Ecclesiastical Expectations: What does the Bible Say?

This is the third post or article of three articles regarding church expectations. In my first article, I asked "What do you expect from the church?" In the second article, I wrote to answer the question, "What does your church expect from you?" 

In this post, we look at what the Bible says in regard to church expectations. If you have heard of the phrase, "paradigm shift" then you'll understand that this is nothing like what my first two posts talked about, but is rather a whole new way of understanding ecclesiastical expectations. 

First, it must be said, that Christians are the church. Straight and simple, followers of Jesus Christ are the Biblical church. The church meets in a building on Sundays and many times, during the week, but the building is not the church. The building is just a gathering place. (1 Corinthians 12:27; Romans 12:4-5; 1 Peter 2:5)

Next, the Bible refers to Christians in the original Greek language as the "ekklesia." Ekklesia means "The Called Out Ones." These are those who are called out from the world and have devoted their lives to their Lord and King, Jesus Christ. (1 John 2:15-17; 1 Peter 2:9-12)

So, acting as the church and living as one "called out" we can condense the expectations to these two principles.

1. A Christian takes on the character of Jesus Christ. The character of Christ is directly opposite to the character of the world. In other words, we're "called out" from the world to live differently. The Christian reflects Jesus just like the moon reflects the sun. Sheldon wrote "In His Steps" and asked the question, "What would Jesus do?" because we want to follow in his steps. Paul writes in Romans about being transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1-2). When people see us, they should see Christ because Christ lives in us through His Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16; Philippians 2:5).
2. A Christian should be fulfilling Jesus' mission to make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). We should live our lives "on mission." The passage also says, to go, baptize, make disciples, and teach. This isn't something only the pastor does but is a call for all Christians to do. We are meant to witness to the world what Christ has done in our lives. The early church members were scattered by persecution and took the gospel everywhere they went. Ironically, it was the apostles, who stayed home in Jerusalem while the believers spread near and wide (Acts 8:1, 4). 

The Bible teaches that the church is made up of people who have taken on the characteristics of their leader, Jesus. And they are going out everywhere - workplace, school, community, etc - and replicating themselves by making more believers or disciples. 

So how do church attendance, tithing, Bible reading, volunteering, and the plethora of events and ministries swirling around your local church building mesh with the biblical expectations of a Christ follower? They actually mesh quite well, in that they are a by-product of our living in the character of Jesus and doing His mission of reaching the lost with the gospel. 

Church attendance, whether it be Sunday morning or mid-week, Bible reading, Bible study, Life Groups, and more all lend to developing the character of Jesus Christ within each one of us. Volunteering, helping with events, and connecting with other Christians all can be a means to making disciples. 

Ecclesiastical Expectations: What does your church expect from you?

Last month I posed the question, "What do you expect from the church?" You can read people's responses here in a previous post. They suggested finding a safe place to worship, serve the community, fellowship together, serve others, and teach and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

This month we will flip the script and ask the question: "What does your church expect from you?" Notice we're asking about "your church" because we are assuming you are a member of that particular church. If you ask most churches about expectations from non-members, they would say they don't expect anything from them. Expect maybe the opportunity to share the gospel with them. But otherwise, there are usually no strings attached.

Your church expects you to see you on Sunday

This is probably the primary expectation of your church. Because basically if you don't show up, there is no church. The church is the people. If there are no people, then you have no church. Simple as that. For most churches, the Sunday morning worship service is the main meeting each week. There are usually several other opportunities during the week to meet, fellowship, study and serve with other Christians, but the Sunday meeting is the main meeting.

Your church expects you to grow spiritually 

While you are probably "fed" the word of God each week by attending the Sunday morning worship service at your church, you should also be "feed" yourself from the Bible. Think of it this way. You might go out occasionally to a restaurant and eat. But most days, you are home and fix your own food. The Sunday morning sermon or message is like eating out. It's good food. But you need to eat more than once a week. Same with your spiritual life. Your church expects that you have a daily intake of reading, meditating, and studying God's word, the Bible. It is this steady intake of spiritual "food" that will help you grow spiritually.  

Your church expects you to volunteer

If your church has a building or a membership of over 3 people, there need to be people who will serve. The days are long gone when the "super pastor" did everything in the church. It's not possible and it's not healthy either for one man to do everything needed to operate a church. People are needed to lead worship, watch children, clean the building, lead groups, and much more. According to 1 Corinthians, the church is like a body and everyone has a part just like the body has different parts and purposes. If you aren't serving somewhere in your church, then your church is missing a vital part because every part is important. 

Your church expects you to give

This may be a hard topic to talk about, but it is important. Your local church depends on your donations to operate. There is no other source of income for a church but from its members. Funds are needed for staff, building operations, ministries, and missions. Good leadership ensures that those funds are smartly stewarded. Your personal giving gives insight into your priorities. Jesus says that where a man's treasure is, there his heart will be as well. 

Your church expects you to act like Jesus

Finally, your church expects you to live and act more like Jesus and less like the world. When you became a Christian, you declared that Jesus Christ was your Lord. In other words, you committed to living according to his teachings and principles in the New Testament. Your life should reflect this commitment. Much damage to the church has been done by people claiming to follow Christ, but showing no lifestyle change from allowing Him to live within them. 

Where I worship, our mission statement is "helping people journey with Jesus." We chose that because we know that living the Christian life, and following Jesus is a process. It happens over time. It is a journey we invite people to take with us. The expectations listed above don't happen overnight. They will take time to put into practice. But someone seeking to lean into the church and the Christian life should display more and more of these expectations. As always, I welcome your feedback and comments. 

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. 

Changing to the NEW

I enjoy new things, don’t you? New sweaters. New socks. New books. New family members. Every Christmas you probably receive something that is new to you. We recently passed into the new year 2023, so people are making resolutions to start something new. It could be losing weight, eating better, saving money, etc. It's exciting and promising!

Many times "New" comes with "Change." And change is what is sometimes hard to do. I don’t like to CHANGE my phone even though, the next one is NEW. Buttons have changed on it. My earphones no longer plug into it. The list goes on.

I don’t like to change my shoes even though, I have a new pair. They're not broken in yet. I have a new pair of slippers in my closet from 2 Christmas ago. Why? Because I still enjoy the pair I have and I’m still wearing them!

Here's one you might relate to: When a relative thinks you need to upgrade and gives you a NEW TV OR A NEW TABLET and now you have to change. You have to learn how to do everything all over again when the way you were doing it was just fine.

What changes have you made recently? What change have you made because you wanted to? What change have you made because you had to? What change have you made that you didn’t want to?

Change of diet? Change of where you live? Change of people living with you? Change of medication? Change of vehicle? Car? Truck?

Change takes effort. Change implies what I’m currently doing, isn’t sufficient. That it’s outdated. That it isn’t working. But I know it is. It’s been working for years! And I like it. I’m comfortable with it. CHANGE

I understand changing because a piece of technology will no longer work, but some people change for change’s sake. Like changing is a virtue or something. Embrace change, they say. Changing is good. But changing just for the sake of changing, I’m not a supporter. There should be a reason. There should be a good reason.

Probably the best reason to change something is that the old one is worn out, dirty, broken, or just outdated. Changing in this case makes sense and is many times even necessary.

Change your investment to get a better return on your money.
Change your dishes because so many of them are broken.
Change your computer because it is 8 years old and no longer supported (You know who you are).
Changes like this are good and usher in the NEW.

This is how it is with Christ. Give yourself to Christ, and He promises to make you NEW.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the NEW creation has come. The old has gone, the NEW is here.”

The New Testament is full of imagery of putting to death the old man by crucifying him and allowing Christ to make us into someone new. The most effective illustration of this transformation is seen in the act of Christian baptism (Romans 6:1-6). In baptism, we are symbolically burying the old person along with our sins, evil desires, and thoughts. But unlike the physical world, the new believer is raised out of the water tomb immediately and given new life through the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

At baptism, our sins are washed away (Acts 22:16), we are clothed with Christ (Galatians 3:27), we are saved (1 Peter 3:21), and we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).

God wants to change you to make you NEW! If you haven't allowed Him to do that yet, what are you waiting for? It's 2023! Time for Change! Now, get back to figuring out how to use that new TV remote!

Focus on the Team - Part 3 - Distractions

This month we are wrapping up "Focus on the Team" with part 3, Distractions. We're going to be talking about distractions that occur in the Christian life. If you missed part 1 and part 2, you can read those on my blog, Writer's Block. 

Just a little recap before we just into this month's topic. Using a baseball comparison, Christians make up a team which is the church. Our coach is Jesus Christ and He is our focus. If we stay focused on the coach, taking signals from him, and listening to His voice, He will be pleased with us. We do our best to "play" or live as a team. But what happens when we take our eyes off our coach? Or if we decide we don't like our team and decide to skip a practice or just not play in the game at all? The world is full of distractions tempting us to do exactly that. Let's throw it up to the booth and look at that. 

Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 13:1-9 commonly called, "The parable of the sower." The Message reads this way: 

“What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams." 

In danger of mixing my metaphors, let's try to make sense of this parable and the distractions Christians face today. When Jesus explains the parable to his disciples he tells them that the seed is the message about the kingdom of God. For our purposes, let's just say the seed is living a Christian life. 

The farmer and the seed are constant in this parable. The grounds are the heart of the individual hearing the message. What we will focus on are the stealers, or the distractors of the seed. 

In the first case, the birds come and eat the seed that was sown. If we don't use what is given to us, there is a danger that it will be taken away. The parable of the talents illustrates this (Matthew 25:14-30). James exhorts us to not just listen to the word, but put it into practice (James 1:22). The distraction then is complacency. We fail to retain what we have. That is the knowledge of how to live a Christian life. We aren't clear on what God wants of us. We read the Bible, but don't understand it. And on top of that, we lack the desire to figure it out. We fail to seek to understand it. We are complacent. This complacency gives the enemy the opportunity to snatch what little we did know away from us. 

In the second illustration, the seed falls on the gravel, but has no roots and is withered by the sun. The distraction is the sun. The sun is a good thing giving light and warmth to our planet. But it can also be dangerous. Don't look into the sun; It will blind you. Don't get too close to the sun; it will burn you up. In this case, a good thing becomes bad. Be careful to not allow "good" things in life to eclipse the "best" thing in life. Sports, hobbies, relaxation, and the like are all good, but be careful they do not consume your life so much that you don't have time for feeding your faith and growing spiritually. 

Finally, our seed falls and sprouts among the weeds only to be choked out by them. Weeds are external distractions or temptations all around us. They are outside of us and they desire to master us. In the parable, Jesus says that the weeds are the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth. Galatians 5:19-21 lists of several acts of the flesh including hatred, discord, jealousy, and fits of rage. The list goes on, but the distraction is clear: worldly temptations. 

In summary, then, seek scripture and the understanding of it. How to apply it to your life. Prioritize the good things in your life with the best things. Keep Jesus and His church at the top of your list. Your calendar and credit card should reflect that. Then keep from sinful temptations that would choke out a fruitful Christian life. 

Focus on the Team - Part 2 - Who is our "Team?"

I wrote last month about Aaron Judge and his New York Yankees. Aaron was laser-focused on his role on the team and their goal to win baseball games. (Update: The Yankees made the post-season playoffs and are currently leading their best-of-seven series against the Cleveland Guardians by 1 game to none.) 

The New York Yankees, aka Bronx Bombers, are arguably one of the most successful sports teams in the United States. They have won 40 American League pennants, and 27 World Series championships, both MLB records. What a great history. What a great team.

If you are a Christian, you are part of a team as well. Our team consists of other Christians all around the world. Our team is the church. Let's take a look at what scripture says about our "team."

Matthew 16:18 states that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. It may not appear that way today, but the church will not be defeated. Not by hell. Not by Satan. Not by anyone. 

Ephesians 1:21 says that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. In modern terms, Jesus is the coach, owner, and GM. He's called the head because often in the Bible the church is called a Body. Christian believers all play a part like a body, with Jesus serving as the head. 

Acts 20:28 tells us that Jesus bought the church with his blood. His sacrifice ushered the church into existence. This speaks to the value the church has. It is priceless. The cost of Christ dying on the cross was enormous. 

You are part of a victorious, priceless team lead by none other  than Jesus Christ himself!

What is so sad is when you hear people say, "I love Jesus, but I don't care for the church." It is akin to saying, "I am rooting for Aaron Judge, but I don't like the Yankees." The Yankees are his team. You can't cheer for one and not the other. The church is Jesus' team. You can't just love Jesus and throw His church to the curb. 

Probably the biggest problem people have is that Jesus is perfect and the church is far from it. Why? Well, the church is full of sinful people like you and me. We have not yet been perfected. That will come one day through Jesus. Until then, the church is full of imperfect people. The future of the church is bright and victorious. 

Next month let's look at the distractions we face as we strive to focus on Jesus and live as the church.