# Pursuing God's Will Together

## Metadata
- Author: [[Ruth Haley Barton]]
- Full Title: Pursuing God's Will Together
- Category: #books
## Highlights
- Discernment, in a most general sense, is the capacity to recognize and respond to the presence and the activity of God—both in the ordinary moments and in the larger decisions of our lives. ([Location 147](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=147))
- Discernment literally means to separate, to discriminate, to determine, to decide or to distinguish between two things. Spiritual discernment is the ability to distinguish or discriminate between good (that which is of God and draws us closer to God) and evil (that which is not of God and draws us away from God). There are many qualities that contribute to good leadership, but it is our commitment to discerning and doing the will of God through the help of the Holy Spirit that distinguishes spiritual leadership from other kinds of leadership. Corporate or leadership discernment, then, is the capacity to recognize and respond to the presence and activity of God as a leadership group relative to the issues we are facing, and to make decisions in response to that Presence. Spiritual leaders are distinguished by their commitment to discern important matters together so they can affirm a shared sense of God’s desire for them and move forward on that basis. It is hard to imagine that spiritual leadership could be about anything but seeking to know and do the will of God, and yet many leadership groups do not have this as their clear mandate and reason for existence. This raises a serious question: If we are not pursuing the will of God together in fairly intentional ways, what are we doing? Our own will? What seems best according to our own thinking and planning? That which is merely strategic or expedient or good for the ego? ([Location 150](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=150))
- This approach to leadership presents unique challenges because it requires us to move beyond reliance on human thinking and strategizing to a place of deep listening and response to the Spirit of God within and among us. This is not to dismiss what human wisdom and strategic thinking have to offer us. Our ability to think things through and apply reason to our decision making is a gift from God; however, the Scriptures are clear that human wisdom and the wisdom of God… ([Location 164](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=164))
- One of the challenges to leadership discernment is that it can seem somewhat subjective and even mystical, which doesn’t always go over too well with hard-nosed business people and pragmatists—those who often make up boards and other leadership groups. It is one thing to rely on what feels like a more subjective approach when it pertains to our personal life, but it feels much riskier when our decisions involve large budgets, other people’s financial investments, the lives of multiple staff,… ([Location 169](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=169))
- We wonder, Is there a trustworthy process that enables Christian leaders to actively seek God relative to decisions we are making? The answer is a resounding yes! and it is why I have written this book—to provide practical guidance for leaders and leadership teams who want to enter more… ([Location 174](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=174))
- How do you respond to the idea that discernment is what distinguishes spiritual leadership from other kinds of leadership? How would you describe the way your… ([Location 178](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=178))
- While there are many books on personal discernment and a few resources on corporate discernment, this book is designed to be a one-stop-shop guide for leadership groups who wish to become a community for discernment. The process involves (1) preparing individual leaders for discernment, (2) becoming a community for discernment at the leadership… ([Location 182](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=182))
- This book is intended, then, for leadership groups in churches and Christian organizations who are ready to be more intentional about becoming a spiritual community that exists to discern and do the will of God. ([Location 194](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=194))
- One of the things I have learned in my own practice of corporate discernment, and also in working with others, is that the preparation is actually more important than the process. If leaders and communities of leaders are prepared at the levels put forth in this book, discernment will happen even without a process. Conversely, if leaders are not prepared on the levels described here, there is a good chance discernment won’t happen even when they engage the process; there are too many human dynamics that will get in the way. That’s why two-thirds of the book is about preparation and one-third is about the actual practice of leadership discernment. ([Location 197](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=197))
- Becoming a community for discernment at the leadership level will not happen by accident because there are so many internal and external forces at work pulling us in other directions. What exactly is involved in shaping a group of leaders into a group who can together discern God’s will? First, a leadership group needs to have a shared understanding of what discernment is, a shared conviction that discernment is the heart of spiritual leadership, and a shared affirmation that discerning and doing the will of God is how they intend to lead. This in itself is no small thing. ([Location 205](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=205))
- Chapters one through three focus on the spiritual preparation of each individual leader. Chapters four through eight address the preparation of the leadership group as a community for discernment. And chapters nine to twelve describe the process of leadership discernment, giving you a chance to begin exploring it together. ([Location 218](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=218))
- I know that leaders today are tired. Tired from within because their ministry leadership is often carried out in the context of schedules that are too full and barely sustainable. Tired from without because of the continual burden of responsibility and expectation others place on them, and which they accept. Tired from beyond because current models for ministry get them ramped up to do and be more than they can realistically do and be, and yet they are still trying. ([Location 227](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=227))
- Don’t let your first question be, Will this work in my setting? as though the particularities of your setting—your organizational structure, your church polity, your problems, your people—are the norm against which all reality is to be measured. Instead, ask, Is it good? Is there a sense of rightness to it? Does it draw me (and us) toward the good—toward God? If your group can agree on that much, the rest will come. ([Location 235](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=235))
- Most people do not see things as they are; rather, they see things as they are. Richard Rohr ([Location 247](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=247))
- In fact, the spiritual journey can be understood as the movement from seeing God nowhere, or seeing God only where we expect to see him, to seeing God everywhere, especially where we least expect him. ([Location 259](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=259))
- Discernment is an ever-increasing capacity to “see” or discern the works of God in the midst of the human situation so that we can align ourselves with whatever it is that God is doing. ([Location 263](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=263))
- Discernment together as leaders takes us beyond the personal to an increasing capacity to “see” what God is up to in the place we are called to lead. ([Location 267](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=267))
- The right question, according to Jesus, was, What is God doing in this situation, and how can I get on board with it? Now that is a much better question. In fact, it is the best possible question in the face of the brokenness and impossibility of the human situation. ([Location 301](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=301))
- One of the first lessons we learn about discernment—from Jesus, anyway—is that it will always tend toward concrete expressions of love with real people rather than theoretical conversations about theology and philosophy. ([Location 308](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=308))
- The problem of course is that these unconscious filters, developed over years of interacting with the situation in the same way, prevented them from seeing anything new or allowing any new data into their consciousness. ([Location 320](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=320))
- The neighbors’ predicament points out another difficulty we have with seeing: we only see what we are ready to see, expect to see and even desire to see. And we’re even more stuck when we are with others who share the same paradigms. How desperately we need practices, experiences and questions that help us get outside our paradigms so that we can see old realities in new ways! ([Location 324](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=324))
- This is how paradigms, systems of thought, rigidly held categories and unquestioning loyalty to systems function. On the one hand, they help make sense of our lives so that we can function. But on the other hand, they have a powerful tendency to filter out any new information—including anything new God might be doing. They can filter out God himself! ([Location 363](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=363))
- When groupthink takes over in a leadership setting, we all miss the work of God. But since we have done it together, we have no idea that we missed it and might even congratulate ourselves on our excellent leadership! ([Location 386](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=386))
- Group-think is a substitute for God-think—[it is] the belief that God is found only by our group. ([Location 388](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=388))
- Discernment begins when we acknowledge the fact that we lack the wisdom we need and that without divine intervention, the best we can do is stumble around in the dark. Discernment begins when we are in touch with our blindness and are willing to cry out from that place, “My teacher, I want to see.” ([Location 426](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=426))
- The most important step a group of leaders can take in becoming a community for discernment is to make sure that each individual is on the journey from spiritual blindness to spiritual sight. Since these obstacles function mostly at an unconscious level, if individuals in the leadership group are not on an intentional journey of transformation in which God is clearing away the debris, it won’t matter what kind of process we have in place or what kind of verbiage we use about discerning and doing the will of God. ([Location 430](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=430))
- Spiritual discernment is given to those who are spiritual, the Scriptures tell us, and those who are spiritual discern all things (1 Cor 2:12-16). Therefore, the most important prerequisite for discernment at the leadership level is that everyone in the leadership group is on an intentional journey of transformation—from spiritual blindness to spiritual sight. And Jesus is right there with us saying to each one of us, “I have come into this world so that those who do not see may see.” ([Location 435](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=435))
- corporate discernment begins with attending to the spiritual formation of each individual leader. ([Location 527](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=527))
- They were pretty sure that if they didn’t know how to discern God’s will for themselves, they would never be able to do it together as leaders in ministry. So they set aside a day to receive teaching and take the next step together. ([Location 734](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=734))
- We commonly assume that we can assemble a group of undiscerning individuals and expect them to be discerning leaders. Leaders of churches and Christian organizations are often successful in the secular marketplace, or even church ministry, but have had little instruction in or preparation for the process of discernment. They might not even understand discernment to be part of what they have been asked to do. ([Location 737](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=737))
- The problem, however, is when individuals bring only the training, experience and influences of a secular mindset without preparation in the areas of spiritual discernment. Without spiritual discernment it won’t matter whether you have a clearly articulated discernment process, use Robert’s Rules of Order or just offer perfunctory prayers to bookend your meetings—discernment is not going to happen! The people aren’t right and they’re not ready. ([Location 753](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=753))
- There is no individual discernment outside a communal setting and no communal discernment without individual discernment. Each individual profits from the communal activity of discernment and the community profits from each individual’s discernment. John English, Spiritual Intimacy and Community ([Location 758](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=758))
- The next step to becoming a leadership group that discerns God’s will together is to cultivate a shared, working knowledge of the basics and to begin (or make sure people are) practicing discernment in their own lives. When even one person in the group is not habitually practicing discernment, it can derail the best attempts of the whole group. ([Location 765](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=765))
- Five foundational beliefs are the building blocks of a sound discernment practice. ([Location 767](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=767))
- The first is that spiritual discernment, by definition, is a process that takes place in and through the Trinity. ([Location 769](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=769))
- Commitment to discernment as a personal and communal way of life presupposes commitment to Christ and the real presence of the Holy Spirit, who has been given to lead and guide us on Christ’s behalf. The Spirit is an immediate presence who can be heard and responded to through disciplines and practices that help us to listen. ([Location 771](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=771))
- The second building block is to realize that the impulse to discern—to want to respond to Christ in this fashion—is in itself a “good spirit” that needs to be cultivated. ([Location 781](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=781))
- This means that leaders who want to move into discernment mode have to rely on the Spirit to help them learn to distinguish between willfully asserting their own wishes (which can be cleverly disguised in so many different ways) to willingly surrendering to God’s desires. They must learn how to submit to the work of the Spirit, who alone is able to transform our willfulness into willingness. ([Location 789](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=789))
- The third building block is a deep belief in the goodness of God. ([Location 792](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=792))
- But many of us don’t believe in God’s goodness enough to trust God with the things that are most important to us. ([Location 793](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=793))
- The only way we can freely participate in a discernment process is if we trust that God is good, not merely as a general attribute but as it relates to us specifically. Many of us will need to work at getting this building block set in the foundation of our discernment process. In order to surrender to the discernment process, we need to go beyond intellectual assent to cultivating a deep, experiential knowledge that God’s will is the best thing that can happen to us under any circumstances. ([Location 797](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=797))
- The fourth crucial building block for discernment is the conviction that love is our ultimate calling—love for God, love of self, love for others and love for the world. ([Location 802](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=802))
- This simple truth is easily lost in the press of church and organizational life. We rarely hear leaders ask what love might be calling them to do in the context of making major decisions. We can often detect a slow drift—imperceptible at first—from serving people to using them, from loving people to doing what is expedient, from being honest with them to spinning truth ever so slightly. By the time we notice how far we have drifted from this most basic aspect of God’s will, we are in very dangerous waters! ([Location 806](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=806))
- The fifth building block is that we are committed to doing the will of God as it is revealed to us. ([Location 813](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=813))
- The question of willingness must be answered before the process of discernment begins: Are we willing to do God’s will even before we know it? Or do we prefer to play games with God by saying, “God, show me your will and if I like it, I will do it.” Spiritual discernment is not a game, and playing games with God leads to nothing but frustration.[3] ([Location 815](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=815))
- How do you respond to the building blocks described here? Which of these building blocks is not firmly placed as a foundation for your own discernment? Is there anything else that would help you to wholeheartedly embrace discernment as a way of life? ([Location 822](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=822))
- Discernment is much more than mere decision making; it is, first of all, a habit, a way of seeing that can permeate our whole life. As we observed in John 9, it is the movement from seeing things merely from a human perspective to seeing from a spiritual vantage point, continually looking for evidence of the work of God in order to join him in it. ([Location 825](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=825))
- Cultivating the habit of discernment means we are always seeking the movement of God’s Spirit so we can abandon ourselves to it. ([Location 835](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=835))
- Another crucial aspect of discernment is what Scripture calls “discernment of spirits” (1 Cor 12:10) or “test[ing] the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 Jn 4:1). ([Location 841](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=841))
- As we become more attuned to these subtle spiritual dynamics, we are able to distinguish between what is good (that which moves us toward God and his calling upon our lives) and what is evil (that which draws us away from God). ([Location 843](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=843))
- Ignatius describes the inner dynamics of discerning the spirits as consolation and desolation. Consolation is the interior movement of the heart that gives us a deep sense of life-giving connection with God, others and our authentic self. We may experience it as a sense that all is right with the world, that we are free to be given over to God and love, even in moments of pain and crisis. Desolation is the loss of a sense of God’s presence; indeed, we feel out of touch with God, with others and with our authentic self. It might be an experience of being off-center, full of turmoil, confusion and maybe even rebellion. Or we might sense our energy draining away, tension in our gut or tears welling in our eyes. Consolation and desolation are not mere emotions. They are visceral, in-the-body experiences that precede emotion or affect, alerting us to truth that is sensed and known in the inward being before we are conscious of it. For instance, you might be going through something very difficult—perhaps the death of someone close, or quitting a job or ending a relationship that is not good for you. There certainly is sadness or fear and concern about the future. But underneath these emotions, you might also identify a deep sense of well-being—“the peace that passes understanding,” God’s presence comforting or leading you. This is consolation. It can go the other way as well. You might experience something that seems good to you or others—a promotion at work or an advantageous relationship. But deep inside you sense anxiety, dis-ease, dread. You sense that you will not be able to maintain the truest aspects of yourself. This is desolation. Your body knows and is telling you something your mind doesn’t want to know or may not be ready to know yet. ([Location 845](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=845))
- The habit of personal discernment establishes and cultivates the ability to pay attention to things many leaders are not accustomed to paying much attention to in a leadership setting. ([Location 865](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=865))
- While it is beyond the scope of this book to outline the practice of personal discernment in detail, I will describe several dynamics of discernment that can be practiced personally in such a way as to prepare individuals for discernment at the leadership level.[6] ([Location 921](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=921))
- Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto itself. Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body and soul, utterly and completely, to the Light Within, is the beginning of true life. Thomas Kelly, A Testament of Devotion ([Location 978](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=978))
- This, then, is the beginning of my advice: make prayer the first step in anything worthwhile that you attempt. Persevere and do not weaken in that prayer. Pray with confidence, because God, in his love and forgiveness, has counted on us as his own sons and daughters . . . at every moment of our lives, as we use the good things he has given us, we can respond to his love only by seeking to obey his will for us. St. Benedict, Prologue to the Rule ([Location 1795](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=1795))
- Leaders are stewards of organizational energy—in companies, organizations and even in families. They inspire or demoralize others first by how effectively they manage their own energy and next by how well they mobilize, focus, invest and renew the collective energy of those they lead.[3] ([Location 1848](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=1848))
- A spiritual retreat is a time apart when we move slower, take time to rest, have extended time for solitude and silent listening, share our journeys and key learnings, eat together and enjoy one another’s company. ([Location 1858](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=1858))
- Disciplines of rest and retreat teach us to live within our limits, which is hard for leaders and even harder when they gather together. And yet there is something deeply spiritual about honoring our limitations and the boundaries God has given to leaders. ([Location 1866](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=1866))
- Living within our limits means living within the finiteness of who we are as individuals and as a community—(1) time and space; (2) our physical, emotional, relational and spiritual capacities; (3) our organization’s stage of life; (4) the individuals who make up the organization; and (5) God’s call. It means doing this and not that. It means doing this much and not more. ([Location 1871](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=1871))
- A commitment to leadership discernment requires cultivating an environment in which it is safe for people to speak from their heart and soul, not just their mind. ([Location 2006](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=2006))
- In the monastic tradition the vow of stability is central to a rule of life. The person promises to remain in that particular monastic community for life and to be shaped by the rhythms of that particular community. This commitment is understood as laying down one’s life in its entirety, placing it in the hands of God. ([Location 2060](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=2060))
- The vow of stability is the first of the vows because nothing is possible until we give our entire life to the primacy of God’s kingdom. If we leave ourselves an escape hatch, we have one foot out the door and we are not fully committed. If we say to ourselves that we will stay committed as long as commitment stays exciting and devoid of suffering, we are not fully committed. . . . The grass is not greener “over there”: one must work out one’s problems with this person because if one doesn’t, one will have to work it out with that person. This is precisely what is so freeing about the vow of stability . . . to have to work it out is to demand growth, as painful as it is, and that is freeing. Faithfulness is a limit that forces us to stop running and encounter God, self, and other right now, right here.[2] ([Location 2063](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=2063))
- One of the reasons for this failure to discern important matters togther may be that the commitment to discernment runs so counter to the independent mindset of our Western culture. It literally doesn’t compute that one would confer with others regarding what seems like a personal decision. ([Location 2101](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=2101))
- Practicing Truth Telling Truth telling is the spiritual practice associated with valuing truth, and it is essential to life in community. Knowing that group members function with immaculate integrity expressed through a tenacious commitment to truth telling is a foundational building block of trustful relationships. So foundational, in fact, that “not bearing false witness” was one of the Ten Commandments given to the children of Israel to help them navigate the perils of their wilderness journey together. ([Location 2130](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=2130))
- Conflict transformation begins with at least two shared affirmations. First, we affirm Jesus’ promise to be with us in the midst of conflict and find ways to open to his presence in it. ([Location 2226](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=2226))
- Second, we affirm that conflict can be the catalyst for needed growth and transformation for everyone involved if we are willing to engage it as such. ([Location 2234](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=2234))
- Intense conflict is an invitation to turn to God, who wants to lead us forward into restored relationships and into new organizational processes. ([Location 2253](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0087HTDCO&location=2253))