Get Your Church Unstuck

Discerning next steps by listening to God, your church, and your neighbors.

In my work I often encounter churches that feel stuck. They have a sense that they need to be doing something new or different but they aren’t sure what it should be. These churches are in need of a time of intentional congregational discernment—seeking the direction of the Holy Spirit together as a church.

The central premise of The Listening Church is this: Congregational discernment occurs at the intersection of divine attentiveness, self attentiveness, and community attentiveness. When we listen to God, our congregation, and our neighbors we will begin to see what God is calling us to next.

Listening to God

If we’re hoping to find God’s dream for our church, then it makes sense that we start with listening to God. The problem is that most of us aren’t sure how to do it. I’ve found four spiritual practices to be super helpful for this:

Centering Prayer - Centering prayer is a method of contemplative prayer which gained recognition through the work of Fr. Thomas Keating. It seeks to open one’s awareness to God’s presence by silently repeating a sacred word or phrase. I’ve adapted it for listening here.

Lectio Divina - Lectio Divina is a way of prayerfully reading scripture with origins in early monasticism. It includes reading slowly, meditating on the text, conversing with God about the text, and sitting quietly with God seeking God’s voice. I’ve adapted it for listening here.

The Examen - The Daily Examen is an ancient spiritual practice introduced by St. Ignatius of Loyolla (1491-1556) that leads you through a prayerful reflection of the day. It includes becoming aware of God’s presence, thanking God for blessings big and small, reviewing significant moments from the day, facing your shortcomings, and looking towards tomorrow. I write more about it here.

Holy Conferencing - Conferencing is a process of discernment dating back to John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. It focuses on how we work together to discern the Holy Spirit's lead. I write more about it and other forms of group spiritual discernment here.

Listening to Your Congregation

An essential stage of discerning your church’s direction is identifying the values, longings, and desired future of the people who make up your congregation. Hierarchal vision casting—or direction mandated by a small group of powerful individuals—can have a detrimental impact on the health and vibrancy of a congregation. When you as a ministry leader give your congregation a voice in its direction, you are opening yourself to the Holy Spirit’s nudges and the possibilities will grow far beyond your own limited imagination.

Read more here.

Listening to Your Neighbor

After fifteen years of church-based community engagement, I have discovered that an essential step to vibrant, localized ministry is asking Jesus to give us attentiveness toward the people in our neighborhoods, towns, and cities—to learn the passions, dreams, gifts, and longings of our neighbors.

Too often, we ask the wrong questions of our neighbors. What we ask influences what we hear, and what we hear influences how we respond. Churches are uniquely called to develop a spiritual community. Why are our community assessment strategies so often void of spirituality? In the Spiritual Listening Plan I offer some activities that seek to address this. Activities like the Lectio Walk, Neighbor Interviews, and Systems Mapping all include elements of spiritual reflection.

Attentiveness Clarifies Our Purpose

As church leaders there are plenty of things demanding our attention. Many leaders are barely hanging on maintaining the expectations of those we’ve been called to care for. Many churches are struggling to survive. It seems like there’s no time or energy left to give. And yet, if we don’t take the time to pay attention to God, ourselves, and our neighbors it’s easy to drift from our purpose and mission. If we take the time to be more attentive to these three areas we can focus our time and energy on God’s dream for our particular church and we might find that some of the things that are exhausting most are not what God is calling us into.