Seasons of Change Editor: Jeff 
More Newsletters By This Editor 
 
1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions
"Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief."
— C.S. Lewis
About The Editor: Greetings! My name is Jeff  and I'm one of the regular editors of the official Spiritual Newsletter! I've been a member of Writing.com since 2003, and have edited more than 500 newsletters across the site in that time. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me directly or submit feedback in the comment box at the bottom of this newsletter.
|
Seasons of Change
Back in April, I wrote "The Dark Night of the Soul" ("Spiritual Newsletter (March 18, 2026)" ) about my experiences helping my pastor and friend run a church plant. As luck (or fate, or God) would have it, we closed the doors on that church plant a couple of weeks later. It wasn't a complete shutdown, but a confluence of things led to some truly unexpected changes.
With a congregation that wasn't growing much beyond the forty or so people we started with, and with weekly attendance on any given Sunday hovering around a dozen or so, we felt that it wasn't a good use of our (generous) congregants' charitable giving to continue spending thousands of dollars a month to rent a sanctuary space when we were at a size that would fit in people's homes. And as we were contemplating a more informal gathering, our pastor was presented with an opportunity to join an existing, established church as their new teaching pastor. As a result, our little church plant community has now been navigating who's going to the new church with our pastor, whether we still want to meet as an informal life group, who will be moving on, etc.
For better or worse, a new season is upon us. And in this season, my family finds itself somewhere that many churchgoing folk find themselves from time to time: in between.
The path of least resistance, when you're in the "in between" of church attendance, is to find the nearest comfortable option. You follow friends to wherever they've landed. You return to something familiar from an earlier season of life. You pick the church with the best children's program, or the most convenient service time, or the style of worship that requires the least adjustment (or provides what you've been missing). None of these are wrong reasons to choose a church, by the way.
But my family decided, somewhat deliberately, was that we weren't going to default to doing the comfortable thing.
Discernment is a word that gets used a lot in Christian circles, sometimes to the point of losing its meaning. But at its core, it's the practice of paying careful attention to where you feel drawn (or led). The Jesuit tradition has developed one the most systematic approaches to this through what Ignatius of Loyola called the discernment of spirits; a practice of noticing what produces consolation (a sense of peace, rightness, movement toward God) versus what produces desolation (anxiety, emptiness, a sense of moving away from what matters). It's a more nuanced framework that's not simply black and white. Desolation can accompany the right decision, and consolation can accompany the wrong one. The practice is about learning to read your own interior responses with enough honesty and patience to distinguish genuine leading from wishful thinking or social pressure.
What discernment has looked like for us, practically, is exploration. There's often a particular kind of pressure that operates in Christian community; an unspoken expectation that the goal is to get planted somewhere and get plugged into whatever expression of church speaks to you. There's often criticism of those who move from church to church without settling down (and they're even sometimes derogatorily referred to as "church shoppers"). And yet, my family and I feel called to a season of visiting different churches, and building a wider church community that currently goes beyond the walls of a particular building and outside the confines of any one individual church community. The assumption was that we would just go where our pastor went and, while that church may ultimately be the destination where we both end up, it won't be because we just "went along" with the easy or convenient choice. If we end up at the same church he now teaches at, it will be because God has clearly pointed us there and we've discerned that's his plan for our family.
I don't know where we'll land. I genuinely don't. And I've made a certain peace with not knowing in this particular moment, which is not something that comes naturally to me; especially as someone who likes to commit to a plan and carry it out. But what I'm increasingly convinced of is that the practice of discernment — the willingness to sit with a question long enough to receive consolation from the right decision — is itself a form of obedience and faithfulness.
The next time you find yourself in a new season like we are, it might be worth taking some time to discern which direction offers you consolation, and which offers desolation.
Until next time,
Jeff
If you're interested in checking out my work:
"New & Noteworthy Things" | "Blogocentric Formulations"
|
This month's official Writing.com writing contest is:
You are also invited to check out these items from members of the community:
| | Eternal Hope? (E) Can we be sure, that we are saved, before we stand before the Lord of Glory? |
|
Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
Feedback from "Spiritual Newsletter (May 13, 2026)" about sacred land:
An interesting and thought-provoking newsletter. Thank you, I enjoyed reading this. And thank you for including Night Prayer in your Editor's Pick.
— Ichabod Crane 
I wonder
I wonder where we go when it's time for me to sleep
will the Lord take me to a land free from pain
Where running streams flow
and landscapes of beauty in sunlight glow
or will he send me back
To another life on a fast track.
I wonder where we go.
— Mary MCPhedran 
|
To stop receiving this newsletter, click here for your newsletter subscription list. Simply uncheck the box next to any newsletter(s) you wish to cancel and then click to "Submit Changes". You can edit your subscriptions at any time.
|
un: 
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Community Feed
Puzzle Hub
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Writings
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Sheets
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
Workspaces
Spiritual: June 10, 2026 Issue [#13789]
