God is still speaking. A number of years ago, the Stillspeaking campaign swept through many UCC churches. Are we still listening? Because God is still speaking. As Plymouth Church ponders its future, listen to what God has to say.
The problem with listening to God is that many people just hear what they want to hear. God is telling folks not to sell flowers for a same-sex wedding or to picket family-planning clinics. According to a televangelist, God may have told him, or her, to ask for more and more money to support the televangelist's work. God always seems to be telling people that their cause is just, whether it is winning a football game or eradicating the world of Jews.
When people are listening to God, are they just hearing themselves? How do we discern the word of God? One minister I knew said that if something surprising pops into your head while you are praying, that could be the word of God. Maybe it's not what you were hoping to hear. Maybe it doesn't reinforce your strongly-held beliefs. Maybe it's something that you should listen to.
Here are some books that may help:
Listening hearts : discerning call in community /253 FAR
Listening to God : spiritual formation in congregations /Ackerman, John 253.5 ACK
Centering prayer and inner awakening /Bourgeault, Cynthia. 248.3 BOU
Contemplative prayer/Merton, Thomas, 248.34 MER
Making room for God: a guide to contemplative prayer/Matthews, Melvyn 248.3 MAT
For more information on Stillspeaking, here is something from the UCC website:
"Asked to design a new identity campaign for the United Church of Christ, project leader Ron Buford studied church history, visited churches, and tried out many ideas in hopes of capturing the spirit and essence of today’s UCC denomination.
Many agreed that the words of Mayflower Pilgrim pastor John Robinson still strike a strong, deep chord: “O God, grant yet more light and truth to break forth from your word.” Buford felt a more modern and powerful way to express this same concept was to simply state: “God is still speaking”
Buford’s search also led him to the words of Gracie Allen (1895–1964), the zany partner and comic foil of husband George Burns in their immensely popular and long-running comedy act that spanned from 1920s vaudeville and radio through film and television.
After Gracie’s passing, her husband is said to have found among her papers a letter left for him. The letter included the phrase, “Never place a period where God has placed a comma.”
In Buford’s creative fermentation of study, prayer, reflection, and sharing ideas and visions with colleagues, Gracie Allen’s advice to her husband became linked with the Still-Speaking concept as dual signature elements of the UCC’s new identity campaign:
Never place a period where God has placed a comma –
God is still speaking,