Go out into the world...

What we are risking in seeking God’s word in the body is acting on the faith that Christ, as a living Lord, is indeed present and speaking to us as a corporate body. There is always a third party present in all our individual and corporate deliberations.

When the preacher delivers a sermon and the congregation listens, between lips and ears the living Christ seeks to address us. In making a decision about the use of our church building, there are three elements to the process. There are the needs before us and the thought patterns of the members of the official board and a living Christ who seeks to speak to us. When we are reading Scripture, the content of the Scripture evokes in each of us our own response based on our hopes and fears but the living Christ also seeks to express a word to us. When we are furious at the behavior of a group of teenagers who have failed to show proper care for the building which they used for their gathering, as Christians we are aware of the teenagers and their behavior as well as our reaction to the results of their actions. We also try to listen to a living Christ who may surprise us with a saving word.

When we speak, make decisions or refuse to act, we are daring to make Christ visible to the world. The first response of people who experience the church will be to sense the fruits which are made visible. If what they observe is evidence of enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissension, factions, envy, etc., they will likely conclude that nothing is happening here that does not happen among most groups in the world. On the other hand, if, under trying circumstances, they continue to see signs of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, they will sense something unique is being spoken in the world.

At the same time, God is not dependent on our achieving perfection. Even when the fruits of the flesh appear to dominate, God is capable of revealing the Word. Therefore there is no time or condition in which we are not called upon to be attentive to the revealing of God’s Word.

I realize that such quick and simple correlation between life situations and biblical stories might also lead to erroneous decisions. The process certainly needs to be approached with humility and an awe that enables believers to listen with intensity as a community.

It also requires the church to be continuously aware of the presence of Christ in such deliberations. Does what the congregation is deciding correspond with what the people know of Christ? In what way is Christ addressing this church?

If the pattern of the relationship of the disciples, as reported in the Gospels, is similar to that of the church, we need to realize that we will also continually misunderstand what Christ is saying to us. We need to look at what the factors were in the disciples’ misunderstandings and ask if they are present in our deliberations.

There is no patterned formula that we can follow which eliminates the risk of our decision making in the church. Yet failure to believe that the living Christ can address us is to prevent the church from being the Body of Christ. The church devolves into being a religious organization which is trapped in its sociological framework. It has ceased to listen to that voice of truth which speaks to it from outside of its own limited perspective.

For help in the practice of discerning the will of God, I would recommend the work of Charles M. Olsen and Danny E. Morris. Their book, Discerning God’s Will Together: A Spiritual Practice for the Church; Alban Publication; Bethesda;, Md. 1997, is a helpful guide in this area.

The members of many mainline churches often draw back from utilizing Scripture in their decision making because they feel inadequate in their knowledge of Scripture. Yet they overlook the vast resource that God has provided them. Through worship and a variety of experiences of church education, they have gathered an awareness of a vast collection of Bible stories.

Traditionally the church has believed that God speaks to us through Scripture. When a church board or church members are faced with decisions in their lives, they should be invited to draw upon these memories of Biblical stories. As they think about the decision that is before them, they should be asked to prayerfully allow God to evoke in their memories Biblical stories that speak to their situation. When a specific story comes to mind, then that story should be explored in light of the issue that is before them.

For example, I was meeting with a person who had experienced some personal tragedy in his life and I asked him to think of a Biblical story that seemed related to his situation. He immediately thought of the story of Jesus and the disciples being caught in a storm on the Sea of Galilee and the disciples discovering that Jesus was asleep in the boat. As we explored the story together, we were able to reflect not only on his feelings that Jesus had gone to sleep on him during his time of need but also to explore how Jesus response to the disciples awakening him might suggest Jesus message for him.

A church board was concerned about the negative reaction of some long faithful members to what was happening in the church. When asked to think of a Biblical story, the story of the prodigal son arose. As they explored that story, they realized that some members felt like the older brother who was feeling ignored as the church expended its efforts on attracting new members.

The power of Biblical stories to set the framework for reflection. has several advantages for the body of Christians. First, it is easier for people to remember stories than specific quotes. Second, stories are more open ended and less prone to the problem of proof texting. At the same time, use of such stories enables a group to feel grounded in listening to God in their reflections.

It is common for Christians to conclude their prayers with the phrase “through Jesus Christ our Lord.” What we have often failed to recognize is that this is not just a phrase to signal that we are finishing our prayers but a living covenant. The church is God’s upside down community in which the first are to be last and the last first. The laity, who often consider themselves of lesser quality in faith than the clergy, are a key to the revealing Word of God in the congregation. (Matthew 11:25-27)

Each of us is essential to each other in listening to Jesus Christ as our Lord. Therefore as we worship, study Scripture, eat, conflict, laugh and make decisions together, we are continually to listen to ourselves being addressed by this one head. It is not as individuals but as a body that we most clearly hear what Christ is saying to us. The process of revelation is not complete until it is expressed in some way that is heard by others in the faith. The central purpose of the church is to be obedient to a living Lord who continually addresses us in the context of the Body of Christ.

We are involved in a continuing task of exegeting or interpreting both Scripture and the life of the congregation. To exegete a congregation we need to be sensitive to the patterns of how God operates. We need to explore together the characteristics of God’s incarnating the Word in Christ and in Scripture and allow that to be a road map for how God incarnates the Word in the continuing Body of Christ.

To exegete a congregation we need to look for Biblical stories that open up our story. For example, a congregation that is experiencing a decline in membership and wondering if they have the resources to support a mission might reflect on the story in Judges 7 of God continuing to reduce the number of soldiers with which God would have them fight the enemy so that when they won the victory, they would know that it was God and not they who had secured the victory. Then the congregation should ask themselves whether in their declining numbers God is preparing them for a great victory.

Just as for clergy, so too people who are members of a church need to be made aware of the significance of their call. They are not a lower class of Christians who are dependent on the upper class of Christians known as clergy. From this perspective, it needs to be said to a member, you are called to be among the saints. Because of this “…with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.” (Ephesians 1:18-19) Together we must realize that “…speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4:15-16)

It is neither the clergy who brings the Word from on high to them nor they who bring the Word to the clergy. Rather, the lay members are challenged to join the clergy in seeking to discern the will of God as it finds expression within their congregation. This is not an over against task but a communal effort to listen to someone who is beyond all of them but seeks to find expression among them.

Consider what this might mean for officer training. The task of pastor and officers is not to make a “successful church” but to learn how to exegete what God is saying through the congregation. This requires becoming familiar with both the Scriptures and the history of the congregation so that they might be laid alongside of each other. It also requires developing a greater skill in listening to the members even as the members are encouraged to learn to listen to what God is saying in their relationships.

The expectation is that Christ is addressing us in all that happens within the Body from individual relationships to corporate decision making. It is also assumed that the main arena of ministry is not where or when the community gathers but out where God has placed the members in work, play, and home.

It is not any easier to discern what God is saying through the Body than it is through Scripture but in both cases it is very important to be asking the question, “What is God saying here?” How is Christ addressing me in my situation? We are less in the task of protecting the purity of the church or the future survival of the church than we are in learning how to say, “Not my will but yours be done.”