Sacred Compass offers a fresh and deeper way of living a God-directed life. J. Brent Bill draws on the quiet beauty of the Quaker path to show how spiritual discernment is more about sensing God’s gracious presence than it is about making the right decisions. As you use this book to chart your own spiritual course, you will find yourself led to unexpected places, comforted by the knowledge that God uses all of our experiences to bring us close.

“Sacred Compass is the perfect companion for those seeking to follow God in the way of Jesus in the midst of the realities of 21st century life. Brent Bill graciously and passionately opens the pathway of the spiritual practice of discernment for the novice and deepens the possibilities for the well experienced. This book will serve as a revelation for many and well could be the start of a revolution for a new generation Christians.”

“Sacred Compass celebrates and reassures that on this engaging, glorious, bewildering human journey, we individually and communally carry with us an ever present divine source of navigation.”

Two recently published books—J. Brent Bill's Sacred Compass: The Way of Spiritual Discernment (Paraclete Press, 2008) and Leighton Ford's The Attentive Life: Discerning God's Presence in All Things (Intervarsity Press, 2008)— cover much of the same territory as they examine the power of discernment to guide our life choices. At the same time, these volumes are quite different because of the underlying metaphors that shaped each author's work.

As his title suggests, Bill speaks of a "sacred compass" that can guide us throughout life as we make decisions and discern what God would have us do. For instance, he writes that if another person's prayer life inspires him, "I can first test my soul by asking, 'Is this telling me to pray more?' My sacred compass will most likely say yes, and I'll sense that answer in both my heart and head." Bill goes on to explore just how it is that he discerns-heart and head-the accurate reading of his internal compass.  

The metaphor of the sacred compass reflects Bill's roots in the Evangelical Quaker tradition, which he draws on in his book, introducing its particular phrases-like "leadings" and "weighty friends"-in ways that invite his readers into his tradition and help us to see its power for our own lives. One of the terms he uses is "inner teacher," which names the way in which Christ speaks through the heart of a Quaker. Almost all of the approaches to discernment Bill describes focus on internal activities, so he writes at length on how to use spiritual journaling as an aid. to discernment, going so far as to explain how to deepen one's writing and to use it reflectively. Those longing for guidance in introspective practices useful for discernment will be much helped by Bill's work. His book is an accessible introduction to a process of discovering and clarifying God's call in one's life, Each easy-to-read chapter includes numerous questions meant to prod the reader into a deeper consideration of the subject. As a book with its own integrated reader's guide, one could best read this work with a journal at the ready to reflect on the questions.

Yet, as I think of my own struggles with discernment, I find that strong friendships are often very crucial in this process. At a time in my life when I was deciding between ordained ministry and further study toward a Ph.D., a mentor gave me some advice: "Don't do a Ph.D. until you find a question in the parish that you can not answer without one." She knew me well enough to know that I would not have the stamina for a Ph.D., without a conundrum to motivate me. For me, a journal would never have provided the insight that such a good friend could bring.

In some ways Bill's chapter on "weighty friends" was an answer to the role of friendship in discernment. It explores the role of a "clearness committee," a group of people who join in reflecting on a possible call, "A clearness committee also encourages the seeker to listen to his or her spiritual friends, not as advice givers, but as Christ pointers," he writes. I found this chapter the most helpful in Bill's book. Indeed, shortly after reading it I found myself recommending the formation of a clearness committee to a parishioner who was struggling between competing good choices in life.

Friendship, and the place of external confirmations of our discernment, is important to me because I've seen the ways in which people can deceive themselves. Just as an actual compass points a few degrees off of true north, I am concerned that our sacred compasses can miss the mark as well, At least for me, friendship is a central practice for making sure that my own self-interest is not wrapped up in godly language and proclaimed a call.

From his stories I suspect friendship is equally important to Bill. He writes of difficult conversations with friends, conversations that speak to relationships developed well beyond the point of superficiality. I longed for Bill to write as passionately about friendship as he did about other, more internal practices.

Congregations
Winter 2009