The Third Corporate Discipline – Guidance

Guidance is that discipline that leads us to actively seek the will of God for our lives.

God guides us in two ways:  individually and corporately.  In individual guidance, God gives us divine instruction through Scripture, reason, circumstances and through the Spirit’s prompting of our hearts.  In corporate guidance, God guides groups to people who seek the will of God. 

An example:  I sensed a call to ministry through the Spirit’s prompting of my heart.  I knew it was real, but before the United Methodist Church would ordain me as a leader in the church, what we call an elder, my call had to be tested through corporate guidance.  I met with two pastors individually over about a year; Rev. Richard Nussel for a few months first, then with Rev. Catherine Fluck-Price for a few more months. 

Then I appeared before the Staff Parish Relations Committee of this congregation, and then before a church-wide conference.  At each step, you were asked if you would approve my candidacy for ministry. 

The next step was to appear before the District Board of Ordained Ministry and for the next several years, they reviewed my progress in seminary and ministry.  Then I answered questions both in writing and orally about my theology, leadership, preaching/teaching and personal growth for the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry to become a Probationary Elder. 

This past year, I answered all those questions again and in June I will be ordained an Elder in Full-Connection.  The corporate guidance the church (through this congregation, through other pastors, through various church committees) has received from God has confirmed my call to be an ordained leader in the United Methodist Church.  That’s the discipline of corporate guidance.

Corporate guidance is also practiced when Church Council discusses the vision of the church, when the staff meets to plan worship, when finance struggles with the budget, when a Sunday School class is deciding what ministries to support.   As Richard Foster observes, “The Spirit can lead contrary to or in accord with the available facts. God will implant a spirit of unity when the right path has been chosen and trouble us with restlessness when we have not heard correctly.”

I see the discipline of corporate guidance as the disciples continued to gather after the crucifixion, after Easter, and after Christ’s Ascension.  At each point and on-going, they came together to discern God’s will for them and for the church.  Take some time to read the Book of Acts this spring and see the discipline of corporate guidance at work in the early church. 

The discipline of guidance – individual or corporate – is not perfect and is often flawed by our very human desires for power or to have our own way or just our frailties and weakness. But that should not keep us from coming together to discern the will of God for our lives, for our church and for our world.

How have you experienced the discipline of guidance?

Drawn from Richard J. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline: the Path to Spiritual Growth as the outline for these devotions:  The Inward Disciplines of Meditation, Prayer, Fasting and Study;  The Outward Disciplines of Simplicity, Solitude, Submission and Service; and The Corporate Disciplines of Confession, Worship, Guidance and Celebration.