In a world filled with solutions, opinions, and advice, listening is one of the most important gifts we can offer one another. It is an act of healing and vision. For people of faith and their communities, the gift of listening to both one another and to God offers individuals a path to spiritual renewal and gives congregations a vision of identity. In a time when congregations are experiencing rapid decline and facing great uncertainty, learning to listen to one another to discern God's way for the future of our faith communities may be one of the most important acts churches can do. For this reason, Pastor Chad Abbott and I wrote a book called Incline Your Ear: Cultivating Spiritual Awakening in Congregations.
God Still Speaks
Pastor Abbott and I pastor in a denomination (UCC) that believes “God still speaks.” This phrase is not just a slogan or a denominational campaign. It expresses the reality that God is far more mysterious and far-reaching than we can comprehend. While the Bible remains the primary source of revelation for Christians, God still reveals himself to us in this world, in cultures unimaginable in the ancient world. As our good friend Pastor Mike Mather likes to say, “God doesn't stop speaking just because the books are printed.”
Listen with your heart
If God is still speaking, we need to find ways to listen deeply, to “listen with the ears of our hearts,” as St. Benedict of Nursia said.
Benedict's idea of hearing with more than just the ears is key. While in modern medicine the heart is primarily seen as a vital organ of the body, the heart as a metaphor has even greater meaning. Phrases such as “be courageous” and “speak from the heart,” learning something “by heart,” and conversing “heart to heart” all point to an understanding that the heart is the seat of emotion. In ancient Egypt, it was believed that the human soul was made up of different parts of the body, but the key to the soul and the afterlife was the heart, because the heart is the seat of emotion, will, and intention.
The heart is a metaphor for our deepest passions, especially our longing for community and belonging with God. Because the heart is such a powerful metaphor for understanding community and belonging, Benedict rightly invites us to listen with the ears of our hearts.
We will be publishing further excerpts in future blog posts. From our book Listening: Cultivating Spiritual Awareness in the Congregation From Fortress Press How congregations can hear God’s voice .
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