Mission with Prophetic Power: The Journal of John Woolman (SRSC 12)

Resources for Application

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Soul Work and Soul Care: Keeping a Journal and Talking When It’s Tough By Evan B. Howard Each Sacred Roots Spiritual Classic has a “Soul Work and Soul Care” resource to illustrate how Christian leaders across cultures and generations have found a particular spiritual classic helpful in pastoral ministry. “Soul work” includes the personal work of watering, weeding, pruning, and fertilizing the garden of one’s own soul. In a similar way, “soul care” involves the pastoral work of nurturing growth in another’s friendship with God. When Jesus discusses “soul work” and “soul care,” he often uses metaphors from the medical and agricultural professions. Like a doctor for souls, or a farmer caring for an orchard of fruit trees, congregational leaders who hope to tend souls can learn much from the wisdom of those who have gone before us. Woolman’s Soul Work and Soul Care As we have seen, John Woolman learned to tend the garden of his soul. His early resistance to the vanities of the world was coupled with an intentional pursuit of God through private prayer, reading Scripture, and First-day meetings. He speaks of the soul value of simplicity and of paying attention to one’s inner life. As I move in my reading from the “memories” section into the bulk of his Journal (from Chapter 2 to Chapter 3), I notice two practices that seem to play a very important role in Woolman’s devotional life and ministry. The first is the practice of keeping a journal itself. Once he started his journal, he kept it up until he said in his final days, “I believe the Lord will now excuse me from exercises of this kind.” The second practice is the