“Our decisions and our search for guidance take place in the active presence
of a God who intimately cares about our life situations and who invites us to
participate in the divine activities of healing and transformation.”
— Frank Rogers, Jr.
Thoughts and questions to help you consider this practice
Discernment is the intentional practice by which a community or an individual seeks, recognizes, and intentionally takes part in the activity of God in concrete situations.
What does God want me to do? How can I know for sure? We yearn for divine guidance, especially when voices within us seem to conflict. How do we tell the difference between self-deception and God's leading?
What decisions make us cry out for guidance? What conflicting pressures come from outside us? How do we assess advice to take care of ourselves when it comes from a culture that also idolizes self-fulfillment?
The aim of discernment is to enhance one's participation in the work of God, for the glory of God and the healing of the world. There is no method that guarantees how the Spirit will be discerned because the Holy Spirit can't be captured in a formula. But we can learn ways to practice discernment that help counter self-deception and heighten the possibility that God's Spirit can be known. How might action itself be part of a method of discernment?
The communal practice of discernment places group decisions within the context of God's transforming activity. How can groups get beyond party interests, personality clashes, and power strategies that crowd out genuine dialogue and respect? In what ways can we prepare the soil for fruitful group discernment?
Consensus is a distinctive model for a group that is reaching decisions. When have you seen this model in action? How did it function? How does consensus compare with a "majority rules" model for making decisions? In what ways does each model make space for dissent to be voiced and respected? When a final decision is made, how does the community treat those who disagree with the proposed course of action?
Seeking wisdom as a group requires a lot from participants and can be an exhausting process. What do you find most challenging about communal discernment personally? For your faith community? What changes in polity would your community have to make in order to adopt a model of communal discernment?
How can we know for sure when self-deception and personal power are at play in our discernment? When someone maintains that "God told me to do this," by what criteria can we evaluate such a claim? How did the Israelites distinguish between true and false prophets (Jeremiah 28:1-16)? What advice did the early church give for discernment (1 John 4:1, 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21)?
What promise does the practice of discernment bear for you? For your faith community? How might this practice provide opportunities to imagine solutions we did not anticipate and help us to find better paths toward the future?
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."
— Galatians 5:22-23
Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, offered a model that includes these requisites: a passionate commitment to follow God, an attitude of indifference toward all other drives and desires, and a deep sensitivity to the ways and being of God.
Begin in silence, move through discussion, and repeat the silence when necessary (a sort of communal "time out" when feelings run high). The discussion stage of discernment often begins tentatively and gradually becomes more purposeful, until a direction begins to gain a wave of support. Members build on one another's ideas, endorsing and refining the rising consensus. If no such tide emerges after some time, postpone the discussion. One important sign of confirmation is a peaceful conviction permeating the entire community, including those who dissented, that the decision is the one that will most allow the community to be faithful to God.
Ignatian communal discernment does not require full consensus. When it is determined that consensus will not emerge within the available time, the group can agree that the decision will be made by a majority vote. (In Quaker communal discernment, participants honor dissent by "standing aside" to respect an emerging consensus or "standing against" to redirect the course of action being considered.)
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into this world."
— John 4:1
"Lord, you sometimes speak in wonders, unmistakable and clear...
Lord, you sometimes speak in whispers, still and small and scarcely heard..."
Text: Christopher Idle
Text copyright (c) 1969 Hope Publishing Co.
Text and music: Daniel Iverson
Text and music copyright (c) 1935, Moody Press
"Lead me, guide me, along the way;
for if you lead me, I cannot stray."
Text and music: Doris M. Akers
"Open my eyes, that I may see glimpses of truth thou hast for me.
Open my ears, that I may hear voices of truth thou sendest clear.
Open my mouth, and let me bear gladly the warm truth everywhere.
Open my heart, and let me prepare love with thy children thus to share.
Open my mind, that I may read more of thy love in word and deed."
Text and music: Clara H. Scott
"Take, O take me as I am, summon up what I shall be..."
John L. Bell, the Iona Community, 1995
Looking at a number of thorny issues facing the contemporary church, Johnson demonstrates how the interaction of Scripture and discernment can and must become the basis for how we respond to the decisions with which the church wrestles today.
A profound testimony to the urgency of living with meaning, to the natural world’s solace and sacredness and a beautiful and often harrowing account of the search for vocation. Gallagher bears witness to the way death yields new life.
Practical guidance for offering and participating in spiritual direction in a group setting.
This powerful, prayerful, and practical guide teaches groups a whole new way of conducting meetings and reaching consensus.
In the wise and often witty Forgetting Ourselves on Purpose, Brian Mahan considers the question of how it is possible to create a meaningful spiritual life while living in a culture that measures us by what we have rather than who we are.
With wisdom, compassion, and gentle humor, Parker J. Palmer invites us to listen to the inner teacher and follow its leadings toward a sense of meaning and purpose.
Bible study, research, and fieldwork merge in this book of practical principles for decision-making by spiritual discernment.
This book is a simple, engaging, and colorful introduction to the examen, a prayerful awareness of God’s loving presence during the highs (consolations) and lows (desolations) of each day.
This book offers brief, lovely liturgies from the Iona community in Scotland.
This feature-length documentary by Martin Doblmeier tells the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young German theologian who was imprisoned and executed for his resistance to Nazism.
In this helpful and encouraging book, Elizabeth Liebert introduces the practice of discernment and guides readers through the process of faithful decision-making.
In Hearing with the Heart, popular writer and retreat leader Debra K. Farrington leads you through a gentle process for discovering how to invite God’s presence into every aspect of your daily life.
Susan Forshey and Karen Meridith compiled this companion study guide for the book “Lord, Have Mercy: Praying for Justice with Conviction and Humility,” by Claire E. Wolfteich.
This sermon based on Romans 12:1-3 was preached at Second Presbyterian Church in Baltimore (MD) on July 26, 2009.
