Levening Your Church Meetings-Part 4

4. Planning Meetings/Retreats
Though planning meetings do not happen with the frequency of the other groups that we have been talking about, they still are occasions for the work of the Spirit. Besides the creative openings and closings that have been suggested, the planning meeting can be done in the spirit of discernment. The goal for the planning is to discern God’s direction for each part of the church’s ministry. What is God calling us to do in education? in mission? in evangelism? in service? in worship?

One way for this kind of contemplative planning to take place is to use guided imagery. If you are focusing on evangelism, for example, a guided prayer could invite people to relax, close their eyes, and imagine a city or town square where a lot of people gather. Imagine yourself sitting on a park bench observing people. You notice that Jesus is coming to sit with you and you feel comforted by his presence. You begin to talk about reaching out to people with the good news of God’s love, and you share your ideas and you listen as Jesus shares his concerns. You close by asking Jesus to give you courage and wisdom to witness to those in the community. You receive his blessing. A whole group that is led through such a guided imaging experience now has not only ideas for evangelism but ideas that have been shaped in the depths of prayer. Such a contemplative planning process can add immensely to the listing of problems and possibilities on newsprint that most churches go through in their planning process.

Other prayer experiences can be designed to lead into the planning process. The Quakers use extended times of silence. Many Native Americans use a council-style discussion where everyone is encouraged to speak spontaneously from the heart when they are holding the talking stick (or in Christian circles, a chalice). Such a process insures that each person does more listening than speaking. Other groups have used pictures of nature or children to elicit prayers and thoughts on personal experiences or on subjects that are to be discussed.

Contemplative planning strives to have ideas and plans emerge from the richness of prayer. Explore guided imagery and other prayer experiences as part of the planning process for the church.

Heart and Soul: a guide for Spiritual Formation in the Local Church
Larry J. Peacock, Upper Room Books

To Walk in Simplicity

For many of us the disparity between our daily lives and the call to simplicity of action is painful. I confess that when the pain arises for me, I often resist acknowledging the presence of any grace in my discomfort. In the end, though, I can neither dismiss the pain nor what it holds out to me. The pain reminds me that a life fractured by an overabundance of obligations is not the life for which any of us was created. It invites me to discern once again my few talents and how I may most effectively apply them. The pain grants me permission to say a clear “No” to anything that will dissipate my efforts. It offers license to yield myself joyfully to the few places that most need what I can bring.
-- Steve Doughty, To Walk in Integrity

God's Dreams

I believe God has dreams for us. I have a personal problem with the “God has a plan for our life” language, because it suggests to me that God has planned out every second and every detail of our life. I don’t believe that is true. I do believe that God has dreams for our lives in a way similar to the dreams our parents had for us when we were born except that (with few exceptions) God dreams less about what our job will be and more about what our character will be and what our relationship with God/Jesus will be.

Jim Collins in Good to Great said:
"Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life. The vast majority of (congregations) never become (vital), precisely because the vast majority become quite (complacent with the status quo) — and that is their main problem"

One of our problems is that we dream too small for ourselves and for our churches and God is dreaming the Kingdom of Heaven come on earth. Our task is to discern God's dream and move in that direction.