Discerning Direction Together

God’s leading in our life is such a profound blessing.  It gets us out of bed in the morning, and provides us with the conviction and passion to keep going on challenging days.  This direction that the Holy Spirit provides is not for us alone, however, it is to be shared with the Body of Christ to impact our searching and hurting world who desperately need the grace and hope that only Jesus can give.  This process allows us to have a meaningful team conversation about where and how the Lord is leading us together in this season of ministry.  Let’s take a look at the process:

Step 1:  Develop your own Personal Direction Statement.

This is an online, video-guided process to reflect and draft your own Personal Direction Statement.  In addition to drafting the statement, the participant will be asked to share how they believe they are currently living into this statement, and the impact it would have on the team if they were do to more of this.  This is extremely critical as it facilitated the “I to We” mindset shift.  My direction impacts those around me.  How?  And it gives voice to each person on the team to share where they see the Lord leading the team together.

Step 2:  1:1 Conversation with the Team Leader.

Each person will meet with the Team Leader to discuss and sharpen their Personal Discernment Statement.  The Team Leader Guide walks the leader through the questions they can use to maintain a listening posture as they support each team member and provide the time and space to connect with this very personal statement.

Step 3:  Refining the Statement.

Whether through additional personal reflection, meeting with a coach, or through the conversation with the Team Leader, the team member will now spend time prayerfully sharpening their statement.  For many people, this may be the first time they have reflected on the fact that God has uniquely given them a passion, and that it has impact for the direction of the team.

Step 4: Team Facilitated Conversation.

The entire team will come together with 2 key ideas in mind:  1) Sharing of our Personal Direction Statement; 2) Listening to where the Lord is leading us together; and 3) Beginning to take action on where the Lord is leading us together.  Each of these process steps is critical in order for the listening posture that is to be maintained throughout the meeting.  Providing space for each person to share and listening for overlap of themes, people groups, and places will provide windows into where the Lord may be leading.  Prayerful listening to the Spirit will create clarity for the team as the shared direction is formulated.  And once the shared direction is created, then shifts in ministry focus must begin.  For some teams, this will be very minor shifts and more task / responsibility shifting.  For other ministries, this could be course altering conversations where new programs are births or sunsetted.   As we gather and listen to the Holy Spirit, we will be encouraged and challenged to see in a new way the reason that God has assembled this unique team.

Step 5: Complete the 6 Month Review.

Direction is not static.  The Holy Spirit is dynamic, and the leading of our team is an ongoing discernment process.  To this end, Discerning Direction Together has a 6-month prompt built in to update the questions to the individual for reflection, prompting another 1:1 with the team leader, and a shared experience as a team to review the progress as well as discern any further shifts or changes that the Holy Spirit may be prompting.  This also allows the Team Leader to see if he/she has been able to align team roles and responsibilities to better empower each individual to places of Joy, Power, and Fruit.

This is a powerful process.  It is important to remember, however, that it is not for every team.  The team leader must be willing to listen to the team in order to fully understand their shared direction.  If a team embarks on this journey without full commitment to the process, we run the risk of raising expectations of listening without the follow-through of necessary change.  Though there are certainly cautions that must be shared on the frontend, the joy of seeing people share something so personal is life-giving, and it provides the space for us to Discern Direction Together.

Here is a page that gives more overview information.

To learn how you can become a facilitator of Discerning Direction Together, checkout our EVENTS Page and look for PLUS or GRIP+ Facilitator Training.

To learn more about GRIP+, click here.