The most satisfactory ministry in our meetings arises when we speak with discipline about an insight that we find when we wait silently upon the Lord.

Is this a genuine moving that deserves expression in a meeting for worship, or had I best curb and forget it? May it have some real meaning for others, and is it suited to the condition of the meeting? Can I phrase it clearly and simply? If it passes these tests, I regard it as something to be said, but I am not yet sure it should be said here and now. To find out how urgent it is, I press it down and try to forget it. If time passes, and it does not take hold of me with increased strength, I conclude that it is not to be spoken of at this time. If, on the other hand, it will not be downed, if it rebounds and insists and will not leave me alone, I give it expression.

-- N. Jean Toomer, An Interpretation of Friends' Worship, 1947

Once I sat in meeting for worship absolutely certain that I had a message which needed to be shared. However, I felt no leading whatsoever that I was the one to give the message. I waited and waited, feeling I would burst from the tension, until a woman across the room got up and gave my message much better than I could ever have given it. What was happening here? What did this mean in terms of the movement of the Spirit in our lives?

-- Shirley Dodson, "Theology for Each of Us," Friends Journal, 9/1/80

. . .IN MEETINGS FOR WORSHIP

. . .WITH A CONCERN FOR BUSINESS

Friends are not to meet [in meetings for business] like a company of people about town or parish business ... but to wait upon the Lord.

-- George Fox, Letters

We look with tender hearts, especially during meetings for worship with a concern for business, for one another's spiritual vision. Truths of the Spirit may come from any of us.

In each of us the Spirit is manifested in one particular way, for some useful purpose.... But all these gifts are the work of one and the same Spirit, distributing them separately to each individual at will. For Christ is like a single