I Introduction
A. As a Church, our whole focus is to serve God by becoming the Body of Christ that reveals the kingdom of God that is among us (Luke 17: 21). As members of the Body, we are to find ways to maintain unity while integrating the different gifts of the Spirit in our individual and communal ministries (I Cor. 12: 12-31).
B. The reality is that while many in the Church are Christ-centered in their faith, human pride and sin lead all of us still to become self-centered. This self-centered pride often leads us to strive for power and control within the church. The battle for power can spread division throughout the church as the desire of certain individuals and groups to wield and maintain that power and influence within the Body becomes a stronger motivation than the desire to seek the will of Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
C. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has adopted Robert’s Rules of Order as its standard guide to practice in conducting its meetings. Robert’s Rules of Order, while an effective program for conducting business and political meetings, is a wholly secular program. It is not a program that seeks to discern God’s will. It was created by a military general as a way creating a standard procedure for debate in order to conduct meetings in a more effective and efficient manner. It is rooted in the desire to channel the human tendency to fight, rather than in the spiritual yearning and to seek God’s truth and will.
D. The purpose of the following guide to discerning God’s will as the Body of Christ is to offer a way of conducting meetings within the church — within the Body — that emphasizes seeking the will of God rather than the will of the people (as Robert’s Rules of Order does); that emphasizes pastors and elders exercising spiritual leadership rather than temporal leadership; and that emphasizes discernment over debate.
II Voting Procedures
A. Since the focus must be on seeking God’s truth and will, the calling of any question for a vote is to be preceded by verbal and silent prayer. This prayer is to be that all members to be given the gift of a humble spirit in order to listen for the guiding voice of Jesus Christ, who is the head of the Body. Any vote shall be called with the question, All who sense this may be God’s will, say ‘Yea.’ All who sense this may not be God’s will, say ‘No.’ This process roots the Body in seeking God’s will, not just its own collective will.
III Discerning God’s Will
A. Since the focus must be on seeking God’s truth and will, the meetings must emphasize discernment over debate.
1. The practice of debate, while time-honored, is a practice grounded in the field of battle. It literally means to move away from the field of battle. Combatants in a conflict agree to move their battle away from the battlefield and into a more civilized and less bloody arena, where the battle can be decided bloodlessly. It is still a process that encourages participants to adopt adversarial positions, to be enemies along the particular issue, and that declares winners and losers. This is not the position that members of a body should take, for it encourages division within the body, striving for power, and the forming of political coalitions to achieve a goal. It does not encourage communion and companionship as members of the body seek God’s will together.
2. Discernment means separating ideas, positions, and beliefs apart in order to discover the essential truth and will of God that lies at their cores. Discernment is a process of letting the Holy Spirit lead us in sifting through an issue to discover God’s way. In spiritual terms, we communally sift through possibilities to discover God’s truth or will by asking questions, making suggestions, offering guidance, stating our personal beliefs, and sharing what we sense God’s will is.
3. Debate fosters self-centeredness because it takes disagreements and eventually declares a winner or a loser. It does not seek God’s will or the Spirit’s guidance. Discernment sees disagreement as an opportunity to discover God’s truth and will in greater detail and light by engaging other people of faith in dialogue.
IV Motions
A. Since the focus must be on seeking God’s truth and will, there needs to be a recognition and acceptance of the fact that discernment engages us in a process rooted in kairos (God’s time) rather than chronos (temporal, human time).
1. When disagreement occurs, the process must be slowed down in order to root it more in kairos. The greater the disagreement, the slower the process must become (except in cases of emergency or urgency, when it is declared by the moderator, in consultation with the stated clerk, that an issue must be decided immediately lest a congregation or a governing body be put in distress or experience hardship because of a failure to hold a vote.)*
2. No motion should move forward unless there has been an attempt to achieve a vote to move forward in unanimity.
a. A vote to move forward in unanimity is a vote in which unanimous consent has been given, and in which all members agree that they have humbly discerned God’s will.
B. Motions can move forward with a vote to move forward in unity.
1. A vote to move forward in unity is a vote in which the members prayerfully agree that unanimity cannot be reached because of certain members’ suspicion that God has spoken otherwise. Those dissenting still agree that it is best to move forward and to act as one Body. Despite their reservations, they want to maintain the unity of the Body of Christ
2. It is up to the moderator’s discretion to determine whether a motion moves forward in unanimity or in unity.
3. If unity cannot be upheld, and a significant portion of the Body has discerned something other than what the majority has discerned, the motion should be:
- Referred to a committee for further discernment and refinement before being brought back to the Body at the following meeting; or
b. Postponed for prayer, which means that the Body will spend the intervening time between the present and the next meeting praying over the proposal and seeking greater clarity about God’s will on the matter. Both of these actions create more time and space for discernment of God’s will, which should be the focus of the Body.
C. Only in cases of emergency, * or irreconcilable differences, should a vote move forward with the Body divided. When this occurs, a motion moves forward based upon a simple majority vote, but there is recognition that due to special circumstances, proper time for discernment has not been possible. If possible, these actions should be limited in time to one year (although this can be extended by a vote to extend the life of the action), or until the Body has had an adequate opportunity for proper discernment.
1. It is the moderator’s discretion to determine the extent to which this motion is an emergency requiring quick action, and to suggest to the Body what time limit shall be attached to the motion.
D. Whenever there is a severe disagreement that threatens the unity of the Body, any offending action (an action that offends part of the Body of Christ on theological, spiritual, or practical grounds) should be temporarily set aside for the good of the Body. This would be done until an appropriate time and process for discernment is set by the Body (I Cor. 10:23 — 11:1, Luke 6: 27-36).
1. To have an offending action set aside, at least three members of the Body will inform and demonstrate in writing to the Body that a particular action within the Body interferes with his or her individual or communal work on behalf of Christ.
2. The Body will then vote to set aside the offending action for a designated period of time until a process of discernment can be entered.
3. Realizing that this process can be manipulated, a simple majority vote is required to set aside an offending action. Prior to such a vote, all members shall be asked to engage in a time of prayer to ask God whether this is an action that is lawful but not beneficial (I Cor. 10: 23). In these cases there is a recognition that moving forward might be allowed, but to do so would create pain and division within congregations. Putting aside an offending action recognizes that God may be calling the Body to a particular course of action, but that the timing for this action is not yet ripe. Whatever the outcome, all members will engage in a period of prayer afterwards for unity and to help the Body seek the will of Christ.
E. When disagreements cannot be overcome, a motion can move forward with the designation ex humilis, meaning that the Body of Christ has not yet been sufficiently humble to receive the Spirit’s guidance and discern God’s will.
1. These matters should have an automatic review and discernment process after a period of three to seven years.
2. The moderator, in consultation with the stated clerk and the presbytery executive, shall have discretion to determine the period of time attached to the motion in which a review shall take place.
V Speaking in Regards to a Motion
A. When a member of the Body stands to speak to a motion or make a point (other than a point of order or to ask a clarifying question), the speaker will:
1. Precede her or his statement with the phrase Mr./Ms. Moderator, I sense God saying to me … The reason for this is to root the members of the Body in seeking what God wants, not just what our own minds or passions desire.
2. When division among the Body is anticipated, the moderator may choose to invite the Body to participate in a period of scriptural grounding. This is done according to the Moderator’s discretion, but the Body may also vote to do this by a simple majority vote. The period of scriptural grounding is a time in which all discussion is halted, and members are invited to come forward to read Scripture to the Body that they believe pertains to the issue. There is to be no commentary regarding the Scripture and what it means. Readers simply begin their reading with a statement such as Members of the Body (or Fellow Disciples of Christ), I believe this passage of Scripture can guide us in our reflections. Afterwards, the reader can say, The Word of the Lord, to which the Body replies, Thanks be to God. The purpose of all this is to ground all discernment in Scripture.
3. The period of scriptural grounding will be followed by a time of prayerful discernment as members ask God in prayer, Lord Jesus, what are you calling us to do? The period of time for prayerful discernment will be determined by the moderator.
VI Prayer During the Meeting
A. During meetings of the Body, one pastor and one elder will be recruited to pray without prejudice for the proceedings during the meeting of the Body. While remaining in the meeting they will pray for the moderator, clerk, and executive, the Body as a whole, all people speaking, for issues that come before the Body, or motions that become actions of the Body, and for anything else they believe should be prayed for. They are not to pray for a particular outcome, but will pray for God’s Spirit to guide the Body. If one or more of the people praying feels called to address a particular motion, she or he will find another pastor or elder to pray in their stead until deliberations of the motion are concluded. Before speaking, this person will identify to the moderator the pastor or elder praying in their stead. Above all, they are to pray that the Body discern God’s will.
* An example of an emergency or hardship situation might include the need to accept terms of a loan so that a congregation can start a building project without undue and costly delay, or that commissioners be decided upon for an upcoming synod or general assembly meeting. The moderator, in consultation with stated clerk, shall declare an emergency or urgent issue. When it is declared as such, the issue can be resolved with a divided vote. An issue should be declared an emergency or urgent issue only rarely and reluctantly.
N. GRAHAM STANDISH is pastor of Calvin Church in Zelienople, Pa. He is the author of Humble Leadership – Being Radically Open to God’s Guidance and Grace (Alban, 2007).
