THE GOAL AND CHARACTER OF CHRISTIAN DECISIONMAKING

There is a scene in Lewis Carroll's classic book Alice in Wonderland in which Alice is lost, not an unusual thing for Alice. When she reaches a fork in the road there is a large tree and sitting in the tree is a smiling Cheshire cat. Alice starts talking to the cat and finally asks which fork in the road she should take. The cat answers, "Well, that very much depends on where you want to go." To which Alice replies, "I don't really care where I go." The cat then says, "Then it doesn't very much matter which road you take."

The destination shapes the journey. Without a clear end in sight then every journey becomes a random collection of steps and turns. With a clear purpose there is meaning to our activities, and the things that we do make sense. So it is with church meetings. When people meet with a clear understanding about the goal of Christian decision-making, and the character that should be demonstrated as they go about it, then they know what steps they need to take. If churches don't care about what they are doing and how they do it, then any way of doing business — any path — is as good as another.

Many congregations have lost sight of their purpose and so have settled for ways of doing business that are at odds with the purpose of Christian decision-making. Sadly, the way many church members behave is also at variance with what should be expected of Christians when they meet. If people are concerned about the goal and character of Christian decisionmaking, they will take one path. If they do not care about these things, then they can take any path they like.

What do you think is the purpose of church meetings?

What behavior is appropriate for people in church meetings?

When I first began my ordained ministry, I was in a parish served by two ministers. We took turns leading the bimonthly meeting of the parish council. When I was chairing the meeting we always finished the meeting early. At that time, I thought a fast meeting was a good meeting! Let's just get the business done! My colleague, however, was very different. Bill loved to let people talk things through, often in a roundabout way. He let them talk about why they thought this or thought that. One night as I sat at the back of the room the clock raced toward 10:00 p.m., with much of the agenda still before us. My colleague let a person ramble on and on without, it seemed to me, ever getting to the point. When the speech ended I thought to myself, "If Bill lets anyone tell one more story I am going to scream!" He did.

I thought the real purpose of a meeting (church or otherwise) was simple. Follow an agenda and finish quickly. Meeting agendas were like grocery shopping lists: just tick off items as completed, and get out of there as fast as you can. My understanding of the purpose of a meeting was to help the church make good decisions and to run efficiently. My leadership style in the meetings reflected that view. We would get to the "facts"; keep focused on the issue before us; and as soon as it was clear where the majority was ready to go, we would vote and move on. That kind of efficient meeting was the only one that I had ever experienced. For me it was the benchmark of a good meeting.

Every meeting of the parish council began with prayer and reflections on scripture. The room was full of faithful servants of Christ giving their best for the service of God and the church. On occasions, we were self-consciously aware of the gifts of scripture and prayer as we navigated some of the more difficult decisions. Sadly, though, I do not think that we were profoundly aware of the theological understanding of what we were doing on all those long Wednesday evenings, nor the impact they would have on the community.

If we had seriously thought about it, and tried to put into theological terms; what we were trying to accomplish was to understand what Jesus wanted from his people gathered in that place. This was not simply a meeting that we were engaged in; it was part of God's unfolding drama of salvation. Our parish council meeting was caught up in the divine purposes of God. If only we would listen carefully then we would hear Christ guiding us in the ways of faithfulness. Awesome!

The Christian community makes an audacious claim. The church asserts that it is possible to know the will of God. Every Sunday in pulpits, grass clearings, in homes and meeting halls, preachers testify the world over to what God has done in Jesus Christ and the implications of that activity for the people gathered. Unless the church can lay claim to the possibility of knowing the will of God, then it has nothing significant or relevant to say to believers and nonbelievers alike.

When Christians meet to make decisions, they are living out of the same profound confidence: God will lead us. Our church meetings have a destination. The endpoint of a church meeting is to understand the will of God for this community, at this time and in this place. The ultimate goal is more than just taking care of business. With the destination (discernment) in mind, it is abundantly clear that the path that one takes makes a huge difference to whether that goal will be reached. The meeting practices of the church serve or hinder the objective of discerning the will of God. Without the objective of seeking to be obedient to Jesus Christ, the sovereign head of the church, our meetings are meaningless. Without seeking to be attentive and responsive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, our meetings are a waste of time.

The first premise of the Christian life is that God can be known and that God's will for us can be revealed. God's work in Jesus makes it possible to have unity with God and to be obedient. All the barriers that prevent this relationship and capacity to faithfully follow God's way have been overcome. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, people are sustained in relationship with Christ, invited to serve God and empowered to do so.

If the first premise is that God can be known and followed, then the corollary is that there are means through which it is possible for God to mediate God's will to humanity. Theologians, starting with the Apostle Paul, along with mystics, bishops, scholars, numerous theological schools, and human experience, have addressed themselves to the question of how God is revealed to us. The purpose of this book is more modestly focused on how the will of God might be revealed through a particular community's decision-making processes. The point of commonality between mystics, theologians, the scriptures, and meeting planners is that there is a necessary and shared objective for all Christians and that is to seek to understand — to discern — the will of God. It is vital that we keep this goal as the priority!

Discernment (making Godly decisions together) is the goal, the purpose, and the conclusion. Discernment is the place that makes sense of all the steps along the way. Absent the goal of discernment, then church meetings are rambles through terrain that is neither interesting nor relevant. However, when true discernment (knowing the will of Christ for his church) is constantly before church meetings, then it is possible to evaluate everything that we do against the test of its usefulness in reaching discernment. A ready reference point for anyone in a meeting of the church is whether the conversations, the meeting processes used, the agenda, and so on, are contributing to helping people know what Jesus wants of us. If the processes do this, then by all means continue with them. But if they do not, then surely they need to be put aside. By intentionally putting ourselves in the best place where we can be caught up into the saving purposes of God for all of creation, our meetings are transformed. We view the process we use to make decisions differently — as holy — and we choose what behaviors are appropriate in that setting.

Most church leaders have their rules that guide their meeting procedures. This book offers an alternative guide or template to ensure that meetings are productive and that the decisions made are far more inclusive, participatory, owned by the group, and so far more likely to actually be implemented.

If knowing the will of God were that easy, then everyone would be doing it. It isn't easy for theological, sociological, capacity, and willingness reasons. However whether it is easy or not, there is no other game in town for the Christian. If we are not interested in discerning the will of God for our community, at this time and in this place, then why should we hold any church meetings? There are many answers to this question, but people are usually reluctant to voice them out loud. Sometimes people run church meetings to support their personal or family interests. At other times people hold meetings to marshal the resources of the congregation in support of their personal pet project regardless of what the majority of members may want. People's motivations are also varied: they seek control, power, and influence. In short, people like to get their way! When these are the goals of church meetings, different rules apply.

When congregations or judicatories meet together to seek discernment, the theological affirmation of most Protestant Christians is that we are more likely to discern the will of God in community than if we try and work it out on our own. The practices of Christian discernment are best accomplished in community. Yet it seems that many Christians like to make their decisions in private based on their own reading of scripture or what seems good to them. However, faithful discipleship will occur when the group takes into account the views of all those who are in the meeting, attends to the scriptures, brings its best thinking to the discussion, and listens to the tradition of the church as reflected in ecumenical and historical perspectives. Do you see the difference?

Discernment doesn't just happen! There are things that can be done that help or hinder discernment. Much more will be said on this subject throughout this book. However, at this junction, it is worth making the point that discernment requires that sound judgment be exercised, sensitivity exhibited, and wisdom applied. Also, discernment is profoundly contextual.

Among major world religions, Christianity is unique in its claim that God — in all God's fullness — was present in a human being in a particular place and time. God was in Christ reconciling the world to God's self (2 Corinthians 5:18, 19). This is the doctrine of the incarnation, and it has profound implications for understanding how Christians seek to reach an awareness of the will of God.

Jesus of Nazareth was born of Mary, walked the hills of Galilee and the cities of the Decapolis, and suffered under Pontius Pilate. He was located in a specific time and place. Jesus' faithfulness was expressed in the context of the world. Faithfulness to God only makes sense in the Christian tradition if it is expressed in the here and now. Therefore, to speak of discernment in the Christian tradition is not to speak of some rarefied insight into a cosmic consciousness or insight into the end of time. Christian discernment is about understanding and accepting what God wants from us. The value and necessity of discernment is precisely because it is incarnational; it is about doing the right thing by God. Like Jesus, the church — the body of Christ — must find the way of knowing the will of God and doing it. Faithfulness depends on it!

Certainly, any good discernment process needs to accept the limitations of human frailty and sinfulness. Christians can and do aim to get to a point where there is a common and widely held view on what God thinks about a specific issue or matter. Yet as soon as one says that out loud, it becomes hard to list too many topics on which there is universal agreement among Christians even though all are faithfully seeking the will of God. However, where there is disagreement on these important topics, it is not because one group of people is faithful and the other side is just stubborn and unwilling to follow the Lord. When Christians are divided, it happens even after people of faith and goodwill have earnestly read the scriptures, prayed, and discussed the matter together. Disagreements are the human experience of the church down through the ages. They arise even when everyone involved is trying their best to seek the will of Christ for his church. This reality should encourage every Christian to a high degree of humility and a willingness to be quite modest in their claims for having every issue all sorted out. The proof of this humility is in the way we treat one another with utmost respect even in the midst of differences. This is why the manner in which we listen and seek to understand one another is important.

The goal of Christian decision-making is to put people of faith in a place where they can participate in the hopes and purposes that God has in store for the community of which they are a part. That community may be very specific and focused on a task influenced by where they live; it may be a local congregation or even the wider denomination; it may be a concern for the town or country in which they live; or it could be about broader principles that should be affirmed. Whatever the particular situation in which you find yourself, God is looking for a partner and wants to include you in the reconciling work of Christ's ministry. Effective Christian meeting practices put people of faith in the best place where they can discern the will of God for their community.

THE CHARACTER OF CHRISTIAN DECISIONMAKING

One of the major obstacles to the evangelical task of the church is the long and sordid parade of times when the church operated on the assumption that the ends justified the means. In the name of noble and worthy causes, the church has behaved in barbarous and evil ways that judged people and alienated others. The memories of when the grand and high-sounding objectives of the church led to war, murder, treachery, violence, and all manner of evils continues to hamstring the evangelical task of the church in many places today. The end never justifies the means! The necessary conclusion is to say that the process through which the church makes decisions matters as much as the decision that is made. Anyone who suggests that the church can use any method to reach a decision so long as it is the "right" one, has failed to learn the lessons of history.

Many individuals and communities still refuse to open their ears to the gospel because of the way they have been treated by the church and individual believers in the past. Who can blame them? There are many Christians who have left their local congregation, and sometimes their faith, because Christians have behaved in ways that are not consistent with what the church says it stands for. Therefore, faithfully running church meetings is a priority for anyone who is interested in the evangelical task of the church. Yet many evangelicals want to play off the decision against the process that leads to it. Getting the right decision by a process that alienates, hurts, disrespects, and offends other Christians is not in the best interests of the mission of the church. A faithful decision reached faithfully is the best approach. To any who may be asking the question whether process matters, the answer is yes, it most certainly does!

The means used by the church to reach its decisions must be coherent with the ends that the church serves. Character matters. The church must behave in a way that is consistent with what it says about God, itself, and the Christian community. If its behavior is not consistent with its values, then it does not matter whether it has discerned the will of God or not, because the witness of the church will be materially diminished.

Seeking to discern the will of God is a noble enterprise. It is a goal worthy of striving for together. This goal does not justify that any means may be used to reach it. If the process used to discern the will of God does not enhance the prospect of discernment and look like the church at work, then the witness of the church is diminished. Look at the news headlines after some national church meetings. Do they always provide a credible Christian witness, or do they alienate and divide people?

There are many scripture readings that speak about the character of God and the manner in which the members of the Christian community are meant to interact with one another. Here are two examples from the Apostle Paul:

Therefore, as a prisoner for the Lord, I encourage you to live as people worthy of the call you received from God. Conduct yourselves with all humility, gentleness, and patience. Accept each other with love, and make an effort to preserve the unity of the Spirit with the peace that ties you together. You are one body and one spirit, just as God also called you in one hope. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and in all. (Ephesians 4:1-6)