified?

Examples: guilt vs. shame, forgiveness vs. trust, love vs. enabling, desire vs. identity, peace vs. avoidance.

Notes:

8. Formative / Historical — Habits and Shaping

What habits, skills, family patterns, technology, leadership habits, or cultural shaping forces matter?

Notes:

9. Lingual — Words, Labels, and Stories

What words, labels, names, vows, stories, or communication patterns are shaping the person?

Notes:

10. Social — Relationships and Roles

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

Notes:

11. Economic — Stewardship and Limits

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

Notes:

12. Aesthetic — Harmony and Disorder

Where is there harmony, beauty, fittingness, joy, play, integration, or disorder?

Notes:

13. Juridical — Justice and Responsibility

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

Notes:

14. Ethical — Love and Loyalty

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

Notes:

15. Pistical / Faith — Ultimate Trust and Hope

What is being trusted, feared, worshiped, hoped in, or treated as ultimate?

Notes:

Part 5: What Seems Most Important?

After scanning the aspects, choose three that seem especially important in this situation.

Aspect 1:

Why does this matter?

Aspect 2:

Why does this matter?

Aspect 3:

Why does this matter?

Part 6: Consent and Ministry Role Awareness

Before offering counsel, Scripture, prayer, or a structured discernment exercise, a wise leader asks permission.

Write a ministry sentence you could use.

Example:

“Would it be helpful if we looked at this from a few angles together?”

Your sentence:

Now identify your likely role in this situation:

A. Chaplain
B. Life Coaching Minister
C. Pastor
D. Soul Center leader
E. Small group leader
F. Mentor
G. Friend
H. Teacher or course facilitator

My role:

What does this role allow me to do?

What does this role not allow me to do?

Part 7: Safety and Referral Check

PhilMinistry Skills is not a replacement for medical care, counseling, crisis care, abuse intervention, legal protection, pastoral oversight, or specialized support.

Check any concern that may require referral or additional help:

___ Suicidal thoughts or self-harm
___ Domestic violence or abuse
___ Child abuse or elder abuse
___ Medical distress
___ Severe depression or anxiety
___ Psychosis or delusional thinking
___ Addiction crisis
___ Coercive control
___ Criminal behavior
___ Serious trauma symptoms
___ Gender distress needing careful pastoral and clinical support
___ Legal or institutional responsibility
___ Other: ___________________________________________

If any are checked, what wise next step is needed?

Who should be contacted or consulted?

Part 8: Fill-in-the-Blank Ministry Language

Complete the following ministry statements.

When the person feels reduced to one problem:

“You are not only _____________________________________________.
You are a whole person before God, and we want to seek wisdom for the whole situation.”

When the issue seems spiritual but also embodied:

“Your spiritual life matters deeply, and because God cares about your whole life, we should also notice _____________________________________________.”

When the person feels overwhelmed:

“We do not have to solve the whole thing today. Let’s ask God for wisdom about _____________________________________________.”

When referral may be needed:

“Because God cares about your safety and whole-person care, I think it would be wise to _____________________________________________.”

When shame is dominating:

“Conviction can lead us toward God, but shame tries to name us apart from grace. In Christ, you are not _____________________________________________.”

Part 9: Scripture Reflection

Read the following Scripture slowly.

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

What does this verse teach you about ministry discernment?

Read this Scripture:

“But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him.”
— James 1:5, WEB

Where do you need wisdom before giving advice?

Read this Scripture:

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.”
— Matthew 11:28, WEB

How does Jesus’ invitation shape the way you care for burdened people?

Part 10: One Faithful Next Step

After using the Whole-Life Discernment Map, do not try to fix everything at once.

Name one faithful next step.

This step may be spiritual, relational, practical, protective, medical, counseling-related, or restorative.

One faithful next step could be:

Why is this step wise?

How does this step honor the whole person before God?

Prayer

Lord Jesus,

Help me see people as You see them.

Forgive me when I answer too quickly, reduce too easily, or speak before I have listened.

Teach me to honor the whole person before You.

Give me wisdom to notice the body, the story, the emotions, the relationships, the habits, the words, the responsibilities, the wounds, the hopes, and the faith questions.

Keep me from turning tools into machines.

Keep me from using knowledge without love.

Help me know when to listen, when to speak, when to pray, when to teach, when to refer, and when to simply sit with someone in Your presence.

Let my ministry be marked by truth, grace, humility, courage, safety, and resurrection hope.

Amen.

Final Reflection

Write a short response to this sentence:

“In my ministry, I need to see more before I say more because…”

Simple Practice for This Week

This week, in one ministry conversation, practice asking one better question before giving advice.

Use one of these:

“Can you help me understand what life has been like lately?”

“What feels heaviest right now?”

“Is there more than one layer to this?”

“Would it help to look at this from a few angles together?”

“What is one faithful next step you sense God may be inviting you to take?”

After the conversation, write down:

What did I notice that I might have missed before?

What did I avoid reducing?

What did I learn about wise ministry?