Exhorter

A coach to make you what you want to be- Exhorters

Paul as a primier example of the Exhorter type.

These people read people like teachers read books. They can be masterful at understanding motivations, actions, attributes and personality.

Primary drive in the church is to get people to incorporate the truths of the scriptures into their daily lives for the sake of whole life.

Syn: comfort, encourage, intreat, appeal, plead, beseech, implore, begging, urge, request,

παρακαλεω same root as comforter

Admonitions in rom 12:12

rejoicing in hope- hope is the thing that propels

patient in tribulation- hurts to help people

continuing instant in prayer- stay connected to the vine and grace to do this work,

Warning in Pov 6: a heart that devises wicked imaginations- theories and assumptions can spin out of control when not mixed with love and hope.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Exhorters

Personally involve themselves in developing spiritual maturity in other individuals and groups. Paul is always talking about being with people and his desire to be present with them.

Time intensive personal work keeps them from focusing on other important relationships. Danger for family life.

Paul exhorts singleness for this very purpose.

Sees root problems. Effective evaluators of spiritual maturity. Searches out hindrances in the lives of those who are not growing and encourage them to develop the necessary disciplines and charachter to be what God wants them to be. Paul saw the Cor’s as spiritual infants adn could not speak to them “as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal.”

If not practicing careful listening skills, can be prone to jumping to conclusions and making assumptions. Exhorter keeps like a mental rolodex of examples and illustrations so jumps to this is like that thought process and can assume something is the case when its not.

Prov 18:13 He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him

Methodical- good at setting up action steps to reach a goal. Paul uses steps and lists often as a rhetorical device.

Must be sure that the recipient has the same goal in mind that the exhorter has.

can take it personal when people don’t follow or see the value in his steps and plans.

when things work can be prone to pride about how successful he is at helping people. Can start to see himself as the key to success.

Potential to settle for conformity rather than real growth.

Eternal optimists- Ex are always and ever hopeful about peoples potential and future. Self help gurus are all Ex. “cmon guys i can’t hear you” Will use props, gestures, illustrations and stories to make point. Paul uses one church to encourage and spur on others. Also uses his own life and example often.

Have a tendency to take on too many projects or leave things unfinished.

Can have an “if i can do it you can too” attitude that does not accommodate different circumstances.

Turns problems into positives. Mature Ex have learned that god leans into people that are working to be righteous with grace to overcome. So he is not daunted by difficulties and problems but sees them as opportunities to see God work in and through people. Paul himself “glories” in tribulations, and uses his persecutions as credentials for his ministry, work and value.

Can tend to treat people as projects. This is particularly frustrating to and Ex’s friends and family as they feel like they are perpetually being ‘worked on’.

High value on transparency and openness. Very open with personal stuff. They know that an essential first step for anything is a clear conscience so they develop habits of not keeping anything in.

This can lead to ‘over sharing’. Either in using people as examples in a way that is hurtful to the person they are using as an example.

can come across crass or flippant

very effective communicator, but desire to communicate can lead to an ends justify the means form of communication. All things to all people can be taken to an excess when it is not balanced with standards of personal behavior and righteousness.

Uses experience to understand life principles. Highly cause and effect oriented in a very practical way. In this and several other ways the Ex is the anti-teacher. The teacher is academic theoretical and the ex is almost exclusively practical.

This can create a doctrinal weakness or fragility in the Ex. Truths can be framed out of balance or hyperbolized in exclusion of balancing important truths for the sake of emphasis.

avoid doctrine and only care about what works.

Ex’s good at creating urgency to act through logical progression. Pauls arguments in the NT are case building and systemic.

Exhorters build a logical step program for a counselee without respect to time. The long range nature of an Ex goals can be missed in the steps and it can be frustrating to someone working with him/her when results are delayed or take a long time to be realized.

Always prefers face to face interaction. Facial expressions and body language are very important diagnostic tools to an Ex. Paul is constantly seeking these personal encounters in his letters, and uses personal conferences extensively.

Ex, can dismiss or reject peopel who do not quickly and consistently respond to the steps laid out by the Ex.