SpiritLinks

Discovering God's Will through Spiritual Discernment

It's life-giving to discover that God has a hope for us - that God yearns to participate in shaping our dreams and convictions.

by Pete Velander and Bonnie Schlosser

Sometimes groups in the church seek to prevail by using power, influence, reasoned discourse, and carefully plotted strategies. [Discerning God’s Will Together] is not about tug-of-war within religious groups. It is about a process like a dance by which a religious group comes to rest on a course of action. In the dance, all of the participants’ wisdom and gifts—humility, reason, intuition, tradition, religious practice—are called forth until the divine presence breaks in and lights the right path, offering sight and guidance to individuals and to the group.

Discerning God’s Will Together: A Spiritual Practice for the Church,
Morris & Olsen, The Alban Institute/Upper Room Books, Page 11.

Many moderate and liberal Christians feel a chill of anxiety run down the backs of their necks when the phrase “God’s will,” comes up in conversation. Again in the words of Morris and Olsen:

They fear that if God’s will is done, it will result in hardship, that God’s will has cutting edges and unhappy results. They fear that God’s will may be the worst thing that could happen. Many people fear that God may require them to do almost impossible tasks. If a person asks God to reveal the divine will, he or she may have to quit his or her job, become a missionary, or sell the boat. An uneasy feeling lingers in the church. Don’t get too close to God. God will only make life difficult.

Discerning God’s Will Together, page 16.

The notion of God’s will has been used as a battering ram more often than a beacon. Our experience is that “God’s will” is used to close down a conversation rather than to crack it wide open.

A few years ago a group of church-related publishers was struggling with how to structure a collaborative project in a way that would enable widely diverse groups to work together in a creative process. During the discussion one participant simply said, “What would God want from us? What is God’s hope for our work together?” What stunningly relevant questions.

It’s life-giving to consider that God has a hope for us – that God yearns to participate in shaping our dreams and convictions. It’s ironic that the church, and church-related organizations often find themselves trying to adapt the latest secular management models for use in a faith-based community while the secular world is discovering the spiritual side of leadership and organizational life. In some cases one can even sense the soul being sucked right out of a church-related ministry as it trades missional direction for trendy methodology.

Seeking God’s will can help our dreams grow deep roots, lead us through delicate and contentious issues, and fill our work with the persevering power and imagination of the Holy Spirit. Even if depth, guidance, perseverance, and imagination were unimportant to us, we would still be left with the question, “If not God’s will, whose then?”

In their book Discerning God’s Will Together: A Spiritual Practice for the Church Danny Morris and Charles Olsen offer a ten-step framework for implementing a discernment process.

  • Framing identifies the focus for discernment of God’s will. The matters to be included are arranged into a unified whole. The focus of the exploration is briefly described.
  • Grounding in a guiding principle jump-starts the process of discernment. The guiding principle is informed by the values, beliefs, and purpose of the discerning community. Boundaries are set.
  • Shedding lays aside ego, preconceived notions, false assumptions, biases, and predetermined conclusions so that persons involved in discernment can openly consider the matter.
  • Rooting in the tradition connects religious and biblical stories, themes, and images with the situation at hand. The tradition may confront, confirm, nudge, or even transform the direction of the discernment process.
  • Listening enables hearing the promptings of the Spirit of God, the voices of all in the discerning community, and the cries of others who may be affected by our discernment.
  • Exploring frees our playful imaginations to identify possible options and paths that lie within the guiding principle.
  • Improving works in consultation and prayer to improve each option under consideration until it becomes the best that we can imagine it to be within the yearning of God.
  • Weighing sorts and tests the options or paths in response to the leading of God’s Spirit.
  • Closing brings the explorations to a conclusion, moving toward the selection of an option which is given weight by the Spirit of God and the process in which the community is engaged.
  • Resting tests the decision by allowing it to rest near the heart to determine whether it brings primarily feelings of consolation (a sense of peace and movement toward God) or desolation (distress and movement away from God).

Each step has important value. Although it may be necessary to customize the steps to each particular discernment, we found the end result enriched by giving each step the required attention.

For one to believe that spiritual discernment is more than just a spiritualization of consensus decision-making, one must accept a certain set of basic assumptions about God’s presence, the practice of spiritual discernment, and the posture of the discerning community. [see pages 36,37]

Presence

  • We assume that God is self-disclosing and that God yearns for the created world and enters into a covenant relationship with God’s people.
  • We assume that God enters into human existence with such vulnerability that people, in discerning the higher purpose of the divine will, are drawn into the vulnerability of God.
  • We assume that the indwelling Holy Spirit is the active and ongoing guide in personal and corporate discernment.

Practices

  • We assume that seeking God’s will is the ultimate value in our knowledge and experience.
  • We assume the need to participate humbly in a faith community of grace.
  • We assume that people and communities need to patiently persevere in practices related to Scripture, prayer, and discernment until God’s leading is known.

Posture

  • We assume that the willingness to change the heart and to make an appropriate response are preconditions of the gift of discernment.
  • We assume that God uses especially gifted people with skills and insight in to the discernment process in the ministry of discernment.
  • We assume that the practice of discernment is ongoing – to discern God’s will again and again and again.

The key to redeeming God’s will from its club-like status is in the last word of the book’s title – “together.” The interpretation of God’s will that we fear is often held by one and imposed on others. The interpretation of God’s will that brings life is most often discovered in community. The beauty of this, and other discernment processes is that they recognize our humanity with all its God-longings and earthly lusts. We are called into partnership with God – together. There’s safety in numbers.

The person who asked the simple questions at our meeting also helped us find our way to this practice of spiritual discernment. So that this call to an organizational life of spiritual discernment might not be left in the realm of “nice idea, but impossible to live out,” let us say a word or two about where this journey has led for one international publishing partnership that will soon release a new curriculum resource called Seasons of the Spirit. Our Seasons of the Spirit group has, through use of the spiritual discernment process, overcome barriers that have historically separated the individual organizations within our group. God has led us through the healing of many divisive wounds. A diverse group of nearly 30 people used the process of spiritual discernment to come to full agreement on every single word of a nineteen page Theological and Educational Foundations paper. The Business Operations Team of this collaborative effort practiced spiritual discernment to address issues of economic justice in an international partnership. Team leaders for every publishing function were named through a broad-based discernment process. The editorial process was defined in an environment of spiritual discernment. From content, to organizational structure, from business plans to ad campaigns, from style guides to printing, we have tried to be open to letting God have God’s way with us.

Does it mean we got it all right? Of course not. But it means that our plans and processes have been intentionally missional – even when we’ve made mistakes.

Does it mean we had to abandon reason? No. It means that we believe God has a stake in our work and that it is not only wise, but prudent that we should seek God’s leading. God used every ounce of talent, insight, and inspiration available in our group to lead us forward.

Do these ten steps provide some sort of decision-making cure all? Absolutely not. We used a variety of methods and adapted processes to help us maintain the environment of spiritual discernment in our work. Sometimes our work took on the character of a business meeting, and sometimes it looked a lot more like a worship service. Continual attention to this environment helps hold our human foibles in check so that the focus of our work can remain clear. Practicing spiritual discernment enables us to move through some very thorny issues in exceptionally creative and effective ways.

Nancy Reeves, Ph.D. in her new book on spiritual discernment, I’d Say Yes, God If I Knew What You Wanted (Wood Lake Books/Northstone) encourages us to “have the intent to be always guided by God” and not be surprised or shaken when we are called through our weaknesses to discernment. She closes her book with a prayer from Sister Pat Bergen CSJ,

May Wisdom be present in your discernment shedding light upon dormant dreams and unfolding paths. May trust invite you to explore the unknown with a hopeful heart. May supportive companions keep vigil in your waiting. May you be blessed with patience and courage in the expression of your true self. May the yearning of the Spirit call forth generosity and great love. And, may your heart be opened always to welcome holy newness. Amen.
Sr. Pat Bergen

Perhaps the greatest gift of spiritual discernment is the way it holds ever before us the vision and mission to which we have been called. As lay people we have often heard it said that the business of the church needs to be handled with worldly expertise and efficiency. This experience of life in the context of spiritual discernment would lead us to suggest that perhaps the business of the church needs to be conducted as if God still cares what happens – because if not God’s will, whose then?
 
 
 
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