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“May your kingdom come and your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” With these words, Jesus taught his disciples to pray for God’s will to be done in the world. One cannot rightly understand the ministry of Jesus without believing that God’s will can and should be known among God’s people. That is a core assumption of this book. But how is God’s will to be known in the world? Discerning God’s Will Together assumes that God’s will is made known primarily through a community of faith. When God’s people are gathered in community, engaged with God’s Word in Scripture, and enlightened by God’s Spirit, they have the elements needed to discern God’s will for our times. Further, this book assumes that the same God who created the universe is on a mission to heal and redeem it—reconciling the entire creation to God’s self. Jesus calls his followers to align themselves with God mission—God’s work—in the world. But how can we confidently know what God is doing to participate in this work? Again, prayerful discernment helps to show the way. David Miller, a professor at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), speaks of “tracking God” as one of the core tasks of the missional church. He employs the analogy of hunters, who often rely on clues to help them find wild game. A tuft of hair on a thorn bush, scratches on the side of a tree, a torn leaf—all point to the presence of animals passing through. So too, God leaves subtle but visible clues. What then are the signs that God has been “passing through” an area, or that God has been at work? In her research regarding the missional church, Lois Barrett, also of AMBS, discovered that many Christians find it difficult to speak of God as the subject of an active verb. She says this is true even when people are invited to respond to a direct question such as “What has God been doing in your life?” In response to that question, people are likely to name their own activities, presumably motivated by a desire to do God’s will. Discerning God’s Will Together assumes that to really know God’s will, we must learn to look for God in every aspect of life, and then learn to align ourselves with the way we see God at work. This attentiveness lies at the heart of discernment of God’s will, whether individual or corporate. There will always be a certain element of mystery to understanding God’s will. Discernment will rarely be easy or totally clear to all participants. Nevertheless, this volume invites you to explore a discernment process with the confident assumption that God’s people can both learn to identify and align themselves with God’s work in the world. This
book was first written as a thesis for Eastern Mennonite Seminary and
is now being published with light revisions and updates as part
of the EMS intent to serve the seminary community and the wider church
as a center for training in discernment. As you read the book and
ponder its scholarly insights, may God empower you to both know and do
God’s will in the company of God’s people. |
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