{"id":5665,"date":"2019-09-02T15:06:11","date_gmt":"2019-09-02T23:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=5665"},"modified":"2019-09-02T15:06:13","modified_gmt":"2019-09-02T23:06:13","slug":"celebration-of-discipline-guidance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2019\/09\/02\/celebration-of-discipline-guidance","title":{"rendered":"Celebration of Discipline: Guidance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"book<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Blog read\u00aders: Chi Alpha @ Stan\u00adford is engag\u00ading in our annu\u00adal sum\u00admer read\u00ading project. As we read through an anno\u00adtat\u00aded trans\u00adla\u00adtion of Pascal\u2019s Pensees called Chris\u00adtian\u00adi\u00adty For Mod\u00adern Pagans<\/a>, I\u2019ll post the thoughts I\u2019m email\u00ading the stu\u00addents here (which will large\u00adly con\u00adsist of excerpts I found insight\u00adful). They are all tagged sum\u00admer-read\u00ading-project-2020<\/a>. The read\u00ading sched\u00adule is online<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This chap\u00adter has three emphases: Fos\u00adter talks about com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adties of believ\u00aders seek\u00ading the will of God togeth\u00ader (should our con\u00adgre\u00adga\u00adtion buy this build\u00ading or not?), he talks about indi\u00advid\u00adu\u00adals turn\u00ading to the gath\u00adered body for advice (like that cou\u00adple who asked the con\u00adgre\u00adga\u00adtion to assess their readi\u00adness for mar\u00adriage), and he talks about indi\u00advid\u00adu\u00adals turn\u00ading to oth\u00ader indi\u00advid\u00adu\u00adals for spir\u00adi\u00adtu\u00adal coun\u00adsel (see\u00ading a spir\u00adi\u00adtu\u00adal direc\u00adtor).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m just going to talk about the first one \u2014 when an entire group (such as a life group or a wor\u00adship team) seeks the will of God togeth\u00ader. When a group like that needs to make a deci\u00adsion we almost always do one of two things: we vote or we just leave every\u00adthing up to the leader. There are times when each of those is appro\u00adpri\u00adate (for exam\u00adple, when it is a rou\u00adtine deci\u00adsion), but there are also times when this is an infe\u00adri\u00ador solu\u00adtion (for exam\u00adple, when pas\u00adsions are high and a wrong deci\u00adsion can destroy the entire com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fos\u00adter describes an alter\u00adna\u00adtive:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a peo\u00adple they had decid\u00aded to live under the direct ruler\u00adship of the Spir\u00adit. They had reject\u00aded both human total\u00adi\u00adtar\u00adi\u00adan\u00adism and anar\u00adchy. They had even reject\u00aded democ\u00adra\u00adcy, that is, major\u00adi\u00adty rule. They had dared to live on the basis of Spir\u00adit-rule; no fifty-one per\u00adcent vote, no com\u00adpro\u00admis\u00ades, but Spir\u00adit-direct\u00aded uni\u00adty.\u201d <\/p>Richard Fos\u00adter, Cel\u00ade\u00adbra\u00adtion of Dis\u00adci\u00adple, pages 178\u2013179 <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And then a lit\u00adtle lat\u00ader:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[these groups] all oper\u00adate on the basis on Spir\u00adit-direct\u00aded uni\u00adty. Issues are approached with an assur\u00adance that the mind of the Spir\u00adit can be known. They gath\u00ader in Christ\u2019s name, believ\u00ading that his will will be fleshed out in their midst. They do not seek com\u00adpro\u00admise, but God-giv\u00aden con\u00adsen\u00adsus.\u201d <\/p>Richard Fos\u00adter, Cel\u00ade\u00adbra\u00adtion of Dis\u00adci\u00adpline, page 184<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In oth\u00ader words, there are times when we real\u00adize that our com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty needs wis\u00addom beyond human wis\u00addom and that the issue is so impor\u00adtant that we can\u00adnot leave it to one leader to seek the face of God for it. We must all do it togeth\u00ader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we do that, Fos\u00adter sug\u00adgests, we must expect uni\u00adty. I know sev\u00ader\u00adal church lead\u00ader\u00adship teams that fol\u00adlow this prac\u00adtice: if there is no uni\u00adty then the team does not pro\u00adceed. This means that even one voice can derail a plan that every\u00adone else is in favor of. When\u00adev\u00ader I\u2019ve spo\u00adken to peo\u00adple about this prac\u00adtice, they can point to spe\u00adcif\u00adic times one per\u00adson vetoed a deci\u00adsion that enjoyed over\u00adwhelm\u00ading sup\u00adport. At the time the rest of the team had been mild\u00adly to intense\u00adly annoyed, but it lat\u00ader became appar\u00adent that their friend\u2019s refusal to express false con\u00adsen\u00adsus had saved the team much grief. In ret\u00adro\u00adspect the entire team saw that God had pro\u00adtect\u00aded them through the integri\u00adty of their friend and the integri\u00adty of their process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, this should not be the way we usu\u00adal\u00adly make col\u00adlec\u00adtive deci\u00adsions. If a large com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty always does this they will inevitably find them\u00adselves held hostage by unsta\u00adble peo\u00adple. Or if a church rou\u00adtine\u00adly does this they will find them\u00adselves in thrall to a hand\u00adful of unbe\u00adliev\u00aders who attend the church. And so for sim\u00adple mat\u00adters touch\u00ading on every\u00adone, take a quick vote. For deci\u00adsions requir\u00ading an aware\u00adness of back\u00adground knowl\u00adedge or per\u00adhaps some spe\u00adcial exper\u00adtise, defer to the lead\u00aders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if doing this for every deci\u00adsion would be unwise, I would like to sug\u00adgest that nev\u00ader doing it would be even less wise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next time you are part of a Chris\u00adt\u00adian group fac\u00ading a sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant deci\u00adsion, con\u00adsid\u00ader propos\u00ading this idea \u2014 \u201cLet\u2019s pray until we have uni\u00adty on this issue and then do what\u00adev\u00ader God tells us.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This chap\u00adter has three emphases: Fos\u00adter talks about com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adties of believ\u00aders seek\u00ading the will of God togeth\u00ader (should our con\u00adgre\u00adga\u00adtion buy this build\u00ading or not?), he talks about indi\u00advid\u00adu\u00adals turn\u00ading to the gath\u00adered body for advice (like that cou\u00adple who asked the con\u00adgre\u00adga\u00adtion to assess their readi\u00adness for mar\u00adriage), and he talks about indi\u00advid\u00adu\u00adals turn\u00ading \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cCel\u00ade\u00adbra\u00adtion of Dis\u00adci\u00adpline: Guid\u00adance\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[264,263],"class_list":["post-5665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources-reviews","tag-celebration-of-discipline","tag-summer-reading-project-2019"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1tn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5665"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5669,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5665\/revisions\/5669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}