Report from ELI Training - Elder Sue Nelson-Brown

Beginning two weeks ago, continuing last week, and concluding today, we have a chance to hear reports from the three elders who joined me in attending the Elder Leadership Institute training in Estes Park, Colorado on October 15th-18th. This week, Sue Nelson-Brown, Elder for Evangelism, reflects upon the importance of spiritual discernment:

Wow, what an awesome experience to attend the Elder Leadership Institute in beautiful Estes Park, Colorado! The power packed seminars were different from any other religious training that I have ever attended. Our team came back home challenged and excited!

We learned that:

• Spiritual discernment should be a way of life, not just a tool or process for special times of decision making.
• A detailed Spiritual Discernment Process could be used by session and other teams to make decisions by group discernment. (Especially when a decision is likely to be difficult, controversial, or extremely important.)
• Session should look and operate differently from a business leadership group.

If Discernment strategies were utilized, Leadership would be impacted in two ways:

• Organizationally, by Incorporating the discernment process into our future Session meetings to encourage leaders to work together to follow God’s will and direction.
• Personally, by each leader “creating space” for unhurried, quiet time in a designated place and time daily.

My key take away is a quote from Rubin P. Job, “Discernment at its best is the consequence of a daily and life-time walk with God. A lifetime of such companionship produces profound results that range from guidance in decision making to transformation of one’s life. Living a life of discernment, then, is a simple process of staying attentive to and open to God in all of the active and contemplative times of our lives.”

We are on an exciting new path for Good Shepherd, and here’s how you can join us.

• Pray for your leaders to make decisions which honor God
• “Create space” in your daily life for a relationship with God. (Even if that time right now is just a few minutes in a locked bathroom or in the shower!)
• Share your “created space” with your small group.

Sue Nelson-Brown
Elder for Evangelism