Soul Care

We care for the whole person by bringing God's Word into their everyday life. This kind of friendship grows and deepens faith in Christ and thereby frees people to love God and other people.  

In the Lutheran tradition, soul care centers on delivering the forgiveness and love of Christ to people through his Word and Sacraments, tending to the ailments of conscience through the proper application of Law and Gospel, and walking alongside one another in the "mutual conversation and consolation” of Christians (Col. 3:16; The Smalcald Articles III.4).

Soul care, as we practice it, is distinct from therapy and coaching, and from self-improvement spirituality. It flows from the means of grace, extends consolation to other Christians, and equips people to live from the freedom they have received from the gospel.

The Lutheran Tradition

Our appreciation for the Lutheran tradition flows from its commitment to a simple truth: God is love. God proved by his incarnation, death, and resurrection, that he would rather die and suffer Hell himself than see any of his precious children perish because of our fallen and broken state.

As we understand it, this rich tradition is:

Incarnational

God always moves first, and God always moves out of love. Jesus entered our mess, took on our flesh, and bore the sins of the whole world. He reconciled us to God fully and completely.

God also works through physical, tangible means. In baptism, the Lord's Supper, and the spoken word of forgiveness, God reaches the whole person: body, mind, and soul. And whenever Christians gather to console and encourage one another, Christ is present and at work among them. God doesn't just declare his love. He delivers it, physically. He comes close and enters our everyday life and experience.

God also calls each of us to serve him and our neighbor through our everyday roles and relationships, whether as parents, friends, workers, or citizens. Thereby God serves the whole world through his church as we each faithfully fulfill our various vocations.

At Signpost Inn this shapes everything we do. We call it the incarnate grace of hospitality. We turn outward to welcome and serve others the way God has welcomed and served us. 

This is what theologians call "receptive spirituality." God gives. We receive. And from that receiving, new life grows, not by working harder, but by trusting more deeply in Jesus “who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with his holy, precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death, that I may be his own and live under him in his kingdom and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as he is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.” (Luther’s Small Catechism)

Practical and Pastoral

God speaks through Scripture. And Scripture speaks in two ways: Law and Gospel. This distinction is key to understanding the whole Bible. The Law tells us what we ought and should do, and the Gospel or “good news” is the promise that Jesus Christ has already done for us everything the law requires. In other words, God’s Law tells us “Do this!” and the Gospel is Jesus' promise, “I’ve already done it for you!” 

Discerning when a person needs to hear the law and when they need to hear the gospel is the heart of Lutheran soul care. This requires careful, compassionate listening in the context of friendship and safety.

It also means that we are in direct conversation with God through his Word. We aren’t teaching philosophy or preaching religiosity. We’re pointing people toward real relationships with Jesus. 

We also know that God often works in hidden and unexpected ways. He meets us in our weakness and suffering and redeems even the worst things. While the world chases performance, progress, power and pleasure, Jesus invites us to follow him through suffering and service into resurrection life.

Our Statement of Faith: The Nicene Creed

We are grounded in the orthodoxy of creedal Christianity and draw on the historic practices of Christians throughout the centuries. Thus, our statement of faith is The Nicene Creed.

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.  He suffered and was buried.  And the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father.  And he will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.

And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.  And we believe in one holy Christian* and apostolic Church, we acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins, and we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.  Amen.

*the original text reads “catholic”: from the original Greek term that means “universal.”