The task of the church always is to position itself so as to be in a position to hear and to respond faithfully and obediently to God’s will and word for the church today.
Responding faithfully and obediently today may lie in the recovery of a set of disciplines — personal and corporate — that put us in a position to hear a word from the Lord if and when such is spoken.
The biblical story, of course, reminds us that there have been times in the life of the people of God when the word of the Lord was infrequent. And we may be in such a time today. Our characteristic response to silence in the postmodern culture in which we live is to make more noise. We hate silence.
Perhaps the noise level in the Presbyterian Church today is a direct function of the lack of a word from the Lord. But more likely the word is being spoken but not being heard, and we have to assume that God is speaking to us — individually and collectively — and that we’re just not listening and hearing. Until we’ve learned to be quiet and still, we will not know.
Whatever the situation — and only God knows! — a place to start is with ourselves and the governing bodies of our churches.
Two examples of where and how to start are offered: (1) personal devotional exercises; (2) devotional exercises in the church session.
To put ourselves individually in place to hear a word from the Lord requires a daily discipline of reading Scripture and other devotional materials, and entering into a time of prayer with God. It also involves participating in groups in the congregation that foster the same kinds of activities.
In terms of the governing bodies of the church, the church session (and the diaconate if a church has one) could model a process that may later be emulated by the higher governing bodies — presbytery, synod and General Assembly.
A colleague recently said that in the church where he serves as pastor, 75 percent of the session meeting is devoted to instruction on biblical and theological topics and 25 percent to “business” — and this is a 1,200-member church!
He said it without flinching, and having tried this new measure, did not find it wanting. Indeed, he is a strong advocate for this model that has vast potential for beginning churchwide renewal in the only arena in which it can happen — the congregation.
And so we call upon congregations and their pastors prayerfully to consider this new approach, to try it for a season and to report back results.
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