Jason Daye 
Welcome to FrontStage backstage. This week, we have a hand-picked highlight that we believe you will find valuable. If you do, we invite you to listen to the full conversation. You can find the link to the complete episode in the description, as always, please Like, Comment, Subscribe, and Share, so we can continue to bring you meaningful ministry content, helping you, pastors, and ministry leaders, just like you, flourish in both life and leadership. Are you ready? Let's go. So this idea of soul care, it's like many things in life, if you wait until you, you know, slam into the brick wall, you might be a little late to the game, right? So, so how do we begin to incorporate healthy soul care into our lives and our ministries before we get to those places where, you know, the bombs about to explode, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mindy Caliguire 
It's always a better question. And it's like leaders, smart people, start to go, Okay, I see that cliff, like, maybe I don't want to go learn all the lessons at the bottom of the cliff. Could you please help me not get to the cliff? And one of the ways we've been doing that lately, through our team at soul care, is really coming up with this like framework for people. Like, okay, what's a simple way to think about safeguarding your soul? Like, what could you put into motion today, no matter where you are and what you're doing, doesn't have a price tag on it, you can do this, and it involves these three things. It's a page, a person, and a plan. What is the invitation to reflection? That's the sort of metaphor around page, page of a journal, page of whatever. And there is actually neuroscience around the benefit of writing. So I do recommend that. But you, every one of us, needs a way, an invitation to self-reflection. What is really banging on in my head, even, even if it's something terrible, you just have to put it out there so you can examine it and say, God, this is what looks reasonable to me right now, and your word says it's not, but we got to have a conversation about it, because this is what's really going on in my head anyway. Invitation to a page is self-reflection, but the second one is a person. And we sort of touched on that like a big part of God's plan, a of how we heal, how we grow, how we transform, is in the context of relationship. And again, that's one of the most tragic parts of modern expressions of ministry leadership is that the higher you go in an organization, the less safe places there are for you. And so that's why your ministry, I mean, exists in so many ways. Is how do you come alongside leaders to create that safe place for them? We have teams of spiritual directors and coaches, and other organizations have all like we're, I think, the body of Christ right now is kind of rallying with ways to come alongside leaders in significant ways that are safe, and without that, it could be a ministry peer. It's somebody that works with a parent church organization, but it's got to be somebody that's not your boss or your supervisor or in your hierarchy. And it needs to not be somebody you're leading or somebody in your family. It needs to be a really safe third space. So you need a page, you need a person, which is the invitation to connection, which, again, bazillion amounts of neuroscience around that. That's a very verifiable statistic, but truly, I keep getting blown away at the secular books that are talking about how the brain organizes around a future that it discerns in the context of relationship. There's a lot of power there that isn't just like, oh, I need to be understood, or I need to have meant my things. There's actually powerful trans transactions almost happening at the neural pathway level that is rewiring who we are. And we need that. We all need it. So a page person, and then the third one is a plan, like, what is, how are we intentional about the different dimensions of different dimensions of flourishing, you could say different dimensions of the soul. It's all integrated. It's not like just journaling. It's journaling and walking. It's being out in nature and eating well, and it's having vacations and sabbatical if needed, and whatever they are, like, what's the what's the organizing idea you have? What's the vision you have for your life that isn't, as you said, you said a really interesting thing earlier, about like, Oh, I'm just supposed to sacrifice. And, yes, there is a part of us that we gladly say, I will pick up my cross. I will die daily. There is a way that we are yielding to God over and over and over again, but I do not believe that one of the costs were supposed to count is an ever-diminishing interior life. I just don't think that's whatever, Jesus, none of the disciples, nobody had that in mind when they were saying those things, and yet that's often one of the first things to go when you start vocational ministry. So what is your plan to push against that? How will you guard your interior life? How will you guard your family, your marriage, your relationships? How will you prioritize those things in the midst of your work and your ministry and your calling, which, of course, all matters. It's all important. But if you don't have a plan, it's just not going to happen. So page person to plan is some of the things that we've been building some experiences and resources around to try to help people on this journey.

Jason Daye 
FrontStage, backstage is a ministry of PastorServe. Here at PastorServe, we love walking alongside of pastors and ministry leaders. If you'd like to learn details on how you might qualify for a complimentary coaching session with one of our trusted ministry coaches. Please visit PastorServe.org/freesession now FrontStage, backstage is more than just another podcast. In fact, we create an entire toolkit that complements every single conversation. You can find this toolkit at PastorServe.org/network for this episode, and for every episode in the toolkit, you'll find a number of resources, including our ministry leaders' growth guide. In the growth guide, you'll find both questions and insights that are pulled from the conversation that you and the leaders at your local church or ministry can process together to consider how this content relates to your particular ministry context. Again, you can find the toolkit at PastorServe.org/network. Now we hope that you are finding this content valuable, and if so, we'd love for you to share, comment, like, follow, subscribe, that engagement is incredibly important, and also please take a moment to give us a review on your favorite podcast platform, your engagement and your reviews help other pastors and ministry leaders help find this valuable content. I'm Jason Daye, and I'm encouraging you to love well, live well, and lead well. Thank you, and God Bless You.