Using the SDI for Pastoral Counseling

Del Fehsenfeld
4 days ago
4 min read

Updated: 1 minute ago

At its core, your work as a pastor is about relationships—helping people connect with God, themselves, and others. The Strength Deployment Inventory 2.0 (SDI) provides a powerful framework for understanding why we behave the way we do and what motivates others.

Unlike traditional personality assessments that focus primarily on what’s happening inside a person, the SDI reveals what’s going on between people as well. It’s a truly interpersonal assessment. For you as a pastor, this gives invaluable insight into how people interact and respond in both harmony and conflict, enabling you to address root issues rather than surface symptoms.

In your ministry, where staff, small groups, worship teams, and volunteers work together to fulfill the mission, relational intelligence is essential. The SDI helps you identify the unique contributions each person brings to the table, fostering appreciation for differences rather than frustration.

Soul Awareness and the Three Passions

By integrating the SDI with the book Three Passions of the Soul, which explores our God-given longings for acceptance, significance, and security, you can ground your counseling in a gospel-centered perspective. This approach shows how these universal desires, when misdirected, lead to relational strife, but when aligned with God’s love, lead to unity and purpose.

The SDI’s focus on self-awareness aligns beautifully with the biblical call for God to examine our hearts (Psalm 139:23-24). As you guide people in pastoral counseling, understanding their motivations—whether a desire to nurture, achieve, or maintain stability—equips them to navigate relationships with greater intentionality. For example, a volunteer struggling with burnout might discover through the SDI that their drive to serve stems from a need for significance, which, when unmet, leads to exhaustion. You can then guide them to find their worth in God’s perfect love rather than their performance, addressing the soul’s deeper longing.

Three Passions of the Soul provides a theological anchor for this process. We are created in God’s image, wired for love, yet prone to seek acceptance, significance, and security in substitutes—people, achievements, or routines. Using the SDI, you can uncover these misdirected pursuits and redirect them toward a priority relationship with God. This not only heals individuals but also strengthens the teams they serve with, as they learn to extend grace and collaborate more effectively.

Conflict Management and Team Collaboration

Conflict is inevitable in any community, including your church. The SDI’s conflict sequence tool is particularly valuable in your counseling, as it helps individuals and teams understand how their motivations shift under stress. A worship team member who values harmony might withdraw during tension, while another who prioritizes results might become directive. By mapping these patterns, you can facilitate conversations that turn potential division into opportunities for growth.

For example, imagine a ministry team where misunderstandings have eroded trust. Through an SDI-based session, you could reveal how each member’s strengths—say, one’s analytical precision and another’s relational warmth—complement each other when appreciated rather than judged. Paired with biblical principles like Ephesians 4:2-3 (“bearing with one another in love”), this approach fosters collaboration and unity, equipping the team to serve more effectively.

Want to Equip Your Whole Team?

If you're a ministry leader looking to bring the power of the SDI directly to your staff or leadership team, we offer customized TeamLife trainings led by Certified SDI Instructors. These virtual and engaging team-based experiences are designed to foster deeper connection, resolve conflict, and align your ministry culture with gospel values.

Practical Application in Your Counseling

You can incorporate the SDI into your pastoral counseling in several ways:

Individual Counseling: Use the SDI to help congregants understand their motivations and how these shape their relationships with God and others. For instance, someone wrestling with guilt might discover a pattern of self-criticism tied to a need for acceptance, opening the door for you to explore God’s unconditional grace with them.
Team Development: Facilitate sessions to train church staff, elders, or volunteers. Interactive exercises can build skills in communication, conflict resolution, and people development—all through a gospel lens.
Spiritual Growth: Tie SDI insights to Scripture, showing how God’s perfect love (1 John 4:18) addresses the soul’s longings. This transforms the tool from a secular assessment into a pathway for intentional discipleship in your ministry.

A Transformative Tool for Your Ministry

The SDI doesn’t just offer surface-level insights—it goes under the surface, to the heart of our problems. In a world of quick fixes, your pastoral counseling, rooted in the SDI and the gospel, offers something deeper: relational healing and spiritual revival. Whether you’re equipping a ministry team to work in harmony or guiding an individual to find peace in God’s love, this approach bridges evidence-based relational intelligence with the timeless truth of Scripture.

Your role in pastoral counseling is a sacred space where individuals and groups seek guidance, healing, and growth through the lens of faith. Integrating tools like the SDI into your ministry can enhance its effectiveness by fostering relational intelligence, self-awareness, and a deeper connection to biblical truths. For you, this is the goal: to empower God’s people to love and serve one another well, reflecting the unity Christ prayed for in John 17. By embracing the SDI, you can unlock a new level of effectiveness in your ministry, building stronger teams and souls transformed by perfect love.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

If you’re inspired by how the SDI can bring clarity, healing, and gospel-rooted connection to those you lead, consider becoming a Certified SDI Facilitator. This certification empowers you to use and distribute the SDI within your own ministry context.

Upcoming certification dates:

June 17–19, 2025 – Only 2 spots left!
September 16–18, 2025
November 18–20, 2025