"Grounded In God"
Discernment Workshop For Search Committees
Overview
This workshop has been created to introduce the spiritual consensus-based approach to the group's deliberations and decision-making for this specific setting. Committee members will learn methods for conducting their meetings where they incorporate our Discernment Listening Guidelines into the process. As a result of attending our program, the group's approach to making choices is opened up to the life-giving, life-changing power of the Spirit.

The workshop builds on the Discernment Listening Guidelines contained in our publication, Grounded in God. The group learns to incorporate a new approach, moving away from a strictly secular, Robert's Rules of Order way of doing business. Group members find themselves growing closer to God and to one another as they begin to prepare for the important task ahead of them. As a result of attending our program, the group's approach to making choices is opened up to the life-giving, life-changing power of the Spirit.

Intended Audience
The Search Committee workshop is a one-day program designed to prepare a pastoral search committee to carry out its work of identifying and calling a new minister in a spirit of true spiritual discernment. The program can easily be adapted for search committees charged with identifying candidates for other types of church offices.

Program Content Summary
The agenda blends a variety of activities that draw participants directly into the learning process. An overview of the basic concepts underlying spiritual discernment is presented to give attendees a common reference point. The Discernment Listening Guidelines are reviewed and discussed. The group then formulates its own unique question for discernment directly related to its particular search objective. From there, participants begin to experience first hand the concepts being covered as they work to arrive at spiritual consensus on the topic. A selection of hymns and prayers that complement the presentations and exercises are included at multiple points in the program. Opportunities for participants to share their reflections with other attendees help to round out the workshop.
[ Back to Programs ]