Attending a school assembly is always fun.  60 minutes of clapping for kids you don’t know for getting awards like ‘Giving Their Best In All Subjects” is sheer excitement.

One thing today stuck out to me so much I wanted to share.  At the end of the assembly, the principal pitted the K - 2nd graders against the 3rd - 5th graders in seeing who could shout the school’s motto the loudest.  I didn’t know the motto at all until 150 plus kids screamed “Great Students - Great Staff - Great Expectations” and I immediately thought:

“THE CHURCH IS NO DIFFERENT”…

We’re going through teaching on our values and mission with the core group of Eternity and this motto holds true for the church as well…to be a great church you have to have:

GREAT MEMBERS - people who understand what the church is, what their commitment to it is, what the purpose of the church is and have a firm understanding of the foundation of the church - namely the Gospel and the Bible…without great members, you have nothing….

GREAT STAFF (ELDERS) - leaders who understand that they are not there to lord it over the church but to serve it.  They are not their to be kings but equippers of the the members.  They are not there just to do the business of the church but to LEAD and TEACH the church.  They are there to exercise wisdom and serve for the good of the members.  And they must realize that they are there for EVERY member…not just those who give the most money…we seem to not have enough of these kind of leaders…

GREAT EXPECTATIONS - read your Bible and you’ll find that we serve a God of great expectations.  And when you understand the Gospel, you’ll realize that our hope in what is to come is a hope of something truly magnificent and amazing.  Our hope is that we will one day be with God himself in the New Heavens and the New Earth.  We serve a God of great fulfillment, therefore we should be people of great expectations…

What do you expect of God?  Is it piddly?  Is it meager?  Is it average?  Do your expectations of what God will, wants, and can do match the God you find in Scripture?  Maybe the reason churches aren’t great is because the members and leaders have NO EXPECTATIONS…

- They don’t EXPECT people to pray
- They don’t EXPECT people to sing
- They don’t EXPECT people to lead
- They don’t EXPECT people to give
- They don’t EXPECT people to attend
- They don’t EXPECT people to serve
- They don’t EXPECT people to forgive
- They don’t EXPECT people to honor one another
- They don’t EXPECT husbands to lead their homes
- They don’t EXPECT people to read their Bibles
- They don’t EXPECT people to sacrifice
- They don’t EXPECT people to love

Maybe we could learn a lot from a school assembly….