6/19 The key is Judgement Replaying Discernment in Christian Foundations
Recently our ‘box’ held a camp. So let’s see…I have been to about 20 to 25 camps in my life time. With our team, we have personally organised and run at least 10! From school camps, celebration camps, healing camps, restoration of wounded counsellor’s camps…
1. Yes, it is easy to see the holes in organization – left out youth, not disciplined youth, youth involved in late night sex run .. oh dear, the youth seem to get the highest count. However, left out children, no activities for those wanting deeper talks, little time for relationships…. or meals …well, want enough said.
Easy to poke holes in what has been done but it’s the old story: ‘Where are the helpers’, say the church leaders. ‘Where is my space to use my gifts?‘ say the congregation.
Sometimes people have the right ‘answer’ to the hole in the organisation but sit back and complain. Natural human response….However, I remember reading once: “It’s easy to shot out the lights; it harder to replace them with true light.”
2. So what’s the answer as sometimes, there are holes in the organization that one cannot ignore?
First, talk with the organizers. Try to keep a positive note rather than the blast of emotions. Always share your insights with the responsibly people first and never, never go behind their back with criticism and thoughtless grumbles.
Secondly, many of those holes you saw come from a sense of discernment. Hhuuummm, discernment is the ‘knowing that you know’ something and it might not be exactly logical facts.
For example, Martha may have put too much effort into the teens because she lacks teens in her world….or Jeffery made a big deal of the worship – overtime in fact – because he wants the worship leaders position on Sundays.
3. So you may see the hole because of your Discernment?
Now you can know this ‘private’ info because the Holy Spirit just shared it with you. Now what do you do? Instead of going into criticism and judgement – two of the enemy’s weapons against good leaders – try praying for them. It’s too easy to grip and complain.
Your heart has just about 5 seconds to go from the ‘discernment’ about the situation to judgement! It’s just that easy to make the jump. The church needs your discernment! …but remember what the Old Testament people did to the people who had the word of the Lord? They most often were stoned.
…but we don’t do that today. …or do we? When you learn to develop that discernment into prayer, you join a special group who had determined to pray rather than gossip, talk to those responsible rather than gossip. These people are few and far between … but we desperately need the ‘Discerners’ in our group!
4. The body of Christ is suffering because the ‘Discerners’ tend to leave when they are not listened to. If we had more people with ‘a Word of Knowledge’ gift we find in Corinthians, we would have a different church scene today.
So please, if you are a ‘Discerner’, don’t leave the church scene or go underground with gossip! You are valuable in the Body of Christ more than ever today with all the counterfeit, watered down or blown up info we see around us!
Susanne Fengler, Blog Author
www.christianfoundations.jesus-treeoflife.info
Tags: judgement versus discernment
Filed under: Challenges to the Christian Faith, Christian Leadership Training
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