Seeking God’s will: The nature of Christian spiritual discernment and the role it plays in Christian school board decision making

Abstract

Christian schools have grown rapidly over the past 50 years, in terms of the number of schools and their student population, yet there has been very limited research on Christian school boards and no research could be found on the integration of faith or the use of Christian spiritual discernment in the decision making of those boards. The importance of integrating Christian faith in all aspects of the operation of a Christian school was a cornerstone in the foundation of the modern Christian schooling movement in Australia and New Zealand from the 1960s and 1970s onwards. In an environment of rapid change and ever-increasing compliance requirements for school boards, it is easy for boards to become focused on compliance and regulatory issues as they seek to meet the requirements of regulators. The pressure from this professionalisation can lead to matters of faith, and Christian spiritual discernment practices specifically, being pushed to the edges of the agenda of a board meeting rather than being central to their decision making. This mixed methods study found that the implementation of Christian spiritual discernment by boards was positively correlated with the higher the enrolment of a school, the numeric size of the school’s board and also where the board stops and prays in the midst of decision making. The study demonstrated that the activities in an actual board meeting are critical; specifically as they relate to the use of prayer and Scripture, enabling the implementation of Christian spiritual discernment. The findings indicated that an important element for decision making was the board member’s character, skills and experience, as well as the individual preparation they undertook prior to a board meeting. The research also showed that a positive impact arose for boards utilising Christian spiritual discernment in decision making, and in its absence, board decisions deteriorate in quality.