A Process for Moral Discernment in Complex Times

What do we do for the person who needs help, and isn't sure how to ask for it? Should we ask this person to serve in this role or not? What do we do with our friend who has violated our trust? The moral questions we face are often complex and challenging. How does a Christian community actually approach these tricky situations?

I've faced them as a pastor and I've faced them as an ethicist. In both roles, one of my sustaining hopes for the church is that it is a God-created community that lives the dynamics of a world being made new by God. That means, of course, that we'll need ways of dealing with the challenges that come our way. Our times are complex and there is no shortage of ways on offer of how we should handle tricky situations.

Christian communities would rightly look to Scripture when looking for a pathway of moral discernment, but what do we do when there isn't a hand-in-glove answer to this situation in Scripture?

These are the basic steps for moral discernment I work out in more detail in my book Christian Ethics, part of the Wesleyan Theology Series from The Foundry Publishing. I've also talked over these at PALCON and some other clergy trainings, but thought I'd open it up to others here. The book also offers discernment guides on contemporary moral challenges like politics, race, sex, economics, biomedical decisions, and more.

Of course, discernment is different from debate. Debate is when one person seeks to win the argument. Discernment is when a community seeks to be faithful. I hope these steps will help you do just that.

1) Begin with prayer, asking for wisdom and humility. Pray the Lord’s Prayer, with a reminder that we too have trespassed. We don't occupy morally flawless ground when we discern, especially when another has trespassed against us. Remind and recall God’s redemptive activity in the world. Remind the group we are joining this situation to God’s redemptive work.

2) Have someone in the group provide a written account of the situation. Ask the group if it is a faithful account. Differentiate between fact and conjecture. Once the account is clear, listen to it be read again.

3) Take time for the group to recall and tell stories about Jesus that remind them of this situation. It won't be a perfect fit to your situation, but as you consider your situation, what are the stories that lead you to say, “This reminds me of when Jesus…”

4) Ask the group to share what they've heard in these stories. What themes emerge what Jesus says or does? What did you hearing him calling the community to in those stories? Then ask, “What does the way of Jesus look like in this situation?”

Then, friends, it's time to act. Every ethical challenge calls for action at some point or another, and we don't always have the luxury of acting with complete assurance that our decision will be flawless. That's why we are invited to look back and continue asking, was that course of action faithful to Jesus? If not, what do we need to change to make it so?

My Tips on Preparing for Board of Ministry Interviews

While this will largely be specific to those in my home denomination, the Church of the Nazarene, it may be helpful to others who are discerning a call to vocational ministry. One of the joyful parts of my work in ministry these days is serving on something called the Board of Ministry, a group of those who are charged with helping those in ministerial training toward ordination. I’m also charged with educationally training a lot of those who are in the process of preparing for ordination, and pastorally, some of my work is coaching those in my congregation toward ordination, so I sit at an intersection that has evoked a passion for helping people prepare well.

Here, then, is some of what I offer to the people I’m trying to help along the way. Specifically, this is advice I offer to my friends who are preparing for a licensing or ordination interview. In our tradition, the interview tends to be the primary point of evaluation of a person’s preparation for receiving a license or being ordained, so my comments have that in view here:

1) Be honest and open – This is a process of discernment, and discernment works best when you are open about where you are. Consider those in the room partners in discerning a divine call, and work with them in being honest. Additionally, when you enter with a spirit of openness, committees don’t feel like they need to dig to discover more about who you are.

2) Bring your questions – Interviews are good points to get your questions answered, especially if your situation is complicated, or you haven’t been able to get answers to questions about your process.

3) Read over the Articles of Faith – Maybe you’ve seen them a bunch of times before, but I recommend you be able to talk coherently about each one.

4) Become familiar with Scripture – You don’t have to have verses memorized word for word, but if you can paraphrase with familiarity (“As Paul says in Romans…”) will really help make these connections. Tip: The Articles of Faith each have Scripture references. If you don’t know where to find passages, start there.

5) Practice! – Yes, it might feel a bit strange, but don’t let the interview be the first time you talk this through. Practicing with a friend or by yourself will give you more confidence and clarity. If you get tripped up or notice any gaps, focus there, and work with a mentor to fill any of that in.

6) Bonus tip - I love to ask candidates about how the doctrine they've studied are working in their ministry areas, mainly because it helps us reflect on how important this work is and how it isn't disconnected from God's presence. If you can answer that in relationship to, say, the doctrine of the Trinity, you may just find some encouragement for you minsitry while making vital theological connections.

So what should you practice?

While it certainly isn’t an exhaustive list and every district may want something a bit different, here are some topics that come up quite a bit:

• Scripture – What do Wesleyans believe it is and how it functions? Is it ‘inerrant’?

• Holiness – What is it, how does it relate to God and humans?

• Sanctification – What is sanctification and how does it work? Special emphasis on your own journey and personal passion for sanctification is always a step toward openness in the discernment process.

• Talk about your call to ministry and your long term plans. Why do you need to pursue ordination to fulfill this calling?

• Spiritual Formation – What are you doing to engage in formation?

• Discipleship – How do you understand making disciples?

• Soteriology/Salvation – How do you understand the dynamics of Christian salvation in the Wesleyan tradition?

• Sin – What is sin and how does it affect the human person? What happens with sin in our salvation?

I hope this will help you as you prepare to take the next steps in the discernment journey. If you’d like me to pray for you in that journey, feel free to drop me a line.

New Book Outline

Here's the outline of the book I'll be finishing up over the next few weeks. Of course, writing projects can sometimes take on a life of their own, but so far, this one is staying pretty close to outline.

Introduction – “What Shall I Say In Return to the Lord?”

The introduction turns to the Psalms as it opens a pathway toward reading Scripture as an invitation to a dynamic of ‘inspired’ modes of doing theology. Theological method will be presented as giving attention to the dynamism of divine activity. Rather than treating method as insipid prolegomena on the way to doing theology, this approach likens method to an invitation to dance lessons; method is learning the capacities necessary to move well in response to God. Theologians are invited to a methodological sensibility embodied in the lives of our biblical ancestors who moved responsively, albeit sometimes clumsily, to divine operation. I will also address a few subtle matters of biblical inspiration, hermeneutical strategies, and the use of biblical texts for the purpose of methodological reflection.

Chapter 1 – Jeremiah: On Not Knowing How to Word

Jeremiah’s own story of responding to God in words begins with his confession that he doesn’t know how to speak. Engaging methodological themes of epistemology and humility, this chapter holds young Jeremiah’s response up as a virtue of theological work, and offers a sense of humility as a vision of the starting point for doing the work of theology.

Chapter 2 – Jacob: On Wrestling

The work of theology doesn’t need to shy away from the struggle of wrestling. What if wrestling was embraced as part of the journey? What if theologians were those whose gait was blessed with a limp, an identifying marker of their encounter with a living God? A life of theology will not be a life free from wrestling with the biggest questions facing humans. Wrestling is our method.

Chapter 3 – Sarah: On Laughing

Theology can be done as laughter, with attention turned to what God is doing in the world. Theology done without laughter has probably missed the joy of its task. Sarah was moved to laughter by the strange activity of God, and theology can be done like this, too. This chapter also examines what happens when theology loses its sense of humor. As one who is moved to laughter by God’s activity, Sarah teaches us well, and we can learn to laugh with her.

Chapter 4 – Moses: On Morality

The methodological relationship between theology and ethics is often close to, but just under the surface of theological work. When theology turns to the question of ‘How now shall we live?’ the methods of correlation between theological reflection and moral reasoning bear the weight. In this chapter, then, we’ll look to the life of Moses and the way morality and divine encounter are situated alongside one another. The arrival of the Decalogue follows closely behind divine encounter, and the methodological importance of this ordering is substantial.

Chapter 5 – Miriam: On Courage

Picking up her tambourine and singing a song of deliverance into the winds of the wilderness, Miriam offers a profile in theological courage. She tells the story of God’s movement and faithfulness with an eschatological song in her mouth, giving us the opportunity to learn how themes of eschatology might be methodologically incorporated into one’s theological work, woven together with hope.

Chapter 6 – Isaiah: On Being Undone

Isaiah’s ministry begins with speaking to a particular people, in a particular place, making this a chapter on the role of context in the work of theology. Ultimately, though, Isaiah’s story models the way divine encounter and context gesture to the work of theologians. He is ‘undone’ by his encounter with God’s call to speak to his people, and so this chapter will examine the theologian as one who speaks in context, working God-words for their people in their time, being ‘undone.’

Chapter 7 – Mary: On Pondering

While the public life of a theologian is often visible, Mary’s example of pondering provides a striking response to divine encounter, and especially the call to be a ‘God-bearer.’ This chapter examines the vital place of pondering, inwardness, and contemplation in the life and work of the theologian.

Chapter 8 – John the Baptist: On Standing at the Edge

The work of a theologian can be edgy. Theologians can often be pressed to the edges of categories, expectations, and popular movements, and yet this is where we find John the Baptist, as one crying out in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. The work of theology can often be wilderness work, and it will often be decentered from the places of attention, but it is precisely there that a theologian can work well, crying out in preparation for the Lord. We’ll deal here with issues of theology’s place in the academy and society, looking especially at methods from the 19th century onward that sought to make theology a ‘respectable’ enterprise.

Chapter 9 – The Woman Wiping Jesus’s Feet: On Service and Praise

An unnamed woman can teach us a lot about responding to the divine. While theologians are known for the words they craft in response to the divine Word, this woman opens to us an example of the theologically reflective life that centers service and praise as the work of theology. We will let her enliven our imagination for a way of doing theology that results in service and praise.

Chapter 10 – Thomas: On Doubting

Though he is most often known for his doubt, Thomas has more to teach us. John’s narration of Thomas’s theological journey begins with zealous certainty, transforms to questions, moves to suspicion, and ultimately to confession of faith. Theologians in many stages of growth can find a friend in Thomas, from those who have undertaken the work of theology in earnest and urgent naiveté, to those who have entered a season of genuine questioning, to those who operate from postures of suspicion. By turning to Thomas, this chapter examines the role of earnestness, questioning, doubt, and confession in the work of theology.

Chapter 11 – Martha: On Grieving

Theology often happens at points of grief, loss, or trauma. Various methods in modern theology have grown out of experiences of oppression or death, and Martha’s story not only evokes such approaches to theology, but reminds us of their potential. Fresh off the loss of her brother, Martha confronts Jesus with his absence in an honest moment of pain. Her approach yields a fascinating display of divine faithfulness as Jesus joins her in her grief, and then opens a new reality. With Martha as our witness, we will examine the potential of doing the work of theology in the midst of grief, sorrow, or trauma. Ultimately, Martha’s ‘method’ allows her to witness the dynamic redemption of divine activity, without dismissing her grief.

Chapter 12 – Nicodemus: On Doing Theology at Night

Methodologically speaking, Nicodemus’s choice to approach Jesus at night invites us to examine the dynamics that emerge when a person in a powerful position begins to have his theological categories reoriented by an encounter with Jesus. Under the cover of darkness, a reorientation unfolds, culminating in one of John’s most profound gospel affirmations: “For God so loved the world…” This chapter turns to Nicodemus as a theological mentor who, having been placed in a powerful position of theological authority, covertly allows the knowledge and power he had to be reoriented by an encounter with the Word made flesh.

Conclusion

We’ll conclude with suggesting a few ongoing practices for a theologian, including prayer, community embeddedness, and practices of examination.