A Lenten Relational Discernment Process

In Fall 2019, I led Park Hill United Church of Christ (PHUCC) through a Relational Discernment Campaign. The congregation was actively engaged and energized by the deepening of relationships with one another as both a foundation and practice for discerning their next steps in ministry. During our time together, I witnessed four primary ways the congregation is responding to the movement of the Holy Spirit:

1. Ready to learn and grow;
2. Engaged in learning where the Holy Spirit resides and how to listen to Spirit;
3. Desiring to integrate church and life, to define and name their ministry (individually and collectively), and to learn how to be in relationship to live out their faith; and
4. Ready to be a public witness to their faith

In preparation for a second phase together during Lent, all who were interested in co-creating the process where invited to a Second Hour session after worship on January 12, 2020. With 24 PHUCC members and staff, we affirmed these four ways the congregation is responding to the Holy Spirit and developed ideas for the next phase.We co-created four focus areas for this second phase of relational discernment:

1. To continue to deepen relationships within and beyond the congregation;
2. To identify individual and collective gifts and talents for ministry within the congregation, including vocational framing for congregants’ work and lives;
3. To purposefully connect people to relationships and opportunities where they can share their gifts and talents in ministry; and
4. To learn how to speak about one’s faith motivations behind what they do and how they live in the world (e.g.: work, community leadership, volunteering, etc.).

One important concern of the congregation was a desire to use multiple modalities to meaningfully engage a diversity of people within the congregation. During the fall we met during Second Hour after worship every other week. However, for this Lenten journey we are engaging various methods, including: worship and preaching, Second Hour every Sunday, a month-long dinner series hosted at members’ homes, and a culminating Saturday retreat.Within these multiple contexts, we will engage a variety of methods, including: relational meetings with prompts; small group discussion; narrative storytelling; ritual; exercises; and scripture, readings, and multimedia resources.We start with the Ash Wednesday Service, this week on February 26th, at 7 pm, at Park Hill UCC in Denver, where we will engage one-to-one relational confession, imposition of ashes combined with anointing with Juniper Formation's Prophetic Renewal anointing oil. Together, we seek to respond to God's Call through drawing closer to God and one another, deepening our spiritual practices and awareness, and revitalizing the ministries of the Church.With support and permission from PHUCC, I'll be live blogging throughout the process. Our shared hope is that this will provide: 1) Ongoing reflection and engagement with the congregation, and inclusion for those who may not be able to be physically present for all parts of the process; and 2) An opportunity for a wider audience to learn more in depth about Juniper Formation's approach.You can join us on our journey at Juniper Formation's Inspirations multimedia blog, where I will attempt to put words to the movement of the Holy Spirit through narratives of reflective practice. You may also subscribe to Juniper Formation’s blog posts and newsletter.