Grounded in God, Revised Edition. Stephanie A. Hull
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Free, Louise E. Miller, and Maureen O'Ferrall.
We thank our editor, Deborah Grahame-Smith, who not only was readily available to us, but also suggested the title Grounded in God-which we all hailed without hesitation.
We are ever grateful to Memorial Episcopal Church in Baltimore for office space and steadfast support at all levels.
And finally, we appreciate the personal support and sacrifice of those close to us, especially Anne Blumenberg, Barney Farnham+, Samuel King, and Peggy M. McLean.
Thanks be to God for blessing us so richly.
Backgroundof this Book
Grounded in God: Listening Hearts Discernment for Group Deliberations builds on a foundation built by a network of people under the auspices of the Christian Vocation Project–also known as Listening Hearts Ministries–who have developed programs, published materials, and provided training to encourage and enable the practice of spiritual discernment in the church. Their initial book Listening Hearts: Discerning Call in Community draws upon the spiritual classics and experience from a wide range of Christian traditions to explore the themes of call, discernment, and community as they relate to each other; this seminal work seeks to help the church become more a community of support for individuals as they wrestle with issues, relationships, priorities, and life-choices. Three companion pieces provide program resources to accompany the book:
Listening Hearts Manual for Discussion Leaders, Listening Hearts Retreat Designs and Meditation Exercises, and the Listening Hearts Songbook. Now Grounded in God is offered to help move the community of faith forward to practice spiritual discernment while making group decisions and tending to the affairs of the church.
Introduction
Spiritual discernment is a prayerful, informed, and intentional effort to distinguish God's voice from other voices that influence us.
Thy will be done on earth. Jesus gave these words to the disciples, and his followers have been praying them ever since. Spiritual discernment is the quest to discover God's will for us so that we can live into these words of the Lord's Prayer and all that they imply. Discernment was central in the life of Jesus, who came into the world to do the work of God. Jesus expressed it this way: “I can do nothing on my own…I seek to do not my own will but the will of [the one] who sent me” (Jn. 5:30). Doing God's work provided Jesus’ very sustenance: “Doing the will of the one who sent me and bringing this work to completion is my food” (Jn. 4:34 INT).
Jesus did not act alone but remained in close personal contact with God: “…I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as [God] instructed me. And the one who sent me is with me; [and] has not left me alone….” (Jn. 8:28–29).
Jesus directed his followers to continue God's work in the world: “As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (Jn. 17:18), and “You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last….” (Jn. 15:16).
Jesus warned his followers that they would be unable to do God's work without the closest mutual indwelling: “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5).
Jesus then promised to impart the Holy Spirit to us and to remain with us always: “…the Holy Spirit, whom [God] will send in my name, will teach you everything…” (Jn. 14:26), and “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt. 28:20).
Just hours before he was crucified, Jesus prayed that those who were to follow his first disciples might all be one: “…as you, [God], are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us…!” (Jn. 17:21).
We are the body of Christ in today's world. It is thus both our call and our fulfillment to permit God to act in us and through us as we do business as the church. This book has been written to provide a resource for church groups that would like to approach their deliberations in the spirit of discernment. The authors have been working with various church bodies over the past several years, developing ways to make the practice of spiritual discernment a widespread reality. They hope that this book will provide insight and inspiration to people active in the affairs of the church. In this way the people of God can both enact their faith and deepen their love and trust1 while working out community decisions that they face as the body of Christ. The Appendices offer practical suggestions for those who want to implement the ideas discussed in this book.
Let the Lord your God show us where we should go and what we should do. –Jer. 42:3
ONE
Spiritual Discernment: Its Meaningand Value for Group Meetings
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. –Acts 2:1–2
Imagine a church on a breezy spring day, its doors and windows opened wide to let the wind flow through. So it is when we come together as God's people with the doors of our hearts and minds open–our eyes as windows raised to see what God will show us, our ears open to hear what God may say. It is then that the wind of the Spirit can sweep into our midst to make Pentecost a reality in our life together.
God knows our deepest potential, sees the hidden complexities of our circumstances, comprehends our situation in relation to the larger picture, and grasps the broader implications of our plans. Discernment1 is our effort to tap into the flow of this divine wisdom.
In classical spirituality, discernment means distinguishing God's Spirit from other spirits that are present in a given time and place–such as the spirit of a nation, the spirit of the times, the spirit of competition. To put it another way, discernment is distinguishing the voice of God from other voices that speak to us: the voice of our parents echoing from years past, the voices of friends, voices of urgency or fear. These voices are neither bad nor good in and of themselves. God often speaks to us through them. But, if followed indiscriminantly, such voices can dominate us and lead us along a wrong path.
Discernment is a prayerful, informed, and intentional attempt to sort through these voices to get in touch with God's Spirit at work in a situation and to develop a sense of the direction in which the Spirit is leading. Discernment is more a journey than a destination. We may not find answers for all our concerns, but we can be receptive to God's presence as we ponder the questions.2
Sound rational analysis based on the best available information is crucial to good discernment. Yet spiritual discernment goes beyond the analytical to engage our senses, feelings, imaginations, and intuition as we wrestle with issues. It often points toward a decision, but it is not problem-solving. The goal of our discernment efforts is to find the mind of Christ.3 As such, it is the central component of decision-making for those who would have their lives grounded in God.
Discernment is more than saying prayers that ask God to guide us in rational consideration of matters. It is a mode of prayer that involves opening our entire selves to the working of the Holy Spirit. It bids us to let go of preconceived ideas so that we can be open to new possibilities with a readiness to view things from new perspectives. Discernment beckons