EXPECTATIONS AND GRACE

I've been having some conversations recently about these two things and I have some questions. Is it right to have expectations? Of yourself? Of others? Where does grace fit in? I have a good friend, an older woman, who often mentors me in living the Christian life. I met her in a bible study that focused on grace. We often talk about how to walk in the Spirit and how to live a life completely dependent on grace. The questions come when we talk about our church. Our pastor just started a series on membership expectations. Our church not only has a statement of faith but a list of core values and membership expectations. My friend is not too high on these expectations because she feels that encourages legalism. When I talked to my husband about it, he said he thought expectations were good. He was in a leadership position at a former church where people were kind of slacking off and any attempt at exhortation was seen as legalism. I know there has to be a balance between these two things but how do you strike it? On a personal level and on a church level.

I've been reading Jonathan Edwards' resolutions. He wrote 70 resolutions, almost goals, that he wanted to strive toward. I haven't read a lot of Edwards' other writings, but I do know that he did not preach a legalistic gospel. Maybe Edwards' had the right balance. I've recently been writing out my own resolutions. I'm being careful not to slide into legalism and false guilt because I know myself too well. Ever since becoming a Christian, God has been weaning me from a performance-oriented faith. I'm trying to find this balance. I think it exists and that's why Paul could say in 1 Corinthians 15:10 -

"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me."

What do you think?