A few reasons why you haven’t practiced corporate discernment

How often have you sought the Lord’s will with others?

While many of us have ways we seek God’s guidance in our personal lives, we have little experience doing this with others. I believe this is partially because most of us have grown up in churches where the emphasis is on our personal/individual relationship with Jesus. What is God saying to me? I am not really part of an US that needs to hear from God for US. I find this to be a huge lost opportunity to be the people of God as described in the Bible.

This is particularly unfortunate in cultural contexts with a strong sense of community (like South Africa where I live). Here, the paradigm by which people live – consciously or not – is that I am born into a people. Therefore, when Christianity is understood to be a personal relationship only, it is actually a foreign/western/northern/white concept. How tragic that we are not allowing the communal nature of Christianity to build on our existing understanding of life in a supernatural way. We all long to be part of something/someone – how can we possibly miss the opportunity to share this part of the Good News?

Another reason we struggle to seek God together is that many have never been part of church where the concept of the priesthood of all believers is taken seriously enough to enable (require?) active participation using one’s gifts and discernment as part of the larger congregation. I am not suggesting that we must all take part in every decision or discussion per se. And I recognize that we can all use our gifts and play our unique parts in the body. But what I am saying is that we sometimes use “we all play different roles” as an excuse for either un-Biblical passivity on the one hand or un-Christlike control on the other. IF we believe God speaks through us collectively, how are we actually attempting to hear and discern together?

Finally, in many cases we tragically separate worship/connecting with God from decision-making. When it comes time for business, we put the Bibles away. Now of course we pray to start and may even pull in some Bible verses. But too often we aren’t really even attempting to seek the mind of Christ together. We don’t expect to agree. We fight for our way. We talk to people outside the meeting to get them on our side. We don’t trust God to speak or one another to hear. And until we at least give it a go, we never will.

(How) do we discern together?

Do you believe you can hear/understand God? If so, how comfortable are you hearing with others what God is saying to you collectively? My experience is that many who feel they can discern God’s will really struggle to do that with others. I suppose part of the reason for this is that most of us are programmed to be individuals first and part of a community second (if at all). Also, many of us have been saturated in theologies and experiences which say that God has chosen someone else to hear on our behalf.

At The Warehouse, we’ve been looking at the way(s) we understand and practice corporate discernment. In other words, how does God speak to US? Here is our working set of principles. What do you think?

• God speaks and we can hear. Discerning is making sense of what God is saying to us.
• God has given his Spirit to all believers to enable us to serve as priests. We discern as a body using our many gifts together.
• Corporate discernment is spiritual. We are seeking the mind of Christ together. Therefore, sin, unforgiveness, and the enemy can oppose this process.
• There are a number of ways we hear God’s voice and know what is true that we weigh together when discerning. We must always test what we are saying and hearing.
• Revelation, Interpretation, and Application all require and are part of discernment
• In corporate discernment, we are seeking what God is saying to us together. We expect there to be a variety of applications, including personal. We distinguish between what God is saying to and for the individual from what is for all of us together.
• We believe agreement is necessary in corporate discernment for carrying spiritual authority and requires we all take individual responsibility for carrying what is discerned.
• We trust God speaking through all involved, particularly the God-guided voice of dissent
• At times, we choose to delegate authority to individuals, teams, groups, etc. to discern on our behalf.

What is your understanding, experience, and hope for hearing God with others?