Churches have to make decisions on a whole host of things. ‘Who should we appoint as a pastor or elder or deacon?’ ‘Should we spend money on this building project?’ ‘Does it have to be a man who is doing this?’
How does God want us to make such decisions?
The starting point is that the church belongs to God, not to us; he shed his own blood to buy it for himself (Acts 20:28) so we are seeking God’s will not our own.
How do we discern God’s will for his church?
God’s will is revealed to us in the Bible. As theologians put it, the Bible is sufficient, meaning that in the Bible God has told us everything we need to know in order to discern his will for his church in every decision we make. We need to pray that we can understand and apply the Bible’s teaching correctly to decisions we face but we never need to ask God to give us an additional revelation about what to do!
Who in the church is involved in discerning God’s will and how do they go about it?
Different churches have understood the Bible’s teaching on this matter differently. This article reflects the convictions of churches, like the one I serve, which are led by a group of elders but believe that all church members have a part to play in discerning God’s will. When we try and answer this question, we are all applying the principles we believe the Bible teaches.
Here are some key principles.
Firstly, we have to understand that we live under the New Covenant. One of the glories of the New Covenant is that all God’s people know him (Jer. 31:31-34). This is closely linked with the fact that, under the New Covenant, God’s Spirit has been poured out on all his people (Joel 2:28-29). The consequence of this is that we are all able to discern spiritual truth (1 Cor. 2:14-16).
Secondly, we need to recognise that the elders of a local church have been appointed to that position because they are particularly gifted at understanding the teaching of the Bible and applying that teaching to the life of God’s people (1 Tim. 3:1-7). This means we should expect that all Christians, every member of the church, have something to contribute as we seek to discern God’s will for the church, while the elders have a leading part to play in this.
Thirdly, the New Testament teaches that local churches are able to discern God’s will without outside help. This is clearly taught in Acts 14:23 where the apostles don’t impose any requirement that the newly planted churches ask for direction from other churches before they make decisions. They are not told to ask the sending church, Antioch, nor the first church in Jerusalem what they should do. No, Paul and Barnabas are convinced that the Lord’s help will be quite sufficient for them to discern his will themselves.
Putting it all together
As local churches we have to put the pieces of the jigsaw together. A great way to consider this is to look at how one local church goes about doing it when faced with a particular decision. In Acts 6:1-7 a problem has arisen in the way that food is being distributed to those in need within the church. Clearly this is a job for the church leadership to ‘sort out’ but the church leaders, here the Apostles, recognise that the commission they have received from Jesus means their role is particularly to teach the Bible and pray (Acts 6:2,4).
That is still the case: the elders of a local church are to give their attention to prayer and the ministry of the Word. The church leaders must not be the ones to make sure that the food distribution is fair or to actually distribute the food. However they are convinced from the Bible that the task is an important one, so they propose a solution, the appointment of godly men to take responsibility for this job (v3) and they involve the whole church in the decision. We read that ‘this proposal pleased the whole group’, and then we read of the men that the church selected to take on the responsibility (v5-6).
If we take a step back and look at the whole process, several things stand out. Firstly, the twelve clearly take a lead: leaders must lead. Secondly, we see that they lead in submission to what Jesus taught them; in this case that meant accepting that prayer and the ministry of the Word must be central to their ministry. Thirdly, we see that the twelve have great confidence that the Spirit can enable the entire congregation to play their part in discerning God’s will; in this case by appointing godly men to take responsibility for this area of the church’s life. Fourthly, we see that God was powerfully able to enable them to be united as a church in discerning his will.
God has not changed: in 2024 his Spirit can enable the church you are part of in Wales or anywhere else to follow the example of that church in Jerusalem in discerning his will.