What Does God Expect …

… from His church.  That was part of the question our pastor asked yesterday morning. He reminisced about our surroundings, our quiet reflection park, the landscaping, fencing, gym, sanctuary, piano – but the real church is the people, not the physical plant. The physical building will eventually rust, decay and crumble. The people will eventually move past this world, too, but God’s work will continue, as it always has.

What does expect us, His children, to do? His book tells us. In one chapter we’re told:

Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. (Joshua 1:7 KJV)

And, He’s told us how to prosper:

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. (Joshua 1:8 KJV)

The actual question Pastor asked was, “What does a successful church look like in 2012?”

If you want to read about what God thought about specific churches, read Paul’s letters to some and John’s Revelation chapters 2 and 3, though there are more admonitions than accolades. Paul does boil the success story down to:

Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. (Romans 13:10 KJV)

He also tells us it is high time we get to work:

And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. (Romans 13:11 KJV)

Our time is limited and there is plenty of work available to keep His children busy. Have we asked Him about our life’s ministry? Have we listened to the Holy Spirit for our commands, or expect they were for only a few:

Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: (Acts 1:2 KJV)

There’s something for each one of us to do.  We all have our testimony of what God has done for us; our witness as we live our lives for Him; and the service He has called us to do. Paul’s example of the body in 1 Corinthians 12 is the one I like best.  Just before he leads us through Love in chapter 13, he asks us:

Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. (1 Corinthians 12:29-31 KJV)

That more excellent way is love. That is the successful church – physical and spiritual – in any year.