Spiritual Discernment for Thriving in Change (TIC)
By Pat Taylor Ellison

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Description of this Learning Opportunity: Experience, understand, and adopt for your congregation a tested process for deep listening to God, one another, and your neighbor through Dwelling in the Word, exploring an important issue, and building skills for listening and conversation that create time and space for God to be part of your church’s life and included in decision-making.

This spiritual discernment learning opportunity teaches congregational leaders how to have a 90-minute meeting that invites deep listening to the scriptures and to one another, and creates space and time to pay attention to where the Holy Spirit might be leading.

Such learning does not happen in a single day. It does not work that way. It happens when the practice is introduced and carried out by a group in the local church, a group that practices using the process on non-inflammatory issues a few times until a more controversial issue comes along. By repeatedly practicing the habits of Dwelling in the Word, brainstorming, and floated conversation that follows some very simple ground rules, a team from each church begins to create a climate, a culture hospitable to spiritual discernment.

The first element of this learning opportunity is a face-to-face learning event where the process is practiced and then reflected upon, giving people a chance to do action-reflection-articulation learning together. The learning is then reinforced with further online resources as participating churches go home and practice the process over a 2-3 month time period. Finally, everyone comes back together for a second face-to-face meeting, where stories are shared, learnings are offered, and help is delivered for particular situations.

This is our Spiritual Discernment for Thriving in Change Learning Opportunity.

Pat Taylor Ellison, Ph.D., is the managing director of research for Church Innovations.