Decide or discern

The prevalence of the language and practice of discernment owes much to the larger movement of what Diana Butler Bass has termed "retraditioning" as well as a renewed focus on spiritual practices. There are other reasons why discernment as a spiritual practice is receiving increased attention: people in congregations are increasingly impatient with church meetings conducted in ways that are indistinguishable from meetings in secular settings. They instinctively and rightly rebel against the kind of dualism that can creep into our thinking, dividing the life of the church into a spiritual side and a business side. They want God invited to the whole meeting, not just during the time of an opening prayer.

Robert's Rules of Order, some version of which are used by most congregations, were written in response to one man's frustration with a church meeting. In 1876 Henry Robert was chairing his first meeting of the trustees of First Baptist Church in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The meeting dragged and the trustees seemed unable to resolve their differences. On his way home he vowed that he would never chair another meeting until he had a set of governing rules and procedures to guide him. As a former officer in the army, he knew where to turn: parliamentary procedures. And that's how we got Robert's Rules.

To be sure, following Robert's Rules can make meetings efficient. But it creates other problems. It ignores spiritual practices. By elevating the principle of "one person, one vote," the emphasis is squarely on the individual view and on the sum of individuals' votes. It creates winners and losers of votes. The process is slanted in favor of those who know the rules and can manipulate them.