Change of Expectations

This morning my wife and I were talking about expectations.  My wife spoke some words that really inspired me to consider the whole thing about expectations.

For example there are people who don’t feel comfortable in some church settings.  The formality of it, the impersonal nature of it and the ability to hide behind the mask of pious ‘holiness’ and playing the right church dramatic games allows for authentic real spiritual development to be stunted.  You are expected to follow the party line and any personal challenges are expected to be dealt with beyond the church, if at all.  For the many example of genuine change that people experience in these corporate gatherings, there are as many stories about pain from the inside that people are ‘expected’ to deal with whilst they are in ‘the Lord’s presence’.  (Obviously God only turns up to situations when we’re in suits and with other Christians singing songs and saying the right words.  Despite His omnipresence, and indeed what the woman at the well heard from Jesus about real worship, He can’t make it elsewhere you see.)

So whilst Christians and non-Christians alike are aware of those expectations there is little of that to carry across into the bits after that gathering.  It’s almost as if there are two different worlds, with two different expectations that leads to two different people.  Is that what’s really expected of someone who has been set free and one who is to see true freedom?

What am I saying?  Am I saying that the way we do church and the expectations are all wrong?

Well …

What I am saying is that surely the expectation we have for any gathering is a natural part of the expectations we’ve had over the rest of the week in our daily walk with God.   Yes it’s great to be among the people of God – but that’s the case whether it’s in a rented property, fully-paid facility, or at a restaurant or dare I say it, in a home.  The actual location, regularity and formality should really be irrelevant.  The nature of the ongoing relationships is the key where there is liberty to be all that you are.  No need for masks, no need to live up to unreal and unhelpful expectations, every opportunity to contribute and to open up the reality of Christ in your life – in your struggles, in your successes, in the mundane, in the magnificent.

This brings a change of expectations.  Now because Jesus is a reality of everyday life, because church is an everyday reality through ongoing relationships and contacts, even the nature of gatherings takes on a new meaning.  Now there is no expectation to live up to the requirements of others.  Now the only requirement is to be true to your relationship to your saviour.  That is not expressed in adherence to a day of worship or to formal wear or to the central nature of having someone talking to you for 30-60 minutes.  that is expressed in the growing relationship with Jesus and the change in life that it brings.  The expectation is not a burden, the expectation is a liberating key to the fullness of Christ in His Body to the glory of God the Father.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd