Seeing What God Is Doing in Us Together

Communal discernment begins with a simple but difficult question: what is God doing in this life? The call to priesthood shows how often the church reaches for ordinary questions because ordinary questions feel safer. Resumes, favorite books of the Bible, hobbies, family life, and liturgical preferences are easier to ask than the deeper question about the movement of the Spirit.

The ordinary way of looking at people can lead a church down the wrong road. James remembers a community impressed by rich people. First Timothy remembers attention going to the well dressed. Paul names that danger as being conformed to the way this world thinks.

Romans presses the church to see something more wonderful than personality, history, interests, or ability. Paul says God is doing a lot in a lot of people, but finally God is doing one thing. God is equipping one body, one mission, one church. The gifts are not all the same, but the body is only healthy when the members come together.

The body image asks the church to see people differently. A person may be known by habits, reactions, friendships, and familiar patterns, but God may be doing something new in that person even now. The renewing of the mind means staying open to more than what has already been seen. Familiarity is comforting, but it can also become limiting.

Scripture becomes one well worn path into that renewing. The story of what God has done in Jesus, the offer of grace and salvation, and the truth that a person is valued because of God’s choice all retrain the mind. The Psalms, Romans, biblical prayer, and the great stories of Scripture reshape the way God and the world are seen.

Service becomes another path. Serving at Saint Philip’s, washing the feet of the poor, and seeing neighbors again opens the mind about people. Scripture renews the mind about God, and service renews the mind about people.

The church, then, is called to hit the refresh button on God and people. Every person who comes is not merely a possible friend, a bridge player, a golfer, or someone who fits a group. Every person is an act of God, a gift, a revelation of what God means by church. Christ says no one comes unless the Father draws them, and anyone who comes to him will never be cast out.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Ordinary questions can miss holy gifts The familiar questions can feel harmless, but they often keep attention on what is easiest to measure. Paul’s vision pushes past hobbies, resumes, and social fit toward the harder work of noticing what God is doing in a person. A church can be friendly and still miss the Spirit’s deeper work if comfort becomes its main way of seeing. [35:56]
• 2. God is doing one thing Paul does not treat spiritual gifts as private achievements or religious personality traits. God gives different gifts to different people in order to build one body, one mission, one church. The gift only becomes clear when it is discerned in relation to the whole body. [38:25]
• 3. Familiar people still need wonder Knowing someone well can be a real gift, but it can also become a small box. The renewing of the mind keeps the church open to God doing something new in someone already known. Divine curiosity refuses to reduce a person to last week’s reactions or long-standing patterns. [40:46]
• 4. Scripture and service renew perception Scripture trains the mind to see God again through the story of Jesus, grace, and salvation. Service trains the heart to see neighbors again, not as ideas or categories, but as people among whom God is already at work. Biblical prayer and concrete mercy belong together because God renews sight in both directions. [44:20]
• 5. Every person arrives as gift Christ’s words make welcome more than good manners. If no one comes unless drawn by the Father, then every arrival carries divine intention. Every person has a place because every person may reveal something of what God means when God says church.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [31:15] - A Call and Communal Discernment
• [32:35] - Asking Ordinary Questions
• [34:02] - When Church Thinks Like the World
• [35:42] - Missing What God Is Doing
• [36:30] - Building Ordinary Church Community
• [37:58] - One Body, One Mission
• [39:19] - Seeing God’s Work in People
• [39:58] - The Renewing of the Mind
• [42:08] - Scripture Opens the Mind
• [43:43] - Service Opens the Heart
• [44:38] - Hitting the Refresh Button
• [46:16] - Every Person Is a Gift
• [47:09] - Drawn by the Father

Bible Reading

Romans 12:1-8
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.” [34:15]

John 6:44
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” [47:09]

John 6:37
“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” [47:24]

James 2:1-4
“My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ while you say to the poor man, ‘You stand over there,’ or, ‘Sit down at my feet,’ have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” [34:23]

1 Timothy 2:9-10
“Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works.” [34:41]

Observation questions

1. In Romans 12, what contrast does Paul make between being conformed to this world and being transformed by the renewal of the mind? [39:58]
2. In James 2:1-4, what specific behavior shows partiality in the assembly, and how are the rich and the poor treated differently?
3. According to Romans 12:4-8, how does Paul describe the relationship between many different gifts and one body? [38:25]
4. What are some of the ordinary questions people often ask in church life that can keep attention on personality, background, or social fit rather than on what God is doing? [32:35]

Interpretation questions

1. If Paul says the church must not be conformed to the world, why is it so easy for a church to judge people by the same things the world notices first—appearance, status, confidence, or common interests? [34:02]
2. Paul says God is doing one thing by equipping one body. How does that change the way a group might think about spiritual gifts—not as private strengths, but as something meant for the health of the whole church? [37:58]
3. The renewing of the mind includes staying open to God doing something new in familiar people. Why can familiarity be both comforting and limiting in a church community? [40:46]
4. Jesus says no one comes unless the Father draws them, and that whoever comes will never be cast out. How does that deepen the meaning of welcome in the church beyond simple friendliness? [47:09]

Application questions

1. When meeting someone at church, what ordinary questions come most naturally first? How might the conversation gently move toward the deeper question, “What is God doing in your life?” [32:49]
2. Is there anyone who has become too familiar to be seen with fresh wonder—someone already placed in a mental box? What might it look like to expect God to be doing something new in that person? [41:02]
3. Scripture renews the mind about God. What concrete practice would help that happen this week—reading a Psalm daily, praying with a passage from Romans 12, memorizing a verse, or something similar? [42:56]
4. Service renews the mind about people. Where might there be a need to serve in a way that interrupts assumptions and helps people be seen again as neighbors rather than categories? [44:18]
5. Every person who comes is a gift and an act of God. How would a Sunday morning look different if each arrival were received with that kind of expectation and gratitude? [46:16]
6. Churches often gather people by friendship, similarity, or shared interests. Where has belonging in that way been a blessing, and where might it also keep a person from seeing the fuller life of the body? [36:30]
7. Jesus says that the one who comes to him will never be cast out. Is there anyone who might quietly feel unwanted, unnoticed, or unnecessary? What would help that person experience that they truly have a place? [46:43]