Ecclesiastical Expectations: Your Responses

 Last month I asked the question, What do you expect from the church? The answers I received were primarily from those I would classify as "inside" the church, so in all honesty, they are quite positive. Here are what people said:

What do you expect from the church?

A place to feel welcome and not judged. (Although biblical guidance and loving correction if I slip or am not in line with God's word). A place with opportunities for fellowship, outreach, and a place for me and kids to feel safe, not only in a secure building, but around others as well.

Love, compassion, guidance, support, communion, congregation, seek to baptize others, and lessons. I expect my church to seek me out if I am lost.  I expect the church to seek out anyone who is lost. I expect my church to be like Jesus. I love my church! 

Praise for our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I’m answering this from our previous season. When we moved up here what was our prayer for a church? What did we “expect” desire from a church? So my husband and I hoped for a people. What I mean by that is a community of believers to worship together, play together and serve together. A preacher who taught from scripture and loved the body of believers that God had entrusted onto him. A church who pours out beyond the walls of the church and steps into the community.

God was faithful in leading us to KCC.

KCC has filled my expectations and then some! I found a church where I can serve God with fellow believers. I am encouraged and supported in ways I could have never imagined.

I feel that it should say, "how can I serve the Lord through my church " if I serve and give to the church, God will meet my expectations for the church, the church I was at prior to KCC, I served , participated in, and my expectations were not met, it was the wrong church for Jan,

Bible say serving others is loving God. Our church tries to do that.

To be given the opportunity to learn about the Bible. Fellowship

For the leaders to preach and teach from scripture that is THE truth. To be anchored in the fact that faith in Jesus Christ is our only way to salvation. To remind us that we are to be seperate from the world. Not avoid topics that may rub some wrong if it is the right message and to follow the 4 pillars of our mission statement while helping people journey with Jesus. I also really appreciate the 2/14 projects to serve in our community while representing KCC.

For the people, who are a part of the church, to live their faith daily, out in the world

I want to see churches expand to build schools to teach our children of every generation God's Biblical Principles for life, righteousness, personal moral responsibility, liberty, justice and social order. Government schools haven't been able to do that since the Rogue Supreme Court over-ruled the People's will, in America, which used to espouse such teaching along with the general education subjects.

It would be great, I think, if local churches worked together to create that Godly alternative to the humanist government system, possibly saving our nation from the decay already sweeping across the land.

Ecclesiastical Expectations - What do you expect from the church?

This 3-part blog post deals with ecclesiastical expectations. It is a two-way relationship between you and your church. Here are the questions we will be focusing on:

• What do you expect from the church?
• What does your church expect from you?
• What does the Bible teach in regard to these expectations?

This post will address the first question: What do you expect from the church? More specifically, What do you see is the purpose of the local church? Why do they exist? Most likely, you expect more than one thing from the church. So, we may decide the primary purpose of the local church but also look at other things you think the church should be doing. 

First, we need to define our terms for the discussion. Who are "YOU" in relation to the local church? This is difficult already because the church is so broad in regards to what it does, but for this conversation let's just look at Sunday morning worship attendance. 

• YOU could be a Christian who is a Member and attends Sunday service weekly (Church Member)
• YOU could be a Christian, but not a member of your local church, but attend weekly anyway (Attendee)
• YOU could be not a Christian but attend on a regular basis (Attendee)
• YOU could be someone who attends Sunday services occasionally (Visitor)
• YOU could be someone who attends only on holidays. (Visitor)
• YOU could be someone who just lives in the community.

Already, we can see expectations of your local church could differ drastically based on one's relationship with the local church body. For example, a father might buy his daughter a new car for her birthday, but only a card for the neighbor boy. That relationship is not the same. Same with the church. Everyone has a different relationship with the church. 

The next term to define is "church." Here are some other concepts people think of when they hear the word "church."

• The white building with the steeple on top
• The Pastor and his staff
• The Elders who lead the church
• The people who attend the church on Sunday mornings
• An online podcast / sermon / service
• The denomination worldwide (i.e. Catholic, Methodist, etc)
• Any combination of the above

Back to our question now: What do YOU expect from the CHURCH? Click on the question and give your answer. I'll share your answers in a follow-up post/article.