Some churches and individual Christians are very good at quoting Scripture in support of their positions. Many mainstream congregations are better at seeking to draw upon the wisdom of the world in order to keep a vital ministry alive. I don’t hear many congregations who evidence a willingness to allow the Scriptures to challenge and invigorate their capacity to listen to God’s word speaking to them as a congregation.
If, as we are exploring this week, we believe that a church is part of the Body of Christ. If, as part of the Body of Christ, we seek to incarnate God’s word in our life together even as Jesus’ body incarnated God’s word in the world, then how do we discern what God is saying to us in our community. My suggestion is that one of the gifts that God has provided us for that purpose is the Scripture. The challenge is how to listen through Scripture to the voice of God addressing us? This requires us to approach Scripture with a sense of wonder and openness rather than simply seeking verses that will confirm what we already believe.
This is probably best done if we can first acknowledge the question that we are wrestling with. For example, assume a congregation is seeking to hear God with respect to the conversation they are having about how they should shape their worship experiences. I would invite the group to take time to first clear their minds of preconceived answers and open themselves to the specific insight that God might bring to this conversation. Next, I would ask them to take some time to simply let the questions sit in their consciousness and wait to see what biblical stories, verses, or even hymns come to mind. Don’t try to understand at first why some story or verse comes to mind but simply note it.
Then, as a group make a list of some of the most prominent stories that have emerged. Once a story or reference has been noted, let the whole group play with it and suggest possible relationships between the story and the question that they are considering. Then continue with the same process with another reference. As this continues, look for some patterns that begin to develop and explore what they might suggest with respect to the church’s mission and ministry.
The point is to keep this all open and tentative so that you might listen deeply to what God might be saying. If this process was used often in a church, I would think that a pastor would be thrilled to be part of a congregation that kept such an open spirit to God’s leading.
