Many times we wonder what is the will of God.  For his wills that are written clearly in the Bible, we don’t need to guess. But for other situations, we have to discern God’s will. I have a lot to say in this topic but today I want to limit the scope to a church.  I believe that the basic attitude in spiritual discernment is being humble: the humility that comes from the realization that a mere human is not capable of discerning God’s will alone. Therefore, I believe that discernment of God’s will should be found from collective minds within a community, not from one person. For the same reason, I had sought for the church community’s consent before I accepted the offer for a senior pastor position at Hanmaum church. I learned later that Hanmaum church at the time did not have the church membership policy so anyone was able to vote including the visitors and non-believers. It is mystical to me that everyone still voted to accept me as a pastor. Hanmaum church gave everyone in the church voting rights at the time because the church members have long been like family. So it was difficult to exclude some members from voting.  But I think this can become problematic later on.

  Whether someone has faith or not, we should love everyone in the church like a family. And there are situations where faith does not need to be a gauging factor when making common sense decisions such as the matter of transparency in church financials and administrative tasks. In such cases, we should listen to everyone in the church. However, when making decisions based on the discernment of God’s will, it is a different story.  This is because there is a clear-cut difference between the Christian values and non-Christian values. This creates a gap that cannot be closed when making decisions.  So a church needs a standard way to distinguish the members who can discern God’s will from others.  Otherwise church will not move in the right direction when seeking God’s will.

  In consideration of this, I had a hope to establish requirements for becoming a church member when I became a pastor for this church. There were three requirements: completion of Living Life seminar, completion of Jesus Acceptance Meeting, and attending Mokjang. Out of three, I considered the completion of Jesus Acceptance Meeting the most important because it was a way of officially declaring and reconfirming faith in Jesus in front of church members. This was why I asked each one of Hanmaum church members to attend the Jesus Acceptance Meeting at least once. However, it did not happen as I hoped for, and the church still has not even established the basic minimum requirement for membership. So all I have left to verify and discern God’s will is the meeting between Mokja and Mokyeo. Other than that our church does not have any other alternative, which is clearer, safer and proven. Whenever I have issues demanding confirmation and verification, I bring it out to the Mokja meeting, and discern God’s will by praying together.

  However, I am not saying that I honor only the Mokjas and the Mokyeos’ wills.  There are faithful church members who are not Mokja and Mokyeo, and I honor their thinking on God’s will as well.  And in those areas where it makes sense, I honor everyone’s ideas and inputs inside and outside the church. However, since I can’t see their faithfulness in my bare eyes and their ideas have not gone through objective verification, I cannot draw a new line in the church with such fuzziness. And I cannot give decision right to those outside of the church since we cannot hold them accountable. 

  The head of the church is Jesus Christ.  The mission of the church is to discern and follow His will.  I pray that our Hanmaum church as a community will be more attached to Jesus when following His way. Please pray and reflect on this.

From pastor Choi, Jin-Won