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Learning to Listen to the Spirit in a Group Virginia King, a member of the National Service Committee of the USA from Seattle, explains and gives practical hints as to how a group can discern what the Spirit is saying to them.
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What does it look like for a group to live “in the Spirit”? I think it looks like Phil 2.2-5: “Make my joy complete by your unanimity, possessing the one love, united in spirit and ideals. Never act out of rivalry or conceit; rather, let all parties think humbly of others as superior to themselves, each of you looking to others’ interests rather than to his own. Your attitude must be that of Christ…” When I am leading a group, my first priority is to develop that sense of trust which leads to true unity. My role as leader is primarily to serve the group in building this unity. Importance of prayer to change hearts and bring unity By way of example, when I bring together a group of people to discern the pastoral plan for our annual conference, we begin by acknowledging that our first priority is to seek the Lord’s plan for this event. It is not our plan but God’s plan. We begin each meeting with a significant time of prayer, perhaps even as much as half the time of the entire agenda. This assures that we are not just giving “lip service” to prayer. We expect the Lord to change our hearts during prayer, to inspire us, to join us together in unity of mind and heart. This time of prayer includes worshipping the Lord, interceding for the graces we need to discern his will for this meeting, and listening to any “word gifts” that might come forth during this time. Honour different personalities present The next step is to establish the framework for discussion and brainstorming so that we are all focussed in the same direction. Then we take time to do the brainstorming. Initially many ideas come forth. Sometimes we seem to get bogged down and we take a few minutes of quiet to allow us to hear ourselves think and to hear the Lord speak to our hearts. We try to honour the different personalities of those present by giving specific windows of opportunity for the quieter people to collect their thoughts and present their ideas. And we trust that the Holy Spirit is present and active at every stage of the prayer and discussion. When we come to a point of decision making, our goal is to find consensus. In this context, I always take this to mean that the decision is the one that everyone in the room is comfortable putting their support behind. It may not be everyone’s favourite choice, but no one has a strong objection to the decision.
We specifically ask for any dissenting opinions
I firmly believe that if one person feels very uncomfortable with an option, we need to revisit the decision. Sometimes it is a lone voice that is speaking the Lord’s mind to us. We need to listen to each person’s concerns. If we are unable to reach consensus on an important issue, we go again into a time of prayer. We avoid taking a vote as such. We might tally up people’s preferences to see where the dominant opinion lies. But if someone says they really can’t live with part of the plan that everyone else agrees to, we don’t include it. Or, conversely if only one person feels very strongly about a particular thing, and no one else has an objection, we will include it. On an important issue, like the pastoral plan for a conference, we might spend several meetings doing brainstorming and discussing. Once the consensus is reached, we commit ourselves to following through on this decision. Our confidence isn’t in ourselves or our great wisdom but it is in the ability of the Holy Spirit to make his will known to us through the use of the minds, hearts and charisms he has given us. The Lord is able to turn our mistakes into good Now I am the first to admit that even in this very prayerful process it is possible for us to make a mistake. We are not infallible. But even in this I trust that the Lord is able to turn our mistakes into good (Rom 8:28) and to direct our paths if we are about to turn in error to the right or to the left (Is 30:21) This trusting in the Lord is something that we need to develop. Even more difficult is trusting in one another. Ultimately, to trust in another human being requires an even greater act of faith in God – acknowledging God’s ability to work through “earthen vessels”. Our fellow human beings will surely disappoint us at some point – just as we will surely disappoint them. We simply are not trustworthy in the way in which the Lord is trustworthy. But it is essential, if we are going to live “in the Spirit”, that we “think humbly of others as superior to ourselves, each looking to others’ interests rather than to our own”. Again we need to remember that ultimately our trust is in the Lord and in the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ.
The Gifts Of The Holy Spirit
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Living
“life in the Spirit” day-by-day is an exercise in trust.
It really is an exercise, that is it is something that you work at
repetitively in order to strengthen the “trust muscles”.
And the more you do it, the easier it becomes. But it never ceases
to require that we put forth reasonable and consistent effort. If
this is true for our lives as individuals, I believe it is even more
so in the case of any group or community. For us to be a group or
community which functions “in the Spirit” we need to exercise
trust. We need to strengthen our individual and corporate trust in
God and we need to strengthen our trust in one another. There are
many different settings in which we might find ourselves leading a
group or community which is striving to live “in the Spirit”.
There are prayer meetings, various parish or community fellowships,
study or work groups, conference or retreat planning committees, diocesan
service teams and the gatherings of people at special events. There
are times when we come together to discern God’s vision and direction
for our group and other times that we come together to implement something
that had been previously discerned.
