Listen, Educate, Assess, Discern, Decide
Before and during General Conference 2012
Listen:
As you read the legislation allow your heart to hear the author’s desired outcome. First identify the points where you can affirm or agree with their desire, even if not agreeing with the means by which it would be fulfilled. Second, listen to your own heart, examining your own reactions to the legislation. Can you be stretched to hear the yearnings of others alongside your own hopes? Third, now listen to what God may be seeking to reveal to the church in our time. What might be God’s desired outcome? [A sampling of this approach can be done within your delegation as you prepare for active participation at General Conference 2012.] There are multiples voices seeking the attention of every delegate.
Educate:
Read all the related legislation, items directly connected to your legislative group as well as items that are assigned to other legislative groups but have direct impact or relationship to your areas of responsibility. Identify what the common threads are between pieces of legislation. What are the strengths of each piece? What are the weaknesses? Where are arguments connected to factual insights and where are they not?
Assess:
Because general conference seeks to address the whole church, global/regional/local, we attempt to assess impact and equity from the 30,000 foot view point as well as ground level. Following your process of listening and educating yourself on the legislative items before you, ask several questions of what you have discovered thus far. What is the stated need being addressed? What is the stated aim of the legislative action being proposed? Who will benefit most from this action in its current form? Who will be most marginalized or disenfranchised from the proposed action, both quantitatively and qualitatively? Who will implement the proposed action and how will they be held accountable for the larger good? Where do you discern God’s guidance for you at this point, recognizing that further dialogue at general conference may bring change to your understanding?
Discern:
A wise Spiritual Director once shared that there are multiple voices constantly seeking to gain your attention. Here are some of the many coming your way:
[Conference conversations — delegation meetings — pre-conference briefings …]
[Advance DCA — delegation meetings— mailings from concerns groups …]
[GC 2012 — Legislative Sections — hallway conversations — plenary sessions …]
Each may have something to offer or learn from. However, there is one primary voice that you need to listen most closely to. What is the deep inner voice of God’s guiding saying to you now? What is your desired outcome for General Conference 2012? How have your preparations above refined those desires? Where are the gray areas in the legislation for you? What questions do you need to raise for the good of the whole and for your own discernment? What statements do you feel you can make that will add to the discernment of others
Decide:
You were elected to take responsibility for helping decide the future shape and direction of God’s movement known as the United Methodist Church. Each time you move through the previous four steps you have opened yourself to a greater insight and understanding of how the whole body, and each part, sees the pathway forward. Yet, only you can finally decide where you have been guided to offer insight, vote and own the decisions of General Conference 2012. Leadership is taking seriously enough the discernment process so that one can live with the decision one makes in the process even though one cannot fully control the outcome. Discernment in the setting of holy conversation is about the integrity of inner and outer decision-making.
