There’s been a lot of talk about missional listening this week. Firstly, because I’m doing a talk on it, and secondly because my doctorate research starts this week, based around discernment in missional listening. I get tremendous joy asking people questions like “how do you hear God?” or “when was the last time Jesus spoke to you and how did you feel?”. It’s so beautiful to watch people’s faces light up and words start to race as they get all excited about what God has and is doing.
So, for this reflection, I thought I’d share a few classic stories, all true but written in a way that disguises who they belong to and allows us to enter in. Hopefully we can connect with one or two of the stories:
Story 1: You’re getting to know the community; several people are at home alone unable to get out and about. Then, in a conversation, someone says that they are trained to visit those who are home alone and vulnerable. You know your time is limited, but care deeply and so pray “Is this something we should be doing?” Soon after another person, not knowing what was on your heart just randomly says that we need people to visit those at home…
Story 2: There’s just a sense that Church needs to grow, but you’re not sure how, and you’re nervous of upsetting what has always been. God gives you a picture of fire burning up the fields, and you know that fire is a sign of the Spirit, both burning up the old and preparing the ground for the new. Then another day someone else says that you were made to bring God’s fire. God is speaking and even though you know the journey is going to be tricky, you know the Spirit is with you.
Story 3: You’re worried about God’s provision for this new missional adventure, so you stop and pray. As you look up, quail appear from the fields around you, and you instantly know that, just as God did in the desert, he will provide for you now.
Story 4: You’re outside, walking along a muddy path with the breeze in your hair and sunlight dappling your face through the leaves above. You notice a squirrel running along the floor, mouth filled with a nut so big you can’t imagine how it’s carrying it, and you quietly watch as the squirrel darts this way and that, trekking its way back home. You breathe in and feel this is more than beauty, it’s home.
Story 5: The local foodbank is struggling to fill its shelves, especially with fresh food, and you have a community allotment overflowing with produce this year.
Story 6: You’re in your own small village noticing that people are finding their spirituality through the outdoors, and you tentatively start being Church together in creation through kids’ games and conversations around the Bible as you trek through the local woods, but you’re uncertain of whether this is God or even OK to be putting your time and energy into. You go to a local gathering of people in rural mission, and soon discover that many of them in the room are doing similar things, perhaps God is moving across the whole Church.
Story 7: However hard you try, people just don’t want to come into the Church building for anything other than a good Carol Service. As you talk to people you find that there are historical, practical and spiritual reasons why they will never cross the threshold of a Church building. So you start to meet in the village hall or in someone’s home, or even on a beach, and people start to gather.
Thank you for your stories. Missional listening isn’t just for the mystics, it’s deeply imbedded in our everyday lives. Let’s keep listening and discerning together.
Jo Allen
Director South West
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