A Listening People: Hearing God\u27s Voice at the Turnpike Road Church of Christ

The goal of this study is to equip a group of eight-to-twelve women and men from the Turnpike Road Church of Christ in Ignatian spiritual discernment so that they may confidently and assertively hear and respond to God’s voice. The Church of Christ has a limited history and practice of engaging in a conversational relationship with God. The dominant founding figure of the Church of Christ, Alexander Campbell, was essentially a Lockean empiricist who regarded the Bible as the only reliable and trustworthy guide. The Holy Spirit was relegated to the Bible meaning one encountered God and his guidance through the Bible only. This view dominated the theology and practices of most Churches of Christ until the early-twentieth century. Slowly congregations began questioning this theology and started adopting a theology open to a greater role of the Spirit directly at work in the lives of Christians. This project will address this need by teaching and equipping a small group of men and women in a life with God theology, and spiritual discernment from an Ignatian perspective. For three months they will practice the Prayer of Examen to awaken their hearts, minds and souls to the movements of the Spirit in their daily lives as well as their responses to these divine interactions. They will learn the Rules for the Discernment of Spirits to prepare them to test the movements in their hearts. They will meet with me for spiritual direction monthly to help them learn to see, name and hear God in their daily life. Through the teaching and practices they will learn the theology and spiritual practices that will open them to confident and joyful live life with God