Some history

•     The Congregational tradition
•     Discernment and voting
•     The Congregational Meeting and the Town Meeting

Some scripture

•     Acts 2
•     I Corinthians 12:4-11
•     Romans 12:2

Some theology

•     God is active in the world
•     Not everything that happens is God's will
•     But God has a will for us
•     God's will is not always clear
•     But often God's will can be discerned

Discernment is not:

•     Democracy
•     Consensus building
•     Decision making

Discernment is perceiving what God is up to and what we are to do in response.

Discernment can look like other forms of decision-making:

• Get the facts
• Consider options
• Listen to others
• Seek counsel of wise people
• "Sleep on it"

But discernment is different, also:

• Prayer (seeking counsel through The Counselor)
• Asking three key questions:
• "Where is God in this?"
• "What is God up to here?"
• "In light of what God is doing, what are we to do?"

• Communal
• Listen to others, not only for advice or wisdom, but because you never know whom the Spirit will speak through
• Some people have particular gift of spiritual discernment

Barriers to discernment:

•     An unwillingness to listen to the Holy Spirit
•     Doubt that the Holy Spirit can be at work through such a process
•     Need to be in charge or control the process
•     Our own desires and self-delusions
•     Impatience
•     Unholy spirits (?)

Tests of our discernment

• Fidelity to scripture and tradition
• Fruit of the spirit
• "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" --Galatians 5:22-23

• Inner authority and peace
• Communal harmony
• Enhancement rather than extinction of life
• Integrity in the process of discernment

(Note: this list is from "Discernment," by Frank Rogers, Jr.
in Practicing Our Faith, edited by Dorothy C. Bass)

For faithful discernment to "work":

• Minds and hearts informed by scripture and molded by prayer
• Not different from worship, not separate from business
• Invoke the Holy Spirit from beginning and often
• Educate, educate, educate
• Remind, remind, remind
• Invoke, invoke, invoke

• Willingness to hold people to the process of discernment
• Cannot be:
•     Some other form of decision-making in disguise
•     Manipulative
•     A thin veneer
• Carefully determine what question(s) to take up. (How to frame the question also requires careful discernment!)
• Ritualize the process
• Use silence
• Find ways to hear from those who don't often speak
• Do not be in a hurry
• If a vote must be taken, de-emphasize it
• The process is as important as the result
• Affirm and reaffirm your covenant with one another
  

Discernment as gift to the church and to the world:

• Spirit of unity
• Avoids dualism
• Re-distribution of power
• Counter-cultural
•     Silence
•     Taking time
•     Authority

Discernment is a way the church can be the church, even as we do the church's business.