Kristin Jack writes in anticipation of October’s Servants forum: “At this upcoming forum, I am desperately hoping we are unable to come to any sort of consensus on the many important decisions before us…
Instead, I trust we will find a way to hear and obey God’s Holy Spirit as he leads us into all truth!
OK so I’m being provocative. But for me the last few months there has been a growing dawning in my mind on the limitations of this thing we call consensus.
As you know, I’ve always been a big supporter of the ‘consensus model’ of decision making. At first glance, the idea of ‘consensus’ seems very attractive: it seems to be in line with the servant-leadership model and with the egalitarianism and ‘everyone having a voice’ that we so cherish.
And it is probably the closest thing to the idea of group discernment that one could come up – but it isn’t the same as group discernment. Moreover, a process of consensus often involves compromises and deal-cutting; it usually relies on human logic and argumentation; it is a process that can easily be hijacked by the loudest or most insistent voices, or can become moribund, going forever round in circles.
At this crucial period of our history in Servants I believe God is calling us back to our roots in order to move us forward:
“Listen to me you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn.”
(Isaiah 51:1).
Servants was born out of the charismatic renewal sweeping through the evangelical church. There was a profound sense of God’s Spirit speaking and birthing something new and dynamic. There was a sense of reliance on the Spirit for guidance and vision, and for the power to carry out that which had been revealed.
I believe God is calling us to return to this dependence on the Spirit and His gifts amongst us.
We need to hear God’s voice that comes to us through the gifts of prophecy and discernment; through words of wisdom and words of knowledge (and even tongues!); through faith and the expectation of miracles (12 Corinthians 12:7). Does this mean we have to abandon ‘everyone having a voice, everyone being heard’? No, on the contrary – to each one the Spirit is given for the common good (12:7, 14:26). We can all hear God’s voice, or at least a part of it.
But this is not the same as ‘consensus’, at least not in the sense the world uses the word. Dave Andrew’s phrase ‘charismatic leadership in a consensus framework’ has always resonated with me, and what I will talk about here is, I think, an elaboration on that concept.
Group Discernment is not the same as consensus. It is not trying to argue our way to what we believe is right by mounting persuasive arguments. It is not trying to convince others to see things our way. It is not compromise, or deal cutting to try and ‘keep everyone happy’ (decisions most acceptable to the lowest common denominator). It is not being paralysed, unable to reach a decision because all don’t agree. No, it’s a determination to hear God’s voice and obey it – whether we like it or not!
There are times we clearly practise this listening to the Spirit. Dorothy Mathieson’s appointment as International Coordinator at the last forum was an outstanding example.
Yet there are other times when we instead seem more reliant on human rationality, consensus, or even our cherished ‘5 principles’. As Craig Greenfield and Viv Grigg have said, in the absence of a compelling, well articulated vision or mission statement we are in danger of elevating our 5 principles to ends in themselves, or even making them a substitute for the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Don’t get me wrong here: our 5 principles are wonderful, and we need to keep them central in our ethos. But principles act as guidelines, not railway tracks; they are guide ropes, not fetters.
The role of ministry principles is to describe the wide territory within which we can freely operate – but they must never, never substitute for seeking and hearing the voice of the living God.
We need to be continually open to dynamic and creative new expressions of ministry, some of which may be quite unsettling because “we’ve never done it that way before”. Ministries and Missions that grow are ones that are continually learning from their experiences, adapting to their circumstances, and – most crucially – listening to the Spirit. Let’s be such a mission.
Can we all agree that this forum our hearts are set on hearing the voice of God’s Spirit and on being satisfied with nothing less?
[October 21st-25th Servants folks from all around the world will gather in the Philippines for a time of refreshment, teaching, worship and discussion. Kristin Jack has recently returned to Cambodia after a sabbatical year in the UK.]
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