It is no easy task to identify the best candidates for a leadership group. We cannot know what lies ahead and we may not accurately perceive the qualities needed to lead the community into the future. There may be people in our midst whose strengths we fail to recognize. Scripture records God consistently calling people to do things for which they are not the obvious choice — individuals who do not appear to have what is needed to do what would be required of them.

In light of this, once we make an informed logical determination, we need to offer our efforts to God and enter the flow of the Holy Spirit, ready to be carried to a place where God can broaden our perspective and enhance our insight. The process is likely to require two or three meetings. Set the tone for each meeting by beginning with at least two minutes — but better yet five or ten minutes —  of silence with the intention that everyone use that time to open their hearts and minds to the divine presence.

Below are some steps you may want to follow.

  1. Reflectively develop a list of the skills, areas of expertise, and personal qualities the leadership team will need.
  2. Looking through an entire list of eligible people, identify all of the people who could contribute to the combined needs of the leadership group.
  3. In an atmosphere of prayerful silence, with the needs you identified clearly in your minds, take time adequate for everyone to review the entire list of possible candidates with an eye to diversity and balance in terms of age, gender, conservative/liberal, long-time members versus more recent members of the community, and other groupings that need representation.
  4. Reflectively share thoughts, pausing between speakers to absorb what is being said. Allow for the possibility that some people might decline an invitation to serve. Continue until a slate of nominees and backups emerges and congeals.
  5. Next take a block of time (at least 20 minutes possibly as long as 45 minutes ) for individuals to offer to God all that that the group has done together. Hold it all in silence, letting creative associations percolate up from deep within — images from nature; passages or people from Scripture; paintings or sculpture; scenes or characters from a movie, TV program, or play; selections of music; analogies from sports or family life or history or politics.
  6. When it is time for the silence to conclude, allow the opportunity for all who want to share what has come to them. When a person says something that resonates, others can build on it. Stay with it until things come together, consensus emerges, and a sense of peace settles in.
  7. Then review the list of nominees in light of your time of group meditation, making modifications if indicated.
  8. Conclude with free and open prayers.

Listening Hearts DISCERNMENT LISTENING GUIDELINES provide good norms for a nominating group to use when seeking God’s guidance as it discerns candidates. These guidelines can be found in Appendix 1 of Grounded in God by Farnham, Hull, and McLean. They may also be accessed by going to the Listening Hearts Ministries website at https://listeninghearts.org/resources/discernment-listening-guidelines/. Click on Publications. Then click on the third bullet, which is the “Discernment Listening Guidelines.” Attractive laminated copies can be ordered from the Listening Hearts office by e-mailing listening@listeninghearts.org

God knows our deepest potential, sees the hidden complexities of our circumstances, comprehends our situation in relation to the larger picture, and grasps the broader implications of our plans. Discernment is our effort to tap into the flow of this divine wisdom.

– Grounded in God: Listening Hearts Discernment for Group Deliberations, Revised Edition, p. 5., Farnham, Hull, & McLean