Excellence is Over-Rated
"Excellence is over-rated," the speaker at MinistryCOM said.
My generation, the baby boomers, is mightily smitten with excellence. We need to give our best to God. We wear bluejeans to church, but everything we experience there—the music, the message, the multimedia, the publications—must be top quality. If it's not, we complain about the affect poor quality will have on visitors, when really, we just demand excellence for our own pleasure.
At MinistryCOM, the worship team from People's Church there in Nashville opened the sessions. They were great. I sat there basking in those remarkable worship experiences—the superb leader, the tightness of the music…everything. When Pam and I went on vacation in October, we spent one Sunday at People's Church, hearing the team on a regular Sunday. Superb again. Likewise at Quest Church in Lexington. I thrilled at being part of such high quality worship experiences, and have no criticism to level at anybody.
My attitude was: enjoy it while you can. Because that's not what I'm called to on a week-to-week basis. My calling is to a church of 120 people, many of them poor, uneducated, culturally untrained. We can't pull off excellence. The worship team was pretty good for many years, but now we lack a strong worship leader and good singers. I know that musically-savvy may declare us woesomely insufficient. But hey--we are what we've got. We're the willing, and we do our best. Meanwhile, at large churches across Fort Wayne, musicians and singers much more capable than we are go unused, because they aren't needed. Or because their own abilities, though far beyond those of us meager musicians at Anchor, fall short of the "excellence" their own churches demand.
Daniel Schantz wrote an amazing article on the ChristanStandard.com website called "Recovering from Excellence." He says that the quest for excellence can be:
- Elitist. Average people need not apply. Average buildings are unworthy.
- Expensive. Excellence costs money. I've said for a long time that churches "buy" excellence in the form of music ministers and other professionals. "Nowhere did Jesus emphasize having fine things as the mark of superiority," Schantz writes. He notes that Jesus rode a fishing trawler across the Sea of Galilee, not a yacht.
- Exhausting. Schantz says people who demand excellence are just perfectionists, and "Perfection is a disorder."
Sometimes people accustomed to excellence take a condescending attitude toward those of us who must "settle" for what they view as mediocrity. We, on the other hand, view them as uppity, or as as insubstantial fluff. Stereotypoes.
But what about excellence? Should we at Anchor strive for excellence? Should that be a goal for us, and for the other small churches who make up 90% of my denomination? Because though every small church has at least some quality people who could "make it" in a large church (for instance, my wife would make an incredible treasurer), in the end, we just can't compete. We lack the personnel, we lack the resources.
I'll come back to this subject with comments on Schantz's "Alternatives to Excellence."
| Pokes Frontpage |
| About This Blog |
| 50 Things About Me |
| Blogs I Like |
| Greatest Hits |
| Steve's Stuff |
| Contact Me |
| RandomPokes.com |
| SteveDennie.com |
| Anchor Church |
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
Steve, Let me ask you a question, and have you answer honestly. Suppose you got a call that Steve Jobs was coming to your house, because he heard you were a great web designer or writter and wanted to interview you for employment with Apple. What if the President of the United States called and wanted to swing by for dinner. Tell the me the truth now, wouldn't you clean your house from top to bottom, find the best clothes you had or go buy new? And I know you would wear dress shoes instead of sneakers. (I know that to be true from the day you spoke at Anchor)
My point is this, that we would offer our absolute best, which as you know I have always likened to excellence.
I believe that when we offer the best we have, we are offering excellence, our excellence. Excellence is subjective, my standard of excellence is much different from that of Donald Trump, and that is OK. The bible calls for us to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, Holy and pleasing to God. When we offer everything we have to the best of our ability, then I believe we are offering our excellence.
Is there room for improvement? Yes always, but as you improve so will your level of excellence. I don't believe it is something to be reached, but rather something to be given.