Children sitting in Quaker worship, or those new to Quaker meeting, might wonder "How long do you have to sit in the silence in order to hear God?"
This week at New England Yearly Meeting, a gathering of about 700 Friends in Vermont, there are many opportunities to sit in silence. There's the half hour of silent worship from 6:30-7:00 am, which for the past two mornings has been held outside and offered views of mist-wrapped hills. That silence is designed to stoke the coals of the Spirit.
There's the minute of silence observed at the end of workshops, like the scant minute at the end of an impassioned presentation and discussion on the situation in Gaza. That kind of silence is designed to toss water on flaring embers of the human spirit, and to remind us why we sit in silence together.
We do not, after all, gather in Quaker fellowship to listen to each other. As Susan Smith points out in this piece on Quaker Process, we gather to discern God's will for our group. At the Quaker meeting for worship for business this morning, we met with the intention of hearing God's message to our corporate body, not what He had to say to each of us individually.
Writes Smith:
"Friends believed that people who seek and follow God’s will for a given situation are automatically brought into unity with each other, because God does not offer contradictory instructions for the same situation."
But how long does all this listening take? What if the right course of action doesn't spring into the group conscious, and continues not to? There are, in fact, items which have been on the agenda of the Yearly Meeting for years.
I submit that Quakers might take a page from both Romans and from the entrepreneur's handbook. It's actually kind of the same page.
Romans 12:2 says (ESV)
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
This could be paraphrased as "Disregard the status quo- think outside the box, and tinker until you find the right path, the path that God made for you." This is basically how entrepreneurs behave, though God might not be foremost in their thoughts. What is foremost in their thoughts is listening- trying to discern a need around them that is not being met.
Today David Brooks writes about James Mwangi, a Kenyan entrepreneur who started Equity Bank, offering savings accounts to poor Kenyans. The bank met a need, but for the first several years it struggled, losing money each year. But things changed, Kenyans began earning more money, and today the bank holds nearly half Kenya's bank accounts.
Mwangi must have had an inkling that a bank was a good idea. But he didn't know it would work well, and in fact it didn't for a long time. But he rolled up his sleeves, and began "testing" in order to "discern" what was the right path to follow in his goal to create a successful business and provide a valuable service.
Quakers should be similarly willing to jump into the game before we know whether something will be a shoe in. Let's not let our hair turn gray while we wait for God to make his entire will clear. Let's act on the first step, then tinker with the live project as we go.
Where should Quakers roll up our sleeves?
-by writing a replacement for the FUM personnel policy which honors gay and lesbian Friends. It may not be perfect, but it will continue the conversation.
-publish goals regarding church planting in cities, giving each Monthly Meeting a charge to start a Worship Group in a nearby town, since today's seekers are looking for a faith community based in town, not in countryside.
-Try a completely new budget plan which involves less charitable giving, in order to balance the budget, and commits Friends to a year of turning that energy inward to strengthen Meetings themselves: let those who want to lead take a role in adult education. Lead Faith and Practice study groups. Have retreats at the Meetinghouse, in tents in the backyard, rather than flying off to Cuba or England for an exciting tour of Quaker history. We can just as well test the will of God by examining and rearranging our own backyards as by examining the yards of distant neighbors.
This week at New England Yearly Meeting, a gathering of about 700 Friends in Vermont, there are many opportunities to sit in silence. There's the half hour of silent worship from 6:30-7:00 am, which for the past two mornings has been held outside and offered views of mist-wrapped hills. That silence is designed to stoke the coals of the Spirit.
There's the minute of silence observed at the end of workshops, like the scant minute at the end of an impassioned presentation and discussion on the situation in Gaza. That kind of silence is designed to toss water on flaring embers of the human spirit, and to remind us why we sit in silence together.
We do not, after all, gather in Quaker fellowship to listen to each other. As Susan Smith points out in this piece on Quaker Process, we gather to discern God's will for our group. At the Quaker meeting for worship for business this morning, we met with the intention of hearing God's message to our corporate body, not what He had to say to each of us individually.
Writes Smith:
"Friends believed that people who seek and follow God’s will for a given situation are automatically brought into unity with each other, because God does not offer contradictory instructions for the same situation."
But how long does all this listening take? What if the right course of action doesn't spring into the group conscious, and continues not to? There are, in fact, items which have been on the agenda of the Yearly Meeting for years.
I submit that Quakers might take a page from both Romans and from the entrepreneur's handbook. It's actually kind of the same page.
Romans 12:2 says (ESV)
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
This could be paraphrased as "Disregard the status quo- think outside the box, and tinker until you find the right path, the path that God made for you." This is basically how entrepreneurs behave, though God might not be foremost in their thoughts. What is foremost in their thoughts is listening- trying to discern a need around them that is not being met.
Today David Brooks writes about James Mwangi, a Kenyan entrepreneur who started Equity Bank, offering savings accounts to poor Kenyans. The bank met a need, but for the first several years it struggled, losing money each year. But things changed, Kenyans began earning more money, and today the bank holds nearly half Kenya's bank accounts.
Mwangi must have had an inkling that a bank was a good idea. But he didn't know it would work well, and in fact it didn't for a long time. But he rolled up his sleeves, and began "testing" in order to "discern" what was the right path to follow in his goal to create a successful business and provide a valuable service.
Quakers should be similarly willing to jump into the game before we know whether something will be a shoe in. Let's not let our hair turn gray while we wait for God to make his entire will clear. Let's act on the first step, then tinker with the live project as we go.
Where should Quakers roll up our sleeves?
-by writing a replacement for the FUM personnel policy which honors gay and lesbian Friends. It may not be perfect, but it will continue the conversation.
-publish goals regarding church planting in cities, giving each Monthly Meeting a charge to start a Worship Group in a nearby town, since today's seekers are looking for a faith community based in town, not in countryside.
-Try a completely new budget plan which involves less charitable giving, in order to balance the budget, and commits Friends to a year of turning that energy inward to strengthen Meetings themselves: let those who want to lead take a role in adult education. Lead Faith and Practice study groups. Have retreats at the Meetinghouse, in tents in the backyard, rather than flying off to Cuba or England for an exciting tour of Quaker history. We can just as well test the will of God by examining and rearranging our own backyards as by examining the yards of distant neighbors.
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