Expectancy and Duty -- Cultivating Fruitfulness Day 13

At Pomme de Terre UMC we worship together at 10:30 a.m. Sundays. It is difficult for me to say whether there is an air of expectancy when we gather since I am usually so tied to working and flow of the worship gathering.

I would say that recently we have been doing something right (or at least something appealing) as we watch attendance during this our "slow" season hover in the mid- to upper 90s each Sunday.

Is this increase in attendance on Sunday morning because of expectancy? Are people coming together to worship because they expect to experience God? Or do we gather looking for an hour of entertainment? Or do we go to worship out of duty -- because we think it is something that we think we have to do?

My gut feeling is that most people want to be at Pomme de Terre UMC on Sunday morning, but I couldn't say what motivates people to worship. For the most part I don't care what brings people through the doors -- O.K., that sounds callous. I know that some people come to church on Sunday mornings because they are lonely and crave human interaction, others because they are hurting and seek wholeness, others because a spouse or parent or grandparent dragged them here, and others because they truly love and want to praise God.

All of these reasons are important ans significant and worthy of attention. But I am convinced that whatever motivates us to enter church for worship, God will find a way to reach out to us.

Of course I want us all to gather on Sunday morning for the right reason: to praise and honor God who creates us, transforms us, and sustains us. I think that as we move past and through all our other reasons for coming to worship, we find passionate worship.

Come to worship for whatever reason; once you are here I hope that you experience and learn passionate worship.