Perhaps the hardest part of engaging in authentic Christian discernment is that it must involved being able to assess and understand the structures one is a part of. It can be very easy to think the answer is obvious or clear, which could be true, but without an understanding of the “why” then it’s almost as good as having no answer at all. I find that this can happen when complacency starts to creep in.
I have discussed in another part of this class the context in which I find myself in as a pastor and member of a church is very similar to my previous experience, but there are many differences between that location and this one. Some overarching similarities is that both locations are urban areas, they both are working class neighborhoods, there is a large emphasis on volunteering and serving our community (especially the schools), and it is a smaller congregation. However, this newer neighborhood is much more financially stable, there is much more diversity, there are way more people in our footprint, and this is the south and my last location the north.
As I run in to situations where I get frustrated, it will often times be because I am trying to overlay previous experiences and knowledge directly atop my new context. Likewise, when I frustrate people the most, it’s when I ask them for clarity in why things are done a certain way, especially if they say something along the lines of “we’ve always done it that way.”
Liebert has provided so many questions to make a person think about their context, their biases, their motives, etc. to get a solid understanding of the situation, but also the way forward. She also provides examples of how to pray and how to reengage in community with decision makers to discern as a group. This is helpful to help discern for the community, and not simply as individual.
I think that Burrows chapter also helps us to understand the complexity of community discernment as we all have different histories, cultures, and experiences to draw from. Her writing about intercultural agility will serve leaders and congregants alike well as they interact with one another inside and outside the church.
I was thinking about all of the different cultures I engage with on a regular basis and it requires a lot of intentionality on my part to continue to be open and authentic, while also being humble and in a posture of learning. It is a subject that is on my mind regularly as I think about positions of power and influence, especially as a white male that earnestly wants to engage with others in this world as my authentic self. But that requires work to understand the entirety of the situation and how I fit into the existence of others. That’s aided in part by the surverys provided by Leibiert.
That finally brings us to Luhrmann’s writings and research, which has been a fascinating read. My initial thought so far is that it makes sense that we as humans seek to try and understand what we do not understand. He writes about it as an observer of the phenomenon, but I may contend that it is exactly the same curiosity as the individual’s pursuit in understanding their own world.
For awhile I have been pondering the thought of what happens to God if the Earth spirals away into deep space for no reason and we lose the life sustaining force of the sun (dark, I know). In other words, what happens if people didn’t exist to recognize God. In my belief system, God continues to exist no matter what. However, as we exist in the here and now (and have not been flung off the Earth’s surface), then how we live and interact with God makes God real to ourselves and the world around us.
Luhrmann writes that “the basic claim is this: that god or spirit—the invisible other—must be made real for people, and that this real-making changes those who do it.1 In other words, for us to experience God, we must believe God is real, and to believe God is real, we must be intentional in the matters of the spirit so that we are preparing the whole of our bodies to the presence of something beyond ourselves.
Spiritual direction has helped me to explore many of these practices of making God real, such as prayer, discernment, experience, etc. To be able to process what is happening and being able to think deeper and more intentionally about my place in relation to God. In other words, am I am preparing my own body, mind, and soul to the experience of God?
Footnotes
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Luhrmann, T.M.. How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others (p. xii). (Function). Kindle Edition. ↩