Hasn't this idea already led to spiritual abuse? 

Here is a question most churches do not ask until something has already gone wrong. What happens when a leader enters discernment with the answer already decided? 

It certainly can, done wrong. It's dangerous in the hand of a manipulative leader. It's also dangerous if even one person doesn't open their hand and be genuinely open to how the Lord would work in the group.

The words may sound spiritual, and the room may agree, but is anyone still free to hear something different? 

You're fundamentally saying that at least a major reason that CSD is not happening in a congregation is in fact because of the leadership. 

Yeah, absolutely. If the leadership is not all Gospel humbled, they're a danger to their own sheep.

Hmm. That is scary, scary business. Yeah. Doctrinally orthodox people could actually be a danger to the very sheep that they're trying to teach the right doctrine to. 

That is the uncomfortable part. A leader may mean well and still make discernment unsafe when being right matters more than being changed.

What's the difference between that Gospel humbled person and a person whose pride has merely been crushed? 

Yeah, so a Gospel humbled person, they know themselves to be a very great sinner, in fact, the worst sinner that they know, but also marvelously received by the Father. And so they're amazed and grateful, and as a result, they're a gracious person.

That's the Gospel humbled person. 

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