Kim Gentes

What is Kingdom Expectation?

The concept of kingdom expectation is the idea that we have an anticipation that God not only does things in the present day, but that we believe he will come and act in the times, places and people of our communities and lives.  He will break in to our weary world through the power of the Holy Spirit and change lives, as He has been doing for over 2000 years, since the first kingdom activity was heralded by Jesus when he declared and demonstrated that "the Kingdom of God is at hand".  As you read the gospel accounts and relive the stories of the first century church, there was a palpable residue of kingdom expectation in every prayer, action and gathering of the disciples and early church.

If you feel that God has stopped the work of the kingdom of God here on earth, you may not want to keep reading this article.  But it is my belief that Jesus is still instructing us to pray that "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven". And along with that prayer, we are to believe that Jesus will act to answer it.

Kingdom Expectation in Today's Local Church.

If a principle or value is important to followers of Jesus, it should be reflected in the local church.  Looking around my local church, I searched for evidences of kingdom expectation.

In my current church community there are some "built in" ways that the value of Kingdom expectation is included. On the music portion of the worship, we use a model in which multiple leaders will help with a single service. Instead of having one person leading the worship the whole musical set, two or three people participate. In some settings this could potentially be good or bad, depending on various factors.

However, the essence of it in our new local church is that it allows the Lord to move through guidance of different people, all of whom are attempting to hear God through different and unique personalities and lives. The expectation of God's kingdom breaking in has less to do with an individual "anointing" and more about the breaking in of the Kingdom to a community.

I think this has merit in that it speaks of our collective need for God to meet us, not just to satisfy individual needs. We are his family, He is our father. Conversely, the drawback of it is that individuals can sometimes feel less responsibility in the corporate meeting that they come ready to lead, make an offering and hold sacred their responsibility as Brian Doerksen put it in his video "Sacred Responsibility".

Similarly, the prayer and ministry time in the service is a community event. People are encouraged to minister to one another, however there is also an "assigned group" of people who are on a trained ministry team. I think this is a good balance, because the expectation of God breaking in may or may not have to do with who is "trained" or not. If God speaks and enables, the person can step out. However, the balance of trained people who can pastor and encourage a helpful ministry time makes the community experience one that is more beneficial.

Building Kingdom Expectation.

On a personal level, I have investigated this concept of fostering kingdom expectation in a community for a long time.  I find that building Kingdom expectation comes from a few things when I am engaging as a leader. I have seen that 1) Consistency in language and life, 2) testimony and 3) faithful action are things that build kingdom expectation in gatherings and people.

Consistency in Life and Language.

First, it comes from a consistent life and language. I find it false to just "turn on" the language of God being present for a church meeting- we must believe and speak it in every aspect and time of life. I am not talking about rhetoric or delusion. I am saying that if we truly believe that God wishes to answer the prayer "Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven", then we must trust He will answer that each day ("give us today our daily bread") and for our most basic personal and community needs ("forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us"). God's kingdom here and now, Monday through Saturday, as well as the "special" times we think about it on Sunday. 

Testimony. 

Second, for myself personally as a leader, I look for the sharing of our life experiences and stories as a pivotal way in which kingdom expectation can be built in the community. The language of testimony is what we are talking about here. Every time I lead a group or meeting, I am looking for ways to engage my story, or have others engage theirs, because I know that there is only one thing more powerful than a personal experience- and that is a shared experience. When we can link our experiences with one another through telling our stories, this the power of testimony. And that builds a kingdom expectation in the entire community. We share our stories and in doing so, we share Christ with one another. Testimony is powerful in the realm of kingdom expectation.

Faithful Action.

The third thing that builds kingdom expectation in my experience as a leader is faithful action. Consistently acting on the values we hold true means that others understand that we actually believe what we are saying. In our world, there is a vast disconnect in "saying" and "doing". When people see a faithful life (this gets back to the value of integrity back in week 1), it spurs them on to also live that way.

Iron sharpens iron, as it were, and people begin trusting, if at first only out of example and following a leader, that we do what we say. We trust God will show up, and so we believe he will act, we don't just pay lip service to it. An example here is prayer. In many meetings I find people have stopped really praying and ministering to one another with the expectation of Kingdom intervention. This happens often because of a past sense that God didn't change or invoke the response we asked for. Slowly people stop asking, or if they ask, they don't ask expecting they will receive anything.

What can be powerful here is simply your faithfulness. If you believe in healing, every time you have the opportunity to pray for a sick person, you should pray. If you have a value for encouragement, each time you have the opportunity to encourage, take it. This sounds all too simple, but I have seen it be surprising to people time after time. This is because so much of our culture is horribly unfaithful, inconsistent and has no concept of perseverance.

For example, recently, I visited friends in the state I used to live in. One of my friends was in terrible back pain. He lived and fellowshipped in a church that believes strongly in prayer and healing. Yet, the family was still surprised that I would come by and purposefully take a moment to pray and minister to him, expecting that the kingdom of God should break in and heal. Their surprise was not based on a faith disconnect, it was based on the fact that over time we stop doing the things we believe in with the people we know so well. We think all that has been prayed has been prayed, that God has had a chance to act, and somehow we shouldn't bother Him anymore with this. We all fall into this at times. We must act beyond our "feelings" in this kind of thing, to be faithful long term in action to what we believe.

Whether it is healing or worship or speaking to people about Christ and inviting them into the kingdom, your faithful action will continue to surprise and awaken people's expectation of the kingdom of God in your communities.

In summary, I find that leadership has effectiveness when the elements of consistency in life and language, testimony, and faithful action are powerful agents in building kingdom expectation.

Kim Gentes