Missional Discernment Day 3

In the third (and final) day of the Missional Discernment class, we began by reflecting upon the effectiveness of the "walkabout" technique we used on the previous day. Several ideas were generated and some of the group exchanged emails to be able to share our reflections with each other.

The primary class leader, BJ Woodworth, began our next topic with a podcast from a group of Irish Jesuits; the podcast is named "Pray As You Go". The scripture was from Jeremiah 18, regarding the potter's house. The group spent about 30 minutes listening to the reading, then reflecting upon the scripture.

Topics of conversation (more detail to follow):

• Romans 12:2, regarding our being transformed by God so that we are able to discern his will
• Henry Nouwen, "Moving from Solitude to Community to Ministry" (pdf e-book, available at http://entermission.typepad.com/my_weblog/files/moving_from_solitude_to_community_to_ministry_henri_nouwen.pdf)
• We talked about Jesus' constant prayer to his Father as a way to get his "marching orders" (I have more on this topic from William Paul Young, author of The Shack)
• Paul writes that since the Holy Spirit resides within us, we can know "the deep thoughts of God"
• Jeremiah 30:15-30

BJ gave some final thoughts to put us (new church developers) on a path to spiritual clarity. Solitude and Silence (hard for some people) helps give us time to reflect and consider where God's will may be leading us. Self Knowlege (self-awareness) is important to know what skills and abilities we have (or can obtain) to meet a particular need. Not every community need can or should be met by a church group. But we should not be afraid to consider "out of the box" ideas even if they have never been tried before.

Douglas