Leadership

A Chicago-based PBS station, WTTW, airs a well-known Sunday evening broadcast, “Thirty Good Minutes on Sunday.” The program invites insightful and creative preachers to offer a sermon followed by a brief interview. I occasionally listen to these provocative sermons online. They often speak a new word into my experience of reality. After all the high points and some tension points in Columbus, Ohio, 30 good seconds on Saturday stand out to me as most memorable. They were 30 seconds of silent listening and discernment at the end of Mennonite Church USA Convention 2009.

Structuring the agenda for a general assembly is no easy task. When I was a kid and my father saw me drinking a bottle of pop, he often said, “That’s like putting a quart in a pint.”

Getting all the agenda into the schedule for a meeting that happens every two years feels the same. The listening committee received consistent affirmation for the leadership our moderators provided during these sessions.

Over the course of the convention, a holy longing among the delegates became palpable to the listening committee. By the end of the week, this longing developed into a strong and consistent theme: the sequential activity of receiving reports early in the week and making up-or-down decisions on resolutions with the clock running down seemed out of kilter with the kind of discernment that our daily discipline of Dwelling in the Word patterned for us. I took this unsettledness as a sign that a missional culture—centered in the discipline of spiritual discernment—is slowly emerging among us unawares and calling for a new way to do our business.

For our final report, the listening committee engaged the delegates in a final experience of discernment. We asked the delegates to spend 30 seconds in silence listening to the Spirit and asking whether they would characterize their overall experience best by offering an affirmation, words of counsel or a recommendation. We then gave the delegates the remaining time to craft a common statement from their table of affirmation, counsel or a recommendation they wanted to offer the Executive Board in 50 words or less.

Though there were some high moments and low moments, it was during those 30 seconds of silence and the discernment that followed that our church came in closest contact with its missional identity. The feedback from table groups had strong and consistent themes, the bulk of which fell in the category of affirmations.

There was strong and consistent affirmation that this is the church to which these delegates want to belong. As one table group reported, “We affirm that this is the church we want to be a part of and want our children to be a part of. It must continue to be a discerning church open to the counsel of all parts, both inside the delegate hall and outside.” There was strong affirmation for worshipful work and Dwelling in the Word. “We … see our church poised to be attractive to other people and other Christians. We experienced respect for differences and sensitivity to those on the margins.” Or in the words of another table, “We affirm the Christ-centered nature of delegate meetings, exemplified by worship/song and Dwelling in the Word studies, reminding us of our unity and commonality.” Also among the comments was the call for more substantial discernment: “We need a setting to discuss difficult issues. This format where we only have 10 minutes to share or dialogue doesn’t work.”

These 30 good seconds on Saturday provided provocative insights. One of the important learnings is that to be a missional people means we will not do business as usual or in models adopted from the world. We need to spend time listening to what the Spirit is saying to the church and invite the emerging sense to inform our business. Even taking 30 seconds to “breathe in” can dramatically reframe what is happening as the voice of the Spirit emerges in our midst.

David Boshart is lead pastor of West Union Mennonite Church, Parnell, Iowa, and a member of the Mennonite Church USA Executive Board.