1. Should NOT expect to come to church for just one hour on Sunday morning to get all you and your kids need for personal spiritual growth until the next Sunday. Expect to be inconvenienced, to be pushed out of your comfort zone, to make new spiritual commitments, and to be prodded toward Jesus’ mission in your life.
2. Should NOT expect that Jesus will fit in with every consumerist, capitalist assumption, lifestyle and convenience you may have. Expect challenges to live a more radical, Jesus lifestyle of generosity, selflessness and service to a needy world.
3. Should NOT expect that community comes to you. Expect finding true community to require some “effort” from you and a willingness to commit a significant piece of time to doing life with other believers.
4. Should NOT expect to be entertained at worship on Sunday by a slick, production style, “feel good” event. You can go to the movies for that sort of experience. Expect to engage in worship that creates moments between you and God which will lead to greater love, insight, honesty and obedience.
5. Should NOT expect a raucous, flashy youth program that entertains students and sends them home all pumped up because they had so much fun. Expect instead that over the years as students rub shoulders with their leaders, sit under biblical teaching, and engage in missional experiences that they will want to follow Jesus for a lifetime.
6. Should NOT expect all the meetings to happen in a church building or the mentality that the building is where all the good stuff is happening. Expect some push to get out of the clean church building and to get into the messy world.
7. Should NOT expect arguments over style of music, carpet color, or secondary doctrinal stuff. Expect the great commission and the great commandment to be the great topics of interest.
8. Should NOT expect that the weekly financial gifts will all get poured back into more polished programming, fancier buildings and flashier technology. Expect a commitment to freeing up more and more financial resources to meet pressing needs in our community and world.
9. Should NOT expect a staff member to take care of everything. We can’t afford and don’t want to build a large, paid staff. Expect that we lean on volunteers to invest their gifts, time, and energy to help pull off our mission and that things may not always run smoothly and efficiently. This is a church—not a business.
10. Should NOT expect that you will be the center of attention. If you need to feel important and be catered to, this isn’t the church for you. Expect to be given the role of a servant and to be blessed in direct proportion to how much you attempt to be a blessing to others.

(Adapted from David Fitch’s blog: Reclaiming the Mission)