Introduction
At Centered Life we talk a great deal about personal callings in
the home, at work, or in the community. In doing so, however, we
do not intend to dismiss or devalue the congregation or the
congregation's corporate calling.
The congregation plays a
unique role as
both a place to live out a calling as well as the place that
equips and sustains callings in other domains (home, work, etc.).
We emphasize these external callings, not because they're more
important, but because we've historically neglected them in favor of
internal or churchly callings.
Similarly, we emphasize personal
calling, not to the exclusion of corporate calling, but as an
enlivening means to that end. Direct attempts at rallying folk
to a particular vision (heard as someone else's idea) either stall out
or gain superficial adherence.
By contrast, beginning with personal
callings (those places where folk are already invested) and then asking
"what's missing?" or "what needs have you witnessed out there?" often
results in a more energized sense of corporate calling. Jack
Fortin describes this approach as "leading from the middle."
OK, but how does this work? The
practice described below,
Dwelling in the Word, provides a concrete
process for discerning corporate calling, awakening to God's future.
Steps
An exercise in corporate spiritual discernment, an alternative to
the politicking of Robert's Rules.
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1. Gather as a large group.
2. Read a passage of scripture (e.g., Luke 10:1-12) aloud
twice, pausing for reflection after each reading. (Ask two
different people to read - one male, one female.)
- What strikes you about this
passage? What words or phase stands out to you? (Ask before
first reading)
- What does this passage say to
you? (Ask before second reading)
3. Pair off (preferably with
someone you don't know, a stranger)
4. Take turns sharing, and listening, to where the Word grabbed hold of
your imagination
5. Gather again as a large group.
6. Invite participants to share, not
their own, but their partner's discoveries. (You may wish to
allow time for reflection by individual group members before they
report back to the large group on their partner’s reflections.)
7. Listen. |
One congregation engaged in this deep
listening exercise, to each other and to God, during a meal preceding
their annual meeting. ( Others practice it before council or vestry
meetings.
Grab & Go
Here's a copy of the instructions one congregation provided at
their pre-annual meeting meal:
10After this
the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in
pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2He
said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few;
therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his
harvest. 3Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like
lambs into the midst of wolves. 4Carry no purse, no bag, no
sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5Whatever house you
enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” 6And if anyone is
there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if
not, it will return to you. 7Remain in the same house,
eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves
to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8Whenever
you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before
you; 9cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The
kingdom of God has come near to you.” 10But whenever you
enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and
say, 11“Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet,
we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God
has come near.” 12I tell you, on that day it will be more
tolerable for Sodom than for that town.
The New Revised Standard
Version (Anglicized Edition), copyright
1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the
National Council of
the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
Listening to God, through resting or dwelling in God’s word,
is our privilege and our responsibility. At Messiah, we hope this
listening shapes everything we do—we as individuals and as a body,
regardless of age, theological training, etc. From this, hopefully,
we will also learn to listen more carefully to one another as we serve
God together.
- As you read,
note: Where in this text did your imagination get caught?
- Listen to your
neighbor as you share what you noticed in the text with one another.
- After about 10
minutes of listening to one another, turn back to the whole table.
Share what your partner said with the whole group.
- After everyone has
had an opportunity to speak and listen, please spend some time
formulating any questions/topics you would like addressed during the
annual meeting. Write the back of this paper and give to your table
facilitator or to one of the wardens. Thanks!
Elaboration
Here's an explanatory excerpt, a firsthand account from a group of
Mennonites that worked with
Patrick Keifert and
Church Innovations on this process:
"Keifert’s
first plenary session dealt with “dwelling in God’s word.” Keifert
encouraged participants to think about the Bible differently,
suggesting that in the modern worldview the Bible can be personal
property.
“Mennonites are fully modern people
who have taken on all the characteristics of those who perpetrated
the Enlightenment,” he said. “We have come to think of scripture as
a tool to be used to do something else, and we can’t conceive of the
scripture using us. The church is community created not first by
speaking but by listening to the word of God, and this makes us a
very rare human community in our time.” He continues “We are a
community that knows that free speech, without deep listening, is
cheap talk.”
Keifert observed that in conflict
Mennonites use the Bible as bullets, to shoot at one another, rather
than spending time listening to each other and the word of God
together.
“If you want to be transformed, and
be a transforming church, if you want to lead your congregations
beyond the voices of conflict, you must begin by dwelling in the
word, and doing so with strangers, who aren’t going to read it the
same way.” "
http://www.emu.edu/seminary/slt/slt05/keifert-sessions.html
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