Being Prompted to Speak

In 2021, the church board at Living Grace invited me to take minutes for the board meetings so that I could experience what it was like to be in a board meeting. I was invited in as a guest, so I wasn’t a member of the board, and I wasn’t meant to contribute to the board’s discussions.

During one meeting, a particular topic was raised and was being discussed at some length. Some people felt that the Spirit was challenging the church on a specific topic, and while I had some thoughts about this topic, I wasn’t intending to say anything. Then I felt the Spirit well up in me in such a way that I felt I had to say something even though I wasn’t meant to speak, so I made a few small contributions.

Afterwards one board member affirmed what I said and said they found it to be really encouraging at the time.

A Similar Experience

This experience in the board meeting reminded me of one or two similar experiences that I had had when I was younger (and a bit rougher around the edges). For example, before Melissa and I got married, Melissa’s parents wanted to go on one last family holiday (because you never know what things will be like after people get married… Don’t worry, we’ve had lots of family holidays since then!) They decided to go to Japan to visit a girl who had stayed with them as an exchange student, and invited me to come along.

Melissa’s family has a Seventh-Day Adventist background, and by this time Melissa and I had spent about a year talking about Sabbath and related topics. I had also had a bunch of discussions with different members of Melissa’s family about Sabbath, particularly her parents. As far as I recall, they were all quite impressed with how rigorously I researched the topic - including different questions they had put to me - and while Melissa’s parents were happy for Melissa and I to make our own decision, they themselves didn’t agree with all of my conclusions.

Towards the end of the holiday there was an occasion where I got a bit worked up about their refusal to listen to me despite their recognition of the quality of my engagement with scripture. I think at the time I felt that God may have been revealing something about this to me, and I think this contributed to me going overboard in what I said and how I said it. Afterwards I regretted the way I handled things.

I can’t remember the context, but not long after this Melissa’s sister Esther suggested that perhaps God did reveal something to me, and perhaps he did it in that context because it was a safe place for me to practice responding to this move of the Spirit. I handled it poorly in that context, but Melissa’s family forgave me. Perhaps if I hadn’t had the opportunity to fail in that safe context, I might’ve gone overboard in a different context that wasn’t as safe. Maybe in a church board meeting…