Discernment as a Spiritual Practice
Dimensions of Discernment [1]
My family has been deep in a discernment process for some time, so this one feels especially personal. Beyond the personal, though, discernment has taken an increasingly central role in my understanding of missional theology. There are plenty of sources to cite in support of this understanding, but properly demonstrating the centrality of discernment for missional theology would require an ambitious argument. Instead, in this series, I simply want to note the significance of discernment from a few different angles that have been important to me in recent years. Think of this as an overture.
Tradition
Discernment is deeply rooted in Christian tradition. Scripture contains a rich vocabulary connected with discernment (which deserves its own examination). Traveling this linguistic path puts one in the realm of wisdom and ethics. Above all, Christian discernment is a spiritual practice that assumes the God of Israel incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth has a particular will that human beings may perceive.
Intentionality
Perception, however, is no accident. As a practice, discernment stands among the many spiritual exercises that Christianity has developed in response to God's will. It is faith's intentional pursuit of both practical and theological understanding.1 As such, discernment involves specific approaches to the process of perception.
I've found no better guide to practical discernment than Elizabeth Liebert's The Way of Discernment: Spiritual Practices for Decision Making. This book was uniquely helpful as I wrestled with a recent major life decision because, when it comes to actually deciding, God’s will is often difficult to perceive. So how do we discern? Discernment is a spiritual gift in one sense.2 But it is more than an endowed capacity. Like all spiritual gifts, it is a practice. It is intentional.
Habit
Ideally, discernment becomes a habit for Christians. In other words, practice leads to habituation. Decisions of all kinds become opportunities for intentionally discerning God's will.
Of course, the habituation of discernment might (but need not!) lead to the overspiritualization of minor decisions. What brand of deodorant should I buy? Should I get tacos or a burrito? (Why not both?!)3 This is not an exaggeration. I've met people whose spiritual fervor has produced an unhealthy vision of God as the cosmic micromanager. Every detail of their existence has become a function of God's will. This is not what I have in mind.
Instead, the habit of discernment is about reflexive attentiveness to the fact that we are not autonomous individuals whose decisions God simply blesses. We are free individuals whose bad decisions God often redeems, and we should take comfort in that truth, but as Christians, we are more fundamentally a community that sincerely prays, "Your will be done," and seeks the kingdom. And discernment is all about seeking the kingdom.
I've written elsewhere that the two interests of discernment are, broadly, "what God is calling us to do and how should we understand God’s purposes" (Greg McKinzie, "Discernment as the Missional Church’s Way of Life," Scripture & Mission, https://scriptureandmission.com/2023/08/30/missional-discernment-part-2/).
1 Cor 12:10 includes “the discernment of spirits” (diakriseis pneumatōn) in “the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor 12:7). The qualifier “of spirits” might suggest that a specific kind of discernment is in view, but the term disakrisis also invites a wider vision of discernment (see, e.g., Heb 5:14).
I should add that, of course, such decisions can be consequential. Perhaps a certain deodorant manufacturer uses child labor. Perhaps I shouldn't get tacos and a burrito because gluttony is a vice. Nonetheless, spiritual discernment is not spiritual neuroticism.