Pursuing God's Will Together

1. Spiritual Leadership is Defined by Discerning God's Will

There are many qualities that contribute to good leadership, but it is our commitment to discerning and doing the will of God through the help of the Holy Spirit that distinguishes spiritual leadership from other kinds of leadership.

Beyond secular models. Many Christian leaders vaguely sense their decision-making should differ from secular approaches, yet struggle to define this distinction beyond perfunctory prayers. True spiritual leadership transcends mere strategic thinking or human wisdom, actively seeking God's direction for the community. This commitment to divine guidance is what sets it apart.

Corporate discernment defined. Leadership discernment is the collective capacity to recognize and respond to God's presence and activity regarding the issues a group faces, making decisions in response to that Presence. It challenges leaders to move beyond reliance on human intellect to a place of deep listening and responsiveness to the Holy Spirit within and among them. This approach acknowledges that God's wisdom often differs from human wisdom.

A serious question. If a leadership group isn't intentionally pursuing God's will, what are they truly doing? Are they pursuing their own will, what seems strategically best, or what serves their ego? Embracing discernment opens leaders to God's wisdom, which is available as they learn to open themselves to it, transforming leadership into an exciting dance where God leads.

2. Overcoming Spiritual Blindness is the First Step to Discernment

Most people do not see things as they are; rather, they see things as they are.

The trouble with seeing. Just as Jesus healed physical blindness, spiritual discernment is a journey from spiritual blindness to spiritual sight, moving from seeing God nowhere to seeing God everywhere. The story of the man born blind in John 9 illustrates how religious people, including Jesus' disciples, often missed God's work due to ingrained beliefs, cultural superstitions, and a narrow focus on blame rather than divine possibility.

Obstacles to sight. Several factors prevent clear spiritual vision:

• Asking the wrong questions: Focusing on "whose fault is it?" instead of "what is God doing?"
• Stuck in old paradigms: Cognitive filters prevent seeing new possibilities, even when evidence is clear.
• Preserving the system: Prioritizing religious systems and power over recognizing God's fresh activity.
• Fear of ramifications: Being afraid to acknowledge truth due to potential social or religious exclusion.

A journey of insight. The healed man's journey from calling Jesus a "man" to worshiping him as "Lord" contrasts sharply with the religious leaders' descent into spiritual darkness. True discernment begins with the humble admission of our own blindness and a willingness to cry out, "My teacher, I want to see," opening ourselves to God's transformative work.

3. Individual Spiritual Transformation is Prerequisite for Collective Discernment

Discernment in its fullness takes a practiced heart, fine-tuned to hear the word of God and the single-mindedness to follow that word in love.

Beyond human wisdom. The Grace Church leadership, despite their success and passion, faced exhaustion, moral failures, and internal divisions, realizing their human wisdom and strategic planning had limits. They recognized that their past decision-making methods were inadequate for the complex spiritual realities they now faced, prompting a need for deeper discernment. This realization led them to pause new initiatives and focus on their own spiritual lives.

Paul's clear instruction. Romans 12:2 emphasizes that transformation by the renewing of our minds is essential for discerning God's will, not just for individuals but for the corporate mind of the community. If leaders are not intentionally undergoing spiritual transformation, discernment will be hindered by human dynamics like bullying, manipulation, or self-preservation, regardless of any process in place.

The necessary prework. Corporate discernment begins with attending to the spiritual formation of each individual leader. This means cultivating a shared understanding of spiritual transformation and engaging in disciplines that keep them in a posture of willing surrender to God. Initial failed attempts at discernment can serve as a clarifying experience, highlighting the crucial need for this individual spiritual preparation.

4. Key Spiritual Practices Cultivate a Discerning Heart in Leaders

Without this kind of listening and presence to God, it is impossible to cultivate leadership that is distinctly spiritual.

Foundational disciplines. Leaders committed to discernment must establish basic spiritual practices to remain open to God. These are not luxuries but essential for spiritual leadership:

• Solitude and Silence: Withdrawing from distractions to give God undivided attention, becoming quiet enough to hear His voice.
• Scripture Engagement: Approaching Scripture for personal transformation, not just information, allowing God to speak directly (e.g., lectio divina).
• Prayer: Cultivating intimacy with God through prayers of quiet trust, indifference, and wisdom, acknowledging dependence and seeking God's will above all.
• Self-knowledge and Self-examination: Taking responsibility for inner dynamics, sin patterns, and false-self motivations that could negatively impact leadership.

The best offering. Just because someone is a long-time Christian, educated, or successful in secular fields doesn't guarantee spiritual discernment. The most valuable contribution a leader brings is their transforming self, continually shaped by these practices. A group committed to discernment can foster this growth, making it a stated goal to be a transforming community.

Beyond mere professionalism. Many leaders, shaped by competitive environments, lack the skills or spiritual capacity for the vulnerability required in a spiritual community. They may dismiss calls to grapple with love, trust, and transformation as unprofessional. Discernment requires leaders to move beyond professionalism to a distinctly Christian way of leading, rooted in deep personal spiritual work.

5. Leadership Must Evolve from Teamwork to Authentic Spiritual Community

Because Christian community is founded solely on Jesus Christ, it is a spiritual and not a psychic reality. In this it differs absolutely from other communities.

Beyond task-oriented teams. While teamwork is inspiring, Christian leaders are called to a deeper reality: spiritual community. Unlike teams that assemble around a task and disband when it's over, spiritual community gathers around the Person of Christ, unified by a commitment to be transformed by the Holy Spirit to discern and do God's will.

A conversion to community. Moving from a leadership team to a spiritual community is a profound conversion, involving a shift in thought patterns, values, and priorities. It means orienting to Christ's presence, accepting that the Trinity is active, and seeking God's action communally rather than individualistically. This conversion requires a deeper commitment to each other, extending beyond the immediate task.

The challenge of culture. It's easier to talk about community than to be it, especially in leadership. Organizational culture often pulls leaders towards human methods like posturing, maneuvering, and self-protective behaviors. Cultivating spiritual community is countercultural, demanding intentionality, vulnerability, and openness to the Holy Spirit's unpredictable leading, rather than relying on human procedures.

6. Shared Values and Practices Form the Foundation of a Discerning Community

The more genuine and the deeper our community becomes, the more will everything else between us recede, the more clearly and purely will Jesus Christ and his work become the one and only thing that is vital between us.

Articulating core values. Once a leadership group longs for and commits to spiritual community, the next step is to articulate shared values and principles that will guide them. These values are not abstract ideals but real qualities of character, often discovered through shared experiences, both positive and negative, and rooted in the group's unique calling and history.

Values from within and without. Values emerge from:

• Personal stories: What individuals need to feel safe and fully participate.
• Group history: What initially drew the group together, lessons learned, and moments of both faithfulness and failure.
• Biblical narrative: Finding the group's story within God's larger redemptive purposes, like the Transforming Center's grounding in Mark 3:13-14 ("to be with him").

Key values for community: The Transforming Center identified values such as:

• Community: Gathering around Christ's presence, prioritizing unity.
• Spiritual Transformation: Each leader committed to a personal rule of life, fostering a transforming community culture.
• Leadership Discernment: Attentiveness to God's activity, proactively seeking His guidance.
• Equality and Inclusiveness: Valuing all members based on their relationship with God, calling, and gifts.
• Lived Experience: Teaching only what is genuinely lived and experienced, not just theory.
• Self-knowledge and Personal Responsibility: Dealing with inner dynamics, confessing sin, and fostering humility.
• Truth: Tenacious commitment to truth-telling, even when difficult, as essential for trust and freedom.
• Lovingkindness: Demonstrating kindness and gentleness as a core characteristic of mature spirituality.
• Gratitude: Cultivating celebration and thankfulness as a powerful spiritual practice.
• Conflict Transformation: Engaging conflict as a catalyst for growth and deeper unity, not just resolution.

These values, when consistently lived, create positive cultural norms that shape the spirit of the community, making it a transforming experience.

7. A Covenant Formalizes Commitment and Protects Spiritual Community

Intimate relationships among members of a community take time. We need to call upon our faith: covenant is achieved by the action of the Holy Spirit freeing people, giving them a sense of trust with each other.

Why a covenant? Despite good intentions and shared values, human nature often leads to behaviors that undermine community. A written covenant makes commitments real, providing clear guidelines and shared ownership for behavior. It acts as a protective structure, calling members back to their best intentions when tempted to revert to old, unredeemed patterns.

Rooted in God's nature. Covenant making and keeping are central to God's character, as seen in His relationships with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David, and the new covenant through Christ. God makes covenants with groups to hold individuals accountable for growth, ensuring their life together positively impacts the wider world. This reflects God's nature as a convening God, bringing people together for His purposes.

A spiritual practice. Entering into a covenant is a spiritual practice that opens individuals to God's transforming presence. It's a binding agreement made before God and with His people, outlining how they will honor God, each other, and their relationships. As Jeff Greenway noted, "We bind ourselves to each other in times of strength so that in moments of weakness we do not become unbound," acknowledging the demanding nature of living in covenant community.

8. The Discernment Process Requires Intentional Preparation and Surrender

The question, therefore, is how to prepare ourselves to be in a position to be led by Christ.

"Get Ready" phase. The discernment process has three phases: "Get Ready," "Get Set," and "Go!" The "Get Ready" phase is crucial preparation, akin to preparing a room for painting. It involves:

• Clarifying the question: Identifying issues significant enough for discernment (e.g., identity, mission, resource allocation, key personnel, quality of life). This often means finding "the question beneath the question."
• Gathering the community: Identifying the right people, including a discernmentarian (guide), sages (wise individuals), intercessors (prayer support), and a scribe. Also, considering other voices (affected parties, experts) to ensure a complete perspective.
• Affirming values: Reaffirming guiding values and principles, especially commitment to unity, to ensure a safe and trustworthy environment for rigorous discussion.

Beyond human effort. The Grace Church leaders, having completed their personal and community preparation, were ready to approach significant decisions with a clear sense of God's will. They understood that these decisions required more than human wisdom, acknowledging their complete dependence on God's promise to give wisdom to those who ask.

The discernmentarian's role. This chosen guide, often a clerk or convener, structures the meeting as "worship in which business is conducted." They ensure all perspectives are heard, introduce times of prayer, and reflect back the "sense of the meeting" to discern God's unitive will. This role requires spiritual maturity, objectivity, patience, and the ability to keep the group focused on Christ's mind.

9. Indifference to Personal Outcomes is Crucial for Hearing God's Will

God’s will, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.

"Get Set" phase. This phase helps participants "get set" or position themselves to be led by Christ, individually and as a group. It involves:

• Settling in: Using practices like fixed-hour prayer, worship, meditation, or sharing personal experiences of consolation/desolation to foster intimacy and openness.
• Prayer for indifference: Humbly asking God for freedom from inordinate attachment to ego, prestige, personal opinion, or preferred outcomes. This is a spiritual struggle, as exemplified by Jesus in Gethsemane, acknowledging a difference between personal preference and God's will.
• Test for indifference: A mechanism for individuals to honestly assess and disclose their level of indifference. This transparency helps loosen personal agendas and allows the group to pray for each other, fostering unity of spirit even amidst differing opinions.

Shedding personal desires. Indifference, or "shedding," means being willing to let go of what needs to die to make room for God's new work. It may involve humbling oneself or giving up cherished values for the greater good, leading to spiritual death and resurrection. This deep personal work is essential; without it, discernment can become a rigged election, a tug-of-war between human agendas.

The prayer for wisdom. Once indifference is achieved or honestly acknowledged, the group is ready to pray for wisdom, trusting James 1:5: "If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God... and it will be given you." This humble admission of lack, coupled with detachment from ego, prepares the heart to receive God's wisdom, which often appears as foolishness to the world. The Grace Church leaders, in their financial crisis, knelt in silent, wordless prayer, experiencing profound dependence and receiving a "third way" solution.

10. Deep Listening to God, Self, and Others Guides Collective Discernment

Christians at their best are good listeners, and the Christian church, when most faithful, is a listening community.

"Go!" phase: The heart of discernment. This phase is fundamentally about listening deeply: to God, to each other, and to the stirrings within one's own soul. It begins by setting a prayerful agenda, ensuring all necessary information is available, and creating space for diverse voices. The Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 exemplified this, listening to:

• The conversion experiences of Gentiles.
• Eyewitness accounts from respected believers.
• Perspectives of legal experts (Pharisees).
• Peter's unique anointing and testimony.
• Paul and Barnabas's reports of God's signs and wonders.

Guidelines for fruitful listening: Effective listening in discernment requires intentionality:

• Settle in God's presence.
• Listen with your entire self (senses, feelings, intuition, reason).
• Avoid interrupting or formulating responses while others speak.
• Speak for yourself, from your own experience, avoiding generalizations.
• Ask clarifying questions, not challenges.
• Listen to the whole group, including those who are quiet.
• Hold desires and opinions lightly, open to influence.

Gathering information and noticing without judging. The listening phase involves gathering comprehensive data:

• Facts: Financials, research, proposals, expert advice.
• Community Voices: Those affected, implementers, sages, those with special anointing.
• Spiritual Insights: Alignment with calling/mission, relevant Scripture, Christ's life/teachings, Fruit of the Spirit, consolation/desolation, tradition, and what fosters love/unity.

The power of silence. After thorough discussion, silence is crucial. It allows for self-awareness, processing emotions, observing group dynamics, and creating space for the Holy Spirit to work. Silence interrupts negative patterns, fosters humility, and allows God to reveal wisdom, often leading to breakthroughs or new clarity. The Grace Church leaders experienced this profound shift, finding unanimity after a period of silent listening.

11. Unity and Peace Confirm God's Discerned Will, Leading to Action

Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.

Reconvening and listening again. After a period of silence, the group reconvenes to share insights. Often, deeper wisdom and truer insights emerge, with individuals sharing personal shifts, scriptural guidance, or new metaphors. This collective sharing frequently reveals a clear way forward or a few strong options. The Grace Church group, after their period of solitude, found every person had arrived at the same conclusion through different interior journeys, leading to stunning unanimity.

Selecting and weighing options. If a clear path doesn't immediately emerge, the group refines identified options, focusing on improving them or combining the best elements. The goal is to work collaboratively, ensuring no one takes sole ownership of an option. Each option is then "placed near the heart" to discern if it brings consolation, peace, and aligns with God's Spirit, considering what fosters the Fruit of the Spirit and allows for incremental progress.

Agreeing together. The discernmentarian summarizes the "sense of the meeting," articulating the path God seems to be leading them toward. Each member is then asked to affirm if this path aligns with God's will to the best of their ability. This step is vital for group unity, preventing future disagreements and ensuring collective ownership. Quaker tradition emphasizes unity over mere unanimity, where all agree on the best path for the community, even if personal opinions still differ.

Inner confirmation and action. The final step is to seek inner confirmation, allowing members time apart to quietly reflect and ensure deep peace with the decision. If confirmed, the decision is affirmed within the group and communicated to the wider community, often sharing the discernment process itself. The ultimate goal is to "Just Do It!" – to move forward with confidence, connecting prayerful discernment with Spirit-empowered action, and continuing to discern as plans unfold. This sacred rhythm of being and doing transforms ministry, making it a source of ongoing inspiration and reliance on God.