I would like our congregants to support the Pastor as Scripture mandates. I would like them to speak only good about one another and stop grumbling about anything or anyone. When we do this, the church will abound and grow, and we will be more Christ-like representatives in our communities!

My hope for the church is that we will have the strength to stand up and tell the truth about Jesus. Jesus is the Son of God. Everyone has fallen and is sinful. God displayed real love in giving his only Son to die in our place so we can have our lives redeemed. As followers of this Jesus, His Church on this earth today, needs to tell the truth about sin and redemption. We need to show and tell - not just tell. We will be known by our actions and through our actions we will be found out - whether we are really a member of the Jesus kingdom or whether we are not. Real Jesus love is telling people the truth and living that truth with the help of this Jesus as He lives His love through us.

Christians do not regard the Church as a mere human project, an institution that may rise and fall with the ebb and flow of empires, nation-states, ideologies, and the politics of the moment. From one standpoint, of course, this is precisely what the Church does look like. But Christians know something else from the sacred Scriptures: the Church is the Body of Christ, extended throughout time as well as space, the company of all the redeemed of all the ages. This gives us hope when the gates of hell press hard. Martin Luther once compared the Church to a dirty Cinderella, sitting alone in a pile of ashes, scorned by the world. But the Bible tells us something else: this soiled Cinderella in reality is the glorious Bride of Christ. This perspective sustains the persecuted Church throughout the world today, and none of us may dare lose sight of it. Timothy George, founding dean of Beeson Divinity School and general editor of the Reformation Commentary on Scripture.

I hope that the church can always keep its focus on being the presence of the Holy Spirit in the world, on connecting the body of Christ in true communion with all its members - whether they know it yet or not.

I would hope that the church is full of real flesh and blood people with everyday problems, not perfect saints and people pretending to have it all together, when no one ever does. So, less religion and more a leaning on Jesus.

That the Church would praise and honor all three persons of God: honor and respect the Father, truly accept Jesus and the grace and redemption He offers, and seek and accept the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

My hope for the Church is that outsiders would see us as a welcoming place, where they can be themselves without fear of rejection or condemnation when they are living in a sinful situation or with an illness some believers don't recognize as such. A place where they won't feel they first have to clean up their act BEFORE they can join it. But above all, my hope is they wouldn't see us as a bunch of hypocritical Pharisees waiting for them to stumble so we can judge them.

My hope for the Church is that we will fully return to our missional organic roots in community and incarnational ministry to the world God so relentlessly loves, our one heart beating in time with his own, and our community embodying the Gospel we preach. I hope the Church will reflect in its life together an ethos characterized by the Great Commandment of Jesus, the Shema: Hear O Israel! The Lord our God! The Lord is one! Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself.

My hope for the church is that we will be an example for the next generation and leave a legacy of love, service, humility, mercy, grace, and unity to our children and their children.

My hope for the Church is to see each person grow in a Biblically based relationship with Jesus Christ. Recent research by Back To The Bible has shown that a person is not moving closer to Jesus, unless they are engaged in the Bible 4 or more times a week. This includes reading, receiving, reflecting and responding to the Word of God. Today, so many Christians are only basing their spiritual decisions on what they THINK the Bible says, rather than WHAT the Bible actually does say. If only we all could make more time to dig into the Word of God, and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us through the Word. This would see more changes in the spiritual growth of each Christian in the world, than "make me feel good" events that only build on the emotions feelings at the time.