Video 1A: Created as Living Souls Before God

Transcript Title: Created as Living Souls Before God

Professor Abigail Dominiak: “Well, hello. I am Abigail Dominiak. With me is. . 

Professor Abigail Munroe: Abigail Munroe.”

Professor Abigail Dominiak: “We are doing the Soul Coach class. We had the opportunity a couple of years ago to go through a certification program for life coaching. One of the funnest parts was we would do practicums, where you would be practicing coaching with the fellow people in the class. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience for us. It really impacted us in our journey of being in ministry.

I think, especially if you're taking this as someone who is interested in being a coach, we are super excited to dive into the Soul Coach topic. This is a beginning area, so maybe you're new to coaching, or maybe you're wanting to connect and get credentialed through Christian Leaders Institute and Alliance. We're glad you're here, and we are really excited to dive into this Soul Coach topic.”

Professor Abigail Munroe: “That's right. Let's dive in with the first question now. When we refer to life coaching or Soul Coaching, what is a life, and what is a soul? Yeah, so our opening question for today is exactly that: What is a life? What is a soul?

Professor Abigail Dominiak: "When someone says, ‘I don't know who I am anymore,’ or ‘My life feels broken,’ or ‘I feel like I'm just a problem to be fixed,’ and again, if you're coaching people, these are the sort of things that are going to be felt by those you're coaching and working with. As a Soul Coach, we want to teach you how to see this more deeply than just the current problem that someone might be trying to work through.”

Professor Abigail Munroe: “Exactly. As a Soul Coach, it's really important to identify that a person is not merely their body, a feeling, their personality, a diagnosis, their family story, what sin they might be struggling with, a past failure, or just a goal-setting project.

Now, while coaching does focus a lot on goal setting and growth, and identifying these areas where a person can thrive more as a whole person, it's really foundational that we identify the person as a living soul before God. This is not just a smaller view of the person. It truly is a deeper one.”

Professor Abigail Dominiak: “Yeah. I think when you go to coach somebody, it's super important that they feel that, when they're with you, you see them as how God created them, and they feel that connection with you. I think it's so important that people feel that love and that depth with you as a coach.

That biblical foundation is in Genesis 2:7: ‘Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul.’

We are embodied creatures before God. We are physical, we are spiritual, we're relational. Again, we read about that creation, and it's so important that, as a coach, you really see people. That's why we chose the term Soul Coach.”

Professor Abigail Munroe: “Yeah, so what does soul really mean? Diving in here, it's referring to the whole living person. Sometimes, when we think of soul, we think of it as this invisible part, the spiritual part that's trapped in the body. But the soul is the whole living self. It is embodied, moral, spiritual, emotional, relational, and eternal.

The job of a Soul Coach is to work with this living soul before God, not with just a fragment of the person. We want to explore how we can see people as this intersectionality of the things listed there on the screen.”

Professor Abigail Dominiak: “So reduction changes the goal. If we only think about somebody's emotions when we're coaching them, we are going to be reducing them to only helping them emotionally feel better. If we only reduce it to their behavior, it's only about how do you act better. If we only reduce it to their goals, it only becomes about achieving things. And if we reduce it to sin, it's condemnation instead of redemption.

Soul Coaching is refusing to do that reduction and is really inviting this whole living person, this whole soul, into redemption. A Soul Coach sees the living soul. This person has a body, emotions, thoughts, relationships, histories, habits, wounds, responsibility, and spiritual hunger. All of that is a life that is being lived before God.”

Professor Abigail Munroe: “Acts 17:28 says, ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ Every breath is lived before the Creator, and every growth conversation happens in the presence of God.

This is something that's very unique to the Christian Leaders Life Coaching and Soul Coaching program. We are inviting the presence of God and this idea that we are created by God—that dust and breath—and this is not something we can separate from, whether it's goal setting or helping someone feel better. This is part of our identity, and this is something we're inviting into the coaching space.”

Professor Abigail Dominiak: “Yes. Helpful observations are not our deepest identity. Psychology, coaching literature, family systems, habit studies, and pastoral care can help us ask wiser questions, but Scripture is what gives us our deepest identity of who we are as human beings created by God.

Ask, ‘What is happening?’ and believe that life matters. What is happening in your life right now? Underneath that question, you want the people you're coaching and connecting with to really feel that their life matters to God. It matters so much.

That is why it is such a privilege and an honor if God is calling you to be a coach. You have come here to Christian Leaders Institute. You've created a student account with us. You've started this journey. Maybe you've taken a lot of courses with us, but you're now feeling that calling to study what it is to be a coach. This is such a great skill for any role in ministry. If you're called to be a coach very particularly, you want to help these living souls before God.

So, what helps and what harms, Abby?”

Professor Abigail Munroe: “Yeah, I think this is a helpful chart. What helps? Reverence. What harms? Treating someone like a case.

No one wants to go in front of a coach and feel like they're being judged for this or that, or feel like it's a hospital setting, or even a therapist setting. So, reverence—approaching your client with reverence—and listening.

What harms? Feeling like a project or a problem. What helps? Seeing the whole person and refusing to rush toward a fix.

I think that one's really important. This is a process. Coaching sessions are not just a one-time moment. It truly is about the journey. That really ties in with the idea of seeing the whole person versus seeing a project or a problem. Soul Coaching begins with reverent sight.”

Professor Abigail Dominiak: “Every person you meet is a living soul before God. So see the person, honor that person, refuse the reduction, and listen in the presence of God.

We talk about this in our whole Life Coaching program—that you get to come alongside this person and pray for them before you begin the session, really inviting the presence of God into this process for them.

Again, it changes everything when we have our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, not fixed on whatever problem is in front of us, whatever thing we're dealing with, or whatever goal we're seeking to reach. When we put Christ at the center of it, it's going to change the whole process.

Before we go any further on Soul Coaching, we wanted to start with that: define what a soul is and define the importance of seeing people as the image-bearers created before God that they are.”

Professor Abigail Munroe: “Amen. We'll see you in the next session.”