When Was the Last Time You Walked Into Church Expecting to See God?

Archbishop Jeremy Greaves dropped a truth bomb in his Synod 2025 address that’s been echoing in my mind ever since. He shared this beautiful, simple moment from a small parish church visit: there was this little girl, sitting quietly in the fourth row, totally hooked on everything happening around her. She watched as he moved through the sanctuary, especially during the Great Thanksgiving when he lifted the bread and wine. She prayed along with the whole congregation, fully present.

After the service, as Archbishop Greaves was greeting folks at the door, the girl’s granny introduced her: “Louise, this is the Archbishop.” And then, the girl’s face fell. She looked up at her granny and said, “Oh. I thought he was God.”

Boom. That hit hard.

When was the last time you walked into church expecting to actually see God? Not just out of habit or routine, but with real, wide-eyed expectation? When did you last pray knowing you were calling on something powerful, something real? When did you engage in worship expecting to be changed, moved, or even unsettled by the sacred?

Archbishop Greaves’ story reminded me of a wild, unforgettable quote from Annie Dillard:

“The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It’s madness to wear ladies straw hats on a Sunday morning. We should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should be issuing life jackets and signal flares. They should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping God may wake someday and take offense. Or the waking God may draw us out to where we can never return.”

Yikes, right? But also, wow — what a wake-up call. The God we worship isn’t some sleepy, predictable force. God is alive, powerful, and maybe even a little dangerous. And that’s exactly why we should expect to encounter God every time we gather.

For those of us on the progressive path, this is a call to ditch the complacency. To come to church with the curiosity and wonder of a child, ready to meet the sacred in the prayers, the sacraments, and the people around us. To expect God to show up — not just in the big moments, but in the quiet, the ordinary, the unexpected.

So next time you step into a church, ask yourself: Am I really expecting to see God? Am I ready to be surprised, challenged, and transformed? Because that’s the kind of worship that changes everything.