As we draw towards the end of this blog series, there is one more theme that we want to explore more deeply. We’ve already mentioned a number of times that community, being part of a group of individuals who are open to God and open to each other, is an essential companion to any discernment process. The Scriptures that we take so seriously were written within a culture that knew nothing of the focus on the individual that we take for granted today. The assumption of those who wrote scripture was that the words would be read in communal gatherings, thought about together, argued about, and wrestled with. These communities would also have taken the wisdom that had been passed on to them by past generations far more seriously than we tend to today.

Discerning within community is also in very much our shared Baptist DNA. We have referred to the Baptist Declaration of Principle, which is the basis upon which the churches of the Baptist Union in Great Britain relate together. This makes discernment an essential community activity, but while each of us will have some heartening stories to tell about discernment done well within community, we are also honest enough to admit to the numerous occasions in which the spirit of our age has squashed the ability to draw upon the best features of a healthy community to discern well.

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Sin, if it is left to do its worst, will inevitably divide people into the smallest possible social units. If we allow ourselves to be swayed by our basest instincts, our judgmental thoughts and the law of the streets we will find ourselves ruled by jealousy, hatred, lust, bitterness, envy, greed and fear. Each of those passions will put barriers between us and others until every individual is alone in a self-righteous, self-serving, self-referential unit of One.

Craig writes: “as a pastor of a group of very different people I used to laugh at the wisdom of a God who welcomes individuals like me to himself, all of whom have grown used to thinking mainly of ourselves, and the first act he performs is to place us in a church where we are forced to work on building relationships with others with differing opinions who share a similar history! It has been said that you can choose your friends but not your family and nowhere is this more true than the church.

There are different ways to try and make such communities work. I recall a visit to a National Trust property some years ago, the original owners of which had a private chapel on the grounds. To the right and left of the altar were the ten commandments written on the walls in huge letters. The family would sit high on a balcony at the back of the church, which was only accessible from within the house. The staff were forced to attend every Sunday, sitting below the family and dressed in their Sunday best. The design and decoration of the building said it all – worship was a performative act and the religion that was being reinforced each week was about keeping the rules. And the rules painted on the walls in large script were religious texts used to ensure the social order remained intact.”

An extreme example? Yes, of course. But in the minds of many, not least a few conservative politicians who have declared this view publicly as a means of shutting up questioning Bishops, the main function of churches is to teach people how to behave. According to their own definition of course! Thankfully our Baptist heritage and our ecclesiology (our theology of church) tells us something entirely different.

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Roy points us to words written by John English who writes:

“There is no individual discernment outside a communal setting and no communal discernment without individual discernment. Each individual profits from the communal activity of discernment and the community profits from each individual’s discernment.”

If this ideal is still a potential possibility, still open to us despite the poor models offered to us by our culture, what can we do to ensure that our communities are places where good discernment really happens, where discussions generate more light than heat, and disagreements result in a better understanding of each other’s point of view rather than hardening us in our own fixed opinions? These are just some of the questions we will explore in this final part of our blog series.

If you are unfamiliar with the Baptist denomination, or just want to brush up on your Baptist history, you might find a recent podcast of ours useful. We interviewed Keith Jones, a noted Baptist historian, and you can find that conversation here.