From Expectations to Expectancy
Earlier this week I had the pleasure of joining in a few sessions of a Lead Pastors retreat led by our association, Venture Church Network, formerly known as the Conservative Baptist Association.
There were pastors from all over Northern California and Nevada, our particular region for the national organization.
I wasn’t expected to fully attend because one of the main benefits of the retreat was a lot of free time to enjoy Santa Cruz as a destination. Rene Schelpfer and Twin Lakes Church served as hosts for the retreat as they also are part of this network.
Rene was hopping back into his office as well in between sessions! Don’t cry for us. We get to live in this beautiful county and enjoy the parks, beaches, restaurants year round. The folks from places like Fresno, Sacramento and Redding were loving the cooler weather. :)
During a final session, the area president, Craig Hardinger, also lead pastor of Arcade Baptist in Sacramento gave some wonderful perspective that I’d like to share with you here.
He caught my attention at the beginning when he mentioned that in his over 30 years of pastoring he’s never felt more excited to be a pastor.
And then he went on to share that he’s also never been more discouraged time and time again as a pastor these past months. I wonder if you’ve felt that at times as well?
He boiled it down to whether we just have faith “in” Jesus or the faith “of” Jesus as shown in Mark 4 Jesus’ calming the storm. (bonus points if you go and read the passage now).
Then Craig pointed out that frustration and discouragement comes when we put expectations on God instead of expectancy. (read that sentence again)
When I behave, perform, serve, etc… I often expect God to move a certain way or do a certain thing. Do you?
We are talking about sharing the good news with our “oikos” (close relationships)…if I do all of the steps won’t I see certain results?
However, a subtle difference happens when I take those actions of faith and with a sense of expectancy leave the results up to God.
He’s free to do all He wants and may or may not let me see results…isn’t He?
I’m not confident I’ve related well all that I heard that morning. But I do hope you’ll profit from this Godly wisdom--of living free of the weight of expectations and instead experiencing the joy of expectancy in the Lord.
I need this reminder again and again.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
