At our January leadership team meeting I unveiled the now infamous “whiteboard of activity” – (you can find a picture of the whiteboard and some initial thoughts on that meeting here). One of the questions that I asked at that meeting was: If you didn’t have our mission statement in front of you and all that you had was our bulletin, announcements, programs, and other activities to try and determine who we (as a church) are and what we are about, what would you conclude? After an extended silence, two answers were given: programs and fun.

Before adjourning, I asked the leadership team to join me in a focused time of pray and reflection regarding our church’s identity and mission.

This afternoon I received a phone call from the vice-chairman of our leadership. He wanted to set up a time to talk about some books that I had given to him to read (Simple Church,**Total Church, and The Shaping of Things to Come). During the course of that brief phone conversation the whiteboard and the challenge that I placed before our leadership team came up. Dick noted that it’s a challenge, if taken seriously, that could have profound implications for our church, its ministry, and our community. Yet, he reminded me that it is a challenge that is not without its own difficulties, one of which he summarized wonderfully when he said, We know how to talk to God, but we don’t know how to listen to God.

I’ve found that comment inescapable. It has continued to plague me throughout the course of the afternoon. The truthfulness of this statement cut me to the core because it belies a problem that impacts us both individually and corporately.

Individually

In the North American church, much of spiritual formation and/or discipleship that takes place is about the transfer of information. As such it involves an expert (often assumed to be the pastor) or mature Christian (read: someone who has been in the church a long time) teaching important information to newbies. Often this information is theological (the creeds), doctrinal (predestination vs free will), or behavioral (“Christians don’t drink, smoke, or chew and they don’t date those who do”).

After attending a multi-week discpleship class we equip with them with all of the things necessary to walk with God (a Bible, a devotional book, and an understanding of prayer that follows the ACTS model). If they remember the information that has been shared and if they take a few moments to read their Bible, supplement their Bible readings with a devotional thought from Our Daily Bread,and pray a prayer in which they Adore Confess Thank and offer Supplication they’ll grow into vibrant mature Christians. Anything else that they need to know will happen by osmosis or accident, or so it would seem.

To wit, as Dick reminded me, we often assume that if people follow the program of discipleship that we have put together that they will naturally learn to hear from God and listen to God’s voice.

Does this really happen, though? Does a Bible, devotional book, and ACTS model for prayer necessarily a listener to God make?

Personal experience, and a quick poll of some friends, would suggest that this simply is not true. Learning to listen to God and discern God’s direction takes time. It requires instruction. It doesn’t just happen. It requires intentionality.

But this is not just a personal problem.

Corporately

It is a corporate problem that plagues the body of Christ. We are often too busy singing, listing off our praises and prayer requests, blessing God with our specials, taking up our offerings, and listening to sermons to pause and sit quietly before God. Rarely do we sit and just listen. A thirty second period of silence is unnerving, so how could we possibly sit for an extended period of time just listening and waiting for God to speak?!

Apart from a few formative experiences — one at a monastery and another with some Quaker friends — I am ashamed to admit that my corporate experience has had much more to do with talking to (or at) God, rather than to actually taking the time to listen to God.

That being said, I wonder, what it we as pastors and churches do to help and/or encourage people to hear and discern the voice of God? What has been helpful to you? Are there books and/or lectures on the subject that you would recommend? What formative corporate experiences of listening to God have you been a part?