Calvary Wolfeboro

The church is plagued with complacency. Anywhere you find complacency, you will find sin. Where there’s sin, light of world grows dim. What is the cure? How can the local body of Christ regain the purity that Christ died to establish? The answer is authentic Christian community; it’s the kind that the writer of Hebrews points to in chapter 10:24-25. It’s not easy to create, but it’s the only way that God’s people will once again become the shining city on a hill.

The church is plagued with complacency. Anywhere you find complacency, you will find sin. Where there’s sin, light of world grows dim. What is the cure? How can the local body of Christ regain the purity that Christ died to establish? The answer is authentic Christian community; it’s the kind that the writer of Hebrews points to in chapter 10:24-25. It’s not easy to create, but it’s the only way that God’s people will once again become the shining city on a hill.

The world that the Church was birthed into was a world of normalized sexual immorality. It’s for that reason, in part, that so many of the lists of sins given in the New Testament begin with sexual immorality. Knowing that fornication and the like would be all around the Church, God made sure that His Body knew that sexual immorality wouldn’t be allowed in it. Fast forward to 2018, sexual immorality still plagues the church but there’s something much more subtle that is undermining the Spiritual health of the Bride of Christ. Let’s call it Secular Immorality. As we seek to consider what each of us, as sheep in the flock should expect of one another it is to this idea that we will shift our focus. Secular immorality is the sin in modern Christianity that removes God, practically, from every part of life. It is this tendency that we must help each other fight against as we seek to please God more and more.

The world that the Church was birthed into was a world of normalized sexual immorality. It’s for that reason, in part, that so many of the lists of sins given in the New Testament begin with sexual immorality. Knowing that fornication and the like would be all around the Church, God made sure that His Body knew that sexual immorality wouldn’t be allowed in it. Fast forward to 2018, sexual immorality still plagues the church but there’s something much more subtle that is undermining the Spiritual health of the Bride of Christ. Let’s call it Secular Immorality. As we seek to consider what each of us, as sheep in the flock should expect of one another it is to this idea that we will shift our focus. Secular immorality is the sin in modern Christianity that removes God, practically, from every part of life. It is this tendency that we must help each other fight against as we seek to please God more and more.

There seems to be two kinds of leaders. Those who are too comfortable with leadership and those who are two uncomfortable. As the church, we have the responsibility of leading the way in finding the happy medium between these two extremes. There should always be a healthy fear in the heart of every leader that he or she would become domineering or autocratic. But there should also be a healthy fear of abdicating responsibility and allowing those who have not been called or commissioned to leadership to lead. It’s into this tension that the words of Hebrews 13 ring loud and clear. “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls.” As we continue our consideration of expectations within the church we turn our attention to the expectation that God’s Word gives for how the flock should follow their shepherds.

There seems to be two kinds of leaders. Those who are too comfortable with leadership and those who are two uncomfortable. As the church, we have the responsibility of leading the way in finding the happy medium between these two extremes. There should always be a healthy fear in the heart of every leader that he or she would become domineering or autocratic. But there should also be a healthy fear of abdicating responsibility and allowing those who have not been called or commissioned to leadership to lead. It’s into this tension that the words of Hebrews 13 ring loud and clear. “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls.” As we continue our consideration of expectations within the church we turn our attention to the expectation that God’s Word gives for how the flock should follow their shepherds.

"Expectations kill relationships." You’ve probably heard someone make this claim. Yet, while expectations are often at the center of the breakdown in relationships, it isn’t always the expectations themselves that are to blame. When it comes to our relationships in the church, we need to first make sure that we have the right expectations of each other. This is nowhere more important than the expectations we have of leadership. In particular, the expectations that the church should have of its elders - the shepherds of the flock. Consider the admonition of Peter, “a fellow elder,” as he lays out for all of us, what the legitimate expectations should be.

"Expectations kill relationships." You’ve probably heard someone make this claim. Yet, while expectations are often at the center of the breakdown in relationships, it isn’t always the expectations themselves that are to blame. When it comes to our relationships in the church, we need to first make sure that we have the right expectations of each other. This is nowhere more important than the expectations we have of leadership. In particular, the expectations that the church should have of its elders - the shepherds of the flock. Consider the admonition of Peter, “a fellow elder,” as he lays out for all of us, what the legitimate expectations should be.