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The Spirit who inhabits us is not mute, restricting himself to an occasional nudge, a hot flash, a brilliant image or a case of goose bumps
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Dallas Willard in Hearing God
I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.
John 10:14-16 NLT
One of the most misunderstood roles of pastoral ministry is that of leading congregational discernment. This is Biblical practice of seeking direction and vision from God. Even just reading this, causes some leaders discomfort because we have been taught that to seek this kind of direct communication from God is far too mystical for contemporary followers of Jesus. It is best left to the "few" who we (the church) often pay to provide religious services. Some leaders may also feel threatened that the vision and direction of the church that they oversee is not exclusively their domain.
Yet, the Bible tells story after story of people who rejected the privilege of hearing from God in order to feel safe or to restore a facade of control. When the children of Israel had the chance of hearing from God himself as a community, they chose to place Moses as an intermediary (Exodus 20:19) out of fear for God. This in turn set up a line of mediators for the people of God, based upon our desire for distance, but never God's. Later on in the book of I Samuel, the people reject God as their direct king, but ask for an intermediary king (I Samuel 8:6-7). God sees this as a rejection of his authority. Jesus, would come down and become human but the Gospel of John states that he too was rejected (John 1:10-11). In Exodus, we rejected the presence and the imminence of God. In Samuel, we rejected the authority of God and that pattern continues to this day.
The church was birthed to be a community centered on the person of Jesus Christ and led by the Holy Spirit. We find a tremendous amount of scriptures on the activity of the Holy Spirit in the development and direction of the early church. In making decisions, early leaders stated that the decision "seemed good to us and the Holy Spirit" (Acts 15:28). The Holy Spirit directed ministries (Acts 8:29, Acts 13:4 among many others) and directly ministered to the early Church. What is fascinating is that there was an expectation that the community would hear directly from God through the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:31)
In contemporary churches, we have largely lost our reverence and holy expectation that the Holy Spirit is to speak and lead us. We have bought into the lie that the Holy Spirit communication was for a different era and endowed to a special class of people. We hire pastors who are to discern what God is saying to us and unconsciously repeated the rejection of Exodus, I Samuel, and John 1 all over again.
Here are a couple points on congregational discernment that we need to wrestle with:
- The disciplines of Jesus Christ are conduits of congregational discernment: Jesus radically said that he does nothing on his own (John 5:19) and that his words are from God, the father (John 14:10). Jesus heard the voice of God as he prayed, read Scripture, worshiped, served others, and fellowshipped with those who followed him. These disciplines were practiced by all in the early church with the expectation that God would speak to them, through the disciplines. Today, we are called to be disciples of Jesus as our primary identity and that is one who participates in the disciplines of Jesus. If we expect to experience the voice of the discernment, it will come as we practice the disciplines of Christ.
- Discernment is a community activity, not simply a leadership responsibility: While church leadership should be able to articulate a vision, align the mission to that vision, and implement a plan based upon the collective discernment of the people of God, it is not solely responsible for design and development. The false dichotomy of lay/clergy has fostered this practice that there are special people who are intermediaries with God who we pay to tell us "thus says the Lord". Preaching and teaching are incredible means of hearing from God but they are not the only or primary way that the people of God hear from the Holy Spirit, whether individually or collectively. The people of God are constantly connecting (referred to as abiding) to Jesus so that we are productive (fruitful). This does not mean that we strive to have an "everyone for themselves" environment but a unity of fellowship connected by the work of the Holy Spirit (I John 1:7).
- An important role of clergy is to lead the congregation towards discernment and develop a culture of listening: The pastors and leaders of the church set the tone and the culture of the church. Congregations need to be taught the expectation of discernment in their individual walk and as a community. This only occurs when the leaders model this and celebrate listening to God through prayer, His Word, and His people. Congregants must understand that God is speaking to them, clergy must teach them how to listen.
God seeks to speak to us. Not only for connection but even more importantly, as a means to our obedience. Andrew Murray correctly wrote "there is no blessedness in hearing or knowing God's word apart from keeping it". Discernment empowers us to participate in the mission of Jesus to bless the world.
Je
sus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. (John 14:23-26)
I pray that you will have the Holy expectation that you will hear the voice of God through His Spirit that you will be boldly empowered to participate in the mission of Jesus.
May God bless you all
