Learning to make decisions with God

available at brfonline.org.uk

Release Date - June 2023

Good Call - Learning to make decisions with God

Is there a formula or method for making good decisions? No, there isn’t. Should you stop thinking about it and just do something? No, you shouldn’t. Could you expect God to share with you his will and purpose and give you insight and direction? Yes, you could.

If God has a right to governance of our lives, how do you come to agreement with Him when deciding? You’d be surprised how committed he is to speaking to you and helping you sift the options.

Recommendation:

“Readers will discover here two deeply committed Christians who have learnt to integrate their working and family lives with constant Christian reflection. They combine, in a striking way, analytical thinking and unapologetic spiritual immediacy. This book is most welcome and undoubtedly useful. I commend it and am grateful for it.”
— Dr Nigel G. Wright, principle emeritus, Spurgeon's College London and former president, Baptist Union of Great Britain

The Intended Reader

All of us make lots of decisions every day but none of us gets them all right. Christian people have the option of calling on The Living God to be involved and so this book is for anyone who knows they need help, knows that God still speaks to His children today, and knows that there isn’t a simple and convenient formula for success.

Table of Contents

A summary of topics & headings for each chapter

  • Pete and Iain each write their own introduction and jointly conclude with a list of radical conclusions about the problem of making good (as opposed to bad) decisions

  • The first of four ‘Coaching Chapters’, this one coming before any theology so that the reader’s thinking is not unduly affected by the ‘theory’.

    Iain & Pete’s dodgy decision-making Part 1.

    Encouraging the reader to review their own decision-making over the years and to apply a rough, subjective grading to the past.

  • Building blocks; Spiritual people make the same mistakes as secular people; Grace leads to maturity even via mistakes; Our natural instincts are deeply flawed; We can be saved from being formulaic; Obliged to pursue excellence; Two essential characteristics of a good decision; Consensus and God’s fingerprints

  • No decision is too trivial or too complicated; No decision is wholly without consequence; No decision is too secular or too spiritual; God inspires those who don’t know him and can use a secular agent to advise his own people; We all have the ability to analyse but the believer can learn to discern; The balance between analytical skills and sensing faculties

  • Stage 1: Describing the decision to be made; Stage 2: Information Gathering; Stage 3: Evaluating the Evidence; Stage 4: Interpreting the information and Discerning what God is saying; Stage 5: Making the Decision

  • What does analysis involve; Examine your motivation; Widen your options; Reality-test your assumptions; Attain distance; Prepare to be wrong; What kinds of discernment does God use to back up our analysis?

  • Humans are spiritual entities; The Conscience; The Heart; The Human Spirit; The Holy Spirit; Creating Space for all four spiritual senses; Biblical examples of people making decisions

  • The second ‘Coaching Chapter’.

    Iain & Pete’s dodgy decision-making Part 2.

    Having provided a theology of decision-making and introduced the need for both objective analysis and subjective discerning, we help the reader to identify each part of the sensing/feeling ‘toolkit’ that we all possess.

  • Three overriding principles; Characteristic ways of God communicating; What to do when you don’t know what to do; Examples of Iain’s decision-making; Examples of Pete’s decision-making

  • The third Coaching Chapter.

    Iain & Pete’s dodgy decision-making Part 3.

    Enlarging on what you recorded in Exercise 1 - pulling your own decisions apart.

    Now that the authors have broken down for you a number of our own decisions - both good and bad - and you have a better idea of what was actually going on when you made the historic decisions recorded in Exercise 1, you are better equipped to understand what was good or bad in your own case.

  • Underlying principles; Models of decision-making for groups; Taking back the centre ground; Corporate or structural mindset?; Reaching a consensus; Biblical examples of group decisions; Making decisions with a significant other person; Making decisions in the family

  • The fourth Coaching Chapter.

    Introducing ‘Agreement’; Constructing a different kind of Timeline; Preparing for the future; The Major Decision Table

  • We tell the story of a Church that deliberately adopted structures so that its people could practice making good personal decisions and good corporate decisions.

    We explain how it governed itself, how it grew and prospered and how it impacted the surrounding communities .

  • Those who, for whatever valid reason, do not have the capacity for decision-making, need another person to act in their best interest.