Philippians 1:6, 9-11
I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ…And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.
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I want to start today’s sermon with a few questions. I’ll ask you to put a thumbs up if the answer is yes, and a thumbs down if the answer is no.
- Should you touch a hot stove? Yes or no.
- Is it okay to steal candy from the store? Yes or no.
Okay, we’ll move to some questions where people may have different answers.
- Is coffee better than tea? Yes or no.
- Is summer better than winter? Yes or no.
- Is doing dishes better than doing laundry? Yes or no.
What we just did together points to discernment. I asked you some questions, and you answered them. Based on your experiences, what you were told growing up, what you discovered for yourself, and what others have talked with you about, you were able to answer my questions. Perhaps when you were young your parents told you not to touch a hot stove, so you know that touching a hot stove is not a good idea. Perhaps, you have tried both coffee and tea, and you know which one you prefer. Most of us can probably answer these questions, because we have already discerned our answer to them.
But, if I were to ask you, “What matters most in the life of this church?” that question may be harder to answer. Sure, we may say Jesus and God’s love, but what exactly does that look like? How do we show the world we follow Jesus and claim God’s love for ourselves?
If I were to ask you, “Is Bible study better than Sunday morning worship? Yes or no,” would you be able to answer that right away? If I asked you, “Are missions more important than worship attendance? Yes or no,” would you have an immediate answer for that? Part of determining what matters most for the church is going on a journey of discernment.
Now, last week, I reminded us that this is going to be a pilgrimage. Which is antithetical to how we humans like to work. We like quick fixes. We like easy answers. We want to get to the end result, the promised land, now. But, in order to get to that end result, we must carefully lay the foundation, pave the road, and navigate the terrain. If we don’t, our journey will be hampered.
Discernment is a long process. It should be a process that, like Paul writes to the Philippians, will help love overflow, more and more, with knowledge and insight. It is a process that helps us listen for God’s voice, and helps us to see where God is leading us. Discernment is a process that should encourage us to live for God every single day of our lives.
In his greeting to the church in Philippi, Paul offers this encouragement for discernment. When he says that he hopes the church can grow in love, insight, and knowledge, he means that he hopes the church continues to look for God. It is theorized that Paul may have written this letter to Philippi from prison in Rome. Paul was imprisoned for “creating a public disturbance” as he declared the Gospel of Christ. The church in Philippi faced similar challenges as they tried to spread the Gospel and grow in numbers, and so, when Paul writes to them, he opens with an encouraging message. Keep going, he says. Keep growing in Christ. Keep on seeking the heart of God, because that is what marks your deeds and your works as good. No matter the challenges you face, you will be seen as pure and blameless in the sight of God.
Paul’s message to the church in Philippi encourages them to walk through the challenges they face while constantly seeking the heart of God. He encourages them, as they walk through tribulation, to always keep their eyes toward Christ. Grow in love. Grow in insight. Grow in knowledge. Keep growing and going towards God, because that is what matters most.
Paul’s encouragement to the church in Philippi is encouragement to never stop discerning God’s will for their church and their lives. God will still speak. God will still offer love. God will still work in their lives. So, no matter what, it is their job to listen and look for God. They are to discern what matters the most to their lives together, because through that discernment they can face, with confidence, any opposition or persecution that may come their way. Discerning the will and heart of God is what strengthens them for ministry.
We certainly do not face the same challenges to our faith that Paul or the church in Philippi did. In 21st century America, Christianity is not being persecuted. We are not facing imprisonment for declaring our faith. We are not in danger of being killed if we declare the Gospel. Many leaders and public figures in the secular realm share our faith, and speak about how their faith affects how they approach the world. Christianity is not persecuted. It truly is centered.
And yet, Christianity is still facing its challenges, particularly Christianity as expressed through the institutional church. We talk about this often, so I won’t belabor the point. But, it is true that the world is changing around us, and, as the world changes, church, in its current iteration, seems to be left behind. Which can make us feel like our values are under attack or are being pushed aside. This all leads to questions and wonderings and worries for the future. And we think about how we can continue to be encouraged in our faith. How can we be excited about faith? How can we spread the Gospel? How do we invite people into this journey with us? How do we know what is really important?
This is why a journey of discernment is so necessary. Paul encourages the church in Philippi to constantly grow in love, knowledge, and insight. While our struggles are not akin to theirs, we can take this call for ourselves as well. We are called to discern what is the most important. We are called to discern what matters most in our faith, and our faith community, so that way we can continue to share our faith with confidence.
Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton writes that a journey of discernment has five guidelines that help us stay on track.
The first is “Don’t Wait!”
You know, back in January and February of 2020, I had taken an improv comedy class through the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre. I had a lot of fun with it. And, after missing a year due to the pandemic, at the beginning of 2022, I had been thinking about taking the class again. But, I held off on signing up, because of money and Omicron and all of these reasons. When I finally felt like I could sign up for the class, it was full. I called to be put on the waitlist, but I knew that the class was popular and fun, so it was unlikely anyone would drop it. I waited too long to try to get in, and I missed out entirely.
That’s often what happens in the church. We don’t think we can undergo discernment about the future, until we have all the answers. In 2021, when we had our vision team meet, I often heard the question “Why now?” “We’re in the middle of a pandemic, why are we talking about the future, now?” “We don’t know where the denomination will be, why are we talking about a vision now?” “It’s not the right time! We don’t have all the answers! We’re not in a place of certainty! Why are we talking about the future of this church now?” My response got honed over the months that we met, because the question constantly came up: “We’re talking about local church ministry. It is always the right time to talk about local church ministry.”
That was kind of a lie, in some ways. Because when we talk about the future of the church, and local church ministry, there is never going to be a “right” time. There will always be something that seems like it needs to be answered, first. We need to get finances in order. We need answers from the denomination. We should wait until the new neighborhood is built. We don’t know who we are, so how can we talk about the future? There is always going to be a next question that needs to be answered. Often, we use that next question to delay talking now. We want to wait until the perfect time. But the perfect time will never come. The world moves fast. We just have to jump in and do the work of discernment in the midst of it. If we wait too long, we may miss out on something really great. So we don’t wait. We talk now. We seek God now. We pray now. We discern now. Knowing that God doesn’t need us to wait until the “perfect” time. God just needs us to step out in faith, at all times.
Which brings us to the second reminder of discernment: To take a look back and see what we can learn from the past.
An oft heard refrain in churches is: “Those were the days.” We have a habit of looking back to reminisce on the good old days. Those golden years when the church was thriving. When the pews were filled! When there were dozens of kids in youth group and Sunday school! When the pastor preached good, Bible based sermons! When Sunday was a day that had no sports or extra activities, because it was a day for Church and family. Sometimes, we make the mistake of getting stuck looking at the past, wishing things could just go back to the way they were.
Bickerton writes that there is nothing wrong with looking at the past, because the past can teach us how we can move forward in the future. But we need to be careful about what we’re looking for. When we look at the past, we have to look at where our church’s life and witness intersected with our gifts and passions for ministry. Again, we look at how the church’s life and witness intersected with gifts and passions for ministry.
We don’t look at the past to get stuck on how “We used to have Vacation Bible School every summer, and now we don’t, and that’s a problem!” We look at the past to see that we had Vacation Bible School because we had a passion for teaching young disciples.
And then we ask ourselves the question of “Is teaching young disciples still our passion? Is it still our gift?” If the answer is yes then we ask “How do we do that now?” It’s not about looking at programming. It’s about thinking how do we translate our passion for teaching young disciples into ministry, now? Maybe that’s not Vacation Bible School. Maybe that particular ministry is over. Maybe it stopped reaching young disciples in the way we wanted it to. But how do we translate that passion for our church now? The important thing is not that we used to have certain programming, but that the programming was a result of a core value, a core passion, a gift of this church.
So when discerning the future, we look to the past, not to lament the good old days, but to look at the church’s history of witness, and find the passions and gifts behind that. Did we have multiple programs that spoke to a passion for fellowship? Okay, how do we do that now? Did we have programs that spoke to a passion for discipleship? Okay, how do we do that now? Did we have programs that spoke to a passion for teaching the Bible? Okay, how do we do that now? Did we have programs that spoke to a passion for developing leaders? Okay, how do we do that now?
Part of discernment is finding the best of the past, those core values we hold, and carrying them into the future so we can continue to use our gifts and our passions for building God’s kingdom, even if we use them in new ways.
The third guideline for discernment is to seize the opportunity before us.
Bickerton uses the example of the size of a windshield vs the size of a rearview mirror. The windshield is bigger because what lies ahead of us is more important for driving than what is behind us. Certainly, we have to use rearview mirrors for safety, and check them every once in a while. But if we drove constantly looking in the rearview mirror, there would be a lot more accidents, wouldn’t there? If we were so focused on what is behind us, instead of what is ahead of us, we’d be in trouble.
Keeping our eyes focused on what is ahead of us requires us to remember that God is not done with us. Our best ministry and our best days are not behind us. We can still do good, kingdom building ministry now. God has not thrown us out. We also have to remember to keep the flame of God alive and burning. When we face struggle, challenge, and worry, it can be hard to keep that flame lit up. It can be hard to have passion for ministry. We can burn out, if we don’t constantly seek God. If it feels like we are just running up against wall after wall. If it feels like no ministry can get done. We just go into autopilot and we lose our passion. Believe me, it is easy to fall into this. But we are called to bear the light of God’s love into the world, and to bear that light, we need to try our absolute best to keep our passions alive. So that calls us into assuming the responsibility that God has given us. To be the love-bearers in the world. And assuming that responsibility looks like every single one of us, on an individual level, figuring out the gifts and passions that God has blessed us with. That is what keeps the flame alive. When we don’t sit on our hindquarters and exercise our passions, that is how we seize the opportunity before us.
I will tell you, one of my biggest passions for ministry is helping churches find creative ways of moving to the future. It’s working with churches to change and for change. It’s always been connecting churches with the world outside their walls. Exhortation and encouragement and empowerment, those are some of my gifts. I say that with full confidence. Those gifts are part of the reason I love ministry. That is why I answered my calling to ordained ministry. I tell people often, I am not the type of pastor that has a passion for closing churches, or putting churches in quote unquote hospice care. Instead, I am the type of pastor that encourages change, and mentions the future often, and wants to push the church just a little bit out of its comfort zone. You may have noticed this. But that’s because the work of creativity, change, and encouragement for the future is the work that keeps my flame for God alight.
Part of discernment is each individual in the church figuring out what their passions are for ministry. What keeps the flame of God lit in your heart? And then, as a body, coming together to use all of our passions and gifts and talents for the good of the church, seizing each opportunity before us.
The fourth guideline is Connecting the Dots.
I sort of spoke to this already with all of the previous guidelines, so I’ll keep this short. Connecting the dots is about taking all the information we get from the other guidelines, and boiling them down to their basics. We have a passion for teaching young disciples. I have a passion for exhortation and encouragement. You have a passion for writing letters and sending cards. We take all of this in, and we connect the dots. How do our passions speak to our beliefs? And then how do we take that belief and passion and turn it into action? And then how do we use that action to build God’s kingdom? That is it. Discernment is all about connecting our passions with our beliefs, our beliefs with action, and our actions with our purpose of building God’s kingdom. Passions to beliefs. Beliefs to actions. Actions for God. That is what we are seeking to discover.
The fifth and final guideline of discernment is to sift out the nonessentials.
We’ll touch on this a lot more next week as we think about filling the blanks with essentials. But this guideline asks us to really consider what our witness to God’s love must have, and what it can do without. What can we cultivate? What can we let go of?
This guiding principle is best summed up in one question: “If______ went away, could you still have a church?” How would you fill in that blank?
Without going through the discernment process it may be really easy to fill in that blank with something that is important, though not essential.
“Well, I feel best connected with people at coffee hour! So if coffee hour went away, I don’t think there would still be a church! We must keep coffee hour!”
Is that really true? Is coffee hour essential? Or can you fill that blank with something else? Do you feel equally connected to people at a potluck? Or in Discipleship groups? Or in Youth Group? Is that feeling of connection still there if you exchange coffee hour with any of those things? So is it really coffee hour that is essential? Or is it something deeper? What’s under coffee hour? Fellowship? Community?
If you took fellowship away, could you still have church? If you took community away, could you still have church? What’s the core value under a desire for coffee hour?
Let’s say it’s community. That’s why we love coffee hour so much. It gives us a chance to build community. We talk with people. We connect with people. We learn about their upcoming vacation or their sibling who’s in the hospital. That sense of community and family is what draws people into the church. So, coffee hour is not essential, but community is. Community is a value we hold. It’s core to who we are. And so, in the life of this church, we do everything with an eye toward building community.
See when we dig deeper, under the things that feel important, we can find the core value that lies at the heart of our mission and witness. Coffee hour builds community. Potlucks build community. Discipleship Groups build community. Youth Group builds community. Community is at our heart. And so when we discover that, we can then shift ministries, if we need to. We can shift small group offerings, we can change things. Our methods of building community can change. Because, it’s not the methods that are essential, but the value, and the heart of it. We can disagree about what community building looks like, but we can agree that community is a value we hold.
So part of this journey toward discovering what matters most is that we are encouraged to delve into discernment. To really dig down, pray, ask for God’s guidance, and sort out what is truly important. What do we need to have to be Christ-centered and love-focused? What is at our very core? What is at our very heart?
This is what Paul encouraged the Philippians to think about. Grow in love and insight and knowledge, so that your witness for Christ can be strengthened. Discernment is all about digging deep and finding out what truly matters most, so we can then fill in the blanks of our life together with the essentials. The five guiding principles of discernment are: Don’t Wait. Look for the best of the Past. Seize the Opportunity Before You. Connect the Dots. And Sift out the Nonessentials. That is what we do in discernment, take everything we possibly can in, lift it up to God, and work with the Spirit to figure out what it’s all pointing to.
In that process, we may just make an important turn. From the exasperated, hands tossed in the air question, of “What are we fighting for?” To the inspirational, motivational question, that points to the very heart of our life together: “What are we fighting for?”
Strong Female Pastor 