Discernment as a Spiritual Practice, Part 2: Community Decisions

Part One of this series on Discernment as a Spiritual Discipline or Practice looked at an Individual wanting to know and do God's will. I noted how I have learned from the book Discerning God’s Will Together - which as been a major resource for these posts -  that God yearns for us to know his will for the world, for the church and for ourselves. In fact, the words yearning and will are interchangeable. The authors Danny Morris and Charles Olsen suggest we think of it as "our yearning to know God's yearning". 

Their Bible-based assumption is that God wants everyone to know God's will. That God offers us an Up Close and Personal relationship where the promise of discernment is that we can know and do God's will. Morris and Olsen originally called  their book Discerning God’s Will Together because they envisaged it being used by congregations.  They saw the limitations of the business-led and parliamentary models often used for church decisions, and researched how other approaches might be integrated into a more holistic model. 

It turned out that lots of people found the ten principles originally generated for faith communities to be useful for personal discernment issues too, so in the second edition  advice on that dimension was included. Part One of this series covers that. However we should not forget that their original intention was to guide congregations and small groups into a Biblically-grounded and Holy Spirit-led way of agreeing on a way ahead. This spiritual practice  goes back over 300 years to the early Quakers who have much to teach us about their ways of seeking and listening to God.

Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Sacramento is a contemporary  example of a congregation that takes a discernment approach to governance. Their website says "Trinity Cathedral Vestry works with the Dean to create a vision and plan of action that reflects God’s design for the congregation. We strive to discern where God is calling our faith community and to balance our role in discerning God’s mission and vision with sound stewardship of our property and resources. Our goals are to share our gifts and ministries with the community both inside and beyond Trinity Cathedral, while welcoming new members on a regular basis.

A past Dean from Sacramento wrote of his experience, "Since Jesus is head of the Church,  the Vestry’s job is to discern His will. … Since the Holy Spirit cannot be of two minds, our job on the Vestry is to discover, as best we can, His will for us stewards of His Church.” (cited in Discerning God’s Will Together.) Trinity Cathedral leaders realise that for this process to work, they must have tremendous respect for each other, and that means listening well…”each member of the Vestry counts; no one is more important than another”.

To know God’s will we must be assured of God's love. Discernment depends on a deep trust in God’s intentions toward us. In the last post I mentioned how people can be afraid of God’s will. They fear that if God’s will is done, it will be hard, it will hurt, they will be unhappy. Discernment Prayer is about trusting our loving God’s intentions; fearing that his will could be life-thwarting, rather than life-giving, can sabotage our ability to listen and wait for direction. 

To discern well  we need the Spirit of Truth to open our eyes to attachments that influence decision-making - prestige, personal agendas, comfort, and so on. This is known as taking a posture of indifference - which doesn't mean not caring, but rather not being invested in a particular outcome. Adele Calhoun, who has written at length about Spiritual Practices,  offers this prayer of relinquishment: 

“Lord we are willing to receive what you give, release what you take, lack what you withhold, do what you require and be who you desire. Amen."
(A Spiritual Disciplines Handbook - practices that transform us, 
Adele Calhoun, (IVP, 2015, p 101)

Many Spiritual Practices can feed into congregational decision-making. In her book Joy Together (Alban Institute 2012),  Lynne Baab names worship, prayer, Ignatian gospel contemplation, fasting, and gratitude. In Part One of this series, I suggested that the Jesuit practice of Examen also offers a particularly useful approach - noticing the feelings of consolation and desolation. The first is when energising feelings of love, joy and peace appear in our hearts. The second is when we experience draining emotions of turmoil, confusion and anxiety, leading to a chaotic and demotivated community. Sometime there’s no burning bush, but looking inside ourselves and each other, we might hear God speak.

Ten Steps Revisited

In Part One of this Practice Guide I introduced the Reflection Pool graphic. Another graphic from the DGWT book employs the same ten components, but in a different image, a spiral journey like the DNA helix. As with the lily pads, the steps can be skipped or revisited according the context. Here are some further descriptions of the steps applied to the careful  listening needed in a community decision:

Framing is about coming to agreement about what is the issue and where are the boundaries of the discernment exercise. 

Grounding is about finding a guiding principle rooted in the values of the faith community, eg God’s will in God’s way.

Shedding is identifying what must be laid aside to be truly open to God. 

Rooting means finding a Biblical image or paradigm that can be used to describe the situation, eg Exile, Resurrection, City on a Hill.

Listening is asking whose voices need to be heard. Pray for openness to hear God in the voices of others. These may include people outside the group.

Exploring is where each person considers paths that could take the matter deeper. Look for options that notice and welcome God’s presence.

Improving is where these paths are shared and consolidated into several agreed options.

Weighing is spending time in silence looking for how the Spirit is resting on one or more of the paths. Look for consolation or desolation as a guide. Or use one of the tests described below. Then ask, does this matter need more prayer and reflection, or are we ready to respond?

Closing - the group regathers to seek feedback as to whether you are ready to take one option forward. Share individual responses without counting or voting; look for a sense of the meeting and work together on a more thoroughly-developed “minute” that expresses the “yearning“ of God. Then ask each individual to describe their feelings.

  1. I like the minute as it is stated.
  2. I am concerned, but will support the minute.
  3. I am uneasy … reasons… but will stand aside.
  4. I cannot support the minute.

This should point the way forward. however if the group is stuck, there are some possible next steps: 
  • Take further time
  • Appoint one person to decide
  • Vote, knowing everyone has been included.
  • Drop it.


 Morris and Olsen also offer some useful tests:

  • Write down the pros and cons for each alternative.
  • List the likely fruits of each option - by their fruits you shall know them.
  • Church father Origen suggests tracing the source of each thought: God, the Devil or human ego?
  • John Cassian wrote the Five Way test of the money changer: Is it filled with what is good for all? Is it heavy with the fear of God? Is it genuine in the feelings that underlie it? Is it lightweight because of inadequate motives? Has the  burden of vanity diminished its lustre?
  • Use the Jesuit practice of Examen,  looking for consolation - a sense of peace and movement towards God or desolation - dis-ease and movement away from God. 
  • Practise silence and solitude and allow the Spirit to lure you to a particular path.
  • Use Ignatian gospel contemplation to read John 14: 1 - 3 where Jesus offers to go ahead and prepare a place. In your imagination try to discover more about what he has prepared for this community at this time.
  • Again in the imagination, take a trip to a chapel or a secluded meadow and invite a wise sage to join you. See where you end up!

 Cleaning my Glasses

When congregations or eldership teams are discerning together, we need to remember that we are not just looking for a Good idea, but for the Best idea, which is God’s idea. One wise leader says “Spiritual Practices help us remember who God is and who we are. Practising the disciplines is like cleaning my glasses. It restores fresh and clear vision." (Lynne Baab, Joy Together, p 155)

To Ponder: What community decisions have you taken part in recently? Were any of these steps used? Were they helpful? Would you approach the questions differently another time?


It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.

Ken Untemeyer, in honour of the martyr Bishop Oscar Romero, in The Church Guide for Making Decisions Together Terence Corkin, Julia Kuhn Wallace. (Abingdon, 2017, p 177).

(Post 3 will offer a Worked Example  from NZ Church History).

 

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