Your Church Board is called to lead your congregation well. Your Church Board is called to lead with discernment and wisdom. Discerning God’s will for your church does not happen by accident and often requires building your discernment capacities. Here are four examples of small discernment practices you could add to build your Church Board’s discernment capacities.
- Invitation & Silence The Chair | Pastor | Board Member INVITES each participant to be SILENT before God.
Each person is invited to take one minute to quietly come before God to name:
- What is heavy on my heart right now?
- What I am I thankful for?
- What might I need to confess to God?
- Where do I need to see God / where do I need to ask God to reveal God’s activity?
- Is there someone I need to ask forgiveness from?
- Other
- Prayers of Thanksgiving | Indifference | Wisdom
Begin your next board meeting with three prayers from three (or more) different people
- Offer prayers of thanksgiving
- Someone prays for indifference (i.e. – not my will but thine will be done)
- Someone prays for wisdom
- Question / Scripture & Prayer / Our Response
Our Question
What is the question(s) you are trying to discern together or work through at this meeting?
(keep it to one or two big questions for each meeting)
Scripture & Prayer
What are some Biblical passages that we can use to speak into our question?
After reading these passages – what is our prayer as we respond to the need before us?
Our Response
How is God calling us to respond to this situation?
- Looking for God
Some boards start each meeting with 1 question and 15 minutes of reflection…
Where have you seen God at work in and through our church since we last met?
(stories of people using their gifts and talents, examples of groups and people praying differently, etc.)
Below is a discernment practice your church board or committee could take and adapt for your context. One church discerned that it needed to learn how to discern better. They asked a local pastor to walk them through a process like the one below. They worked through a relatively simple situation and then over the course of a year they used this process to discern some big picture situations they were working through.
You can also look at some of our Board Resources for other ideas on how to build your church’s discernment capacity.
