Excellence Matters- Part 1
I don’t ever want our church to ever be an “average” church. (And by average, I’m not talking about the size of our church, but how we operate here at Southside)
The reality is, and I’m not going to spiritualize this, if we’re going to reach Warner Robins with the Good News, we’re going to have to do things with excellence. The typical, average, ordinary, “business as usual” approach to church isn’t going to reach any lost people I know.
Isn’t that true?
Allow me to share a hypothetical situation with you to try and make my point.
Let’s say a new family visits our church this Sunday, and none of the family members have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Imagine that this family walks onto our campus and is greeted by a sloppily dressed greeter, encouraged to drop their children off in an unclean and unsafe children’s area, escorted to the sanctuary to listen to a poorly prepared worship band and even more poorly prepared pastor, and never even spoken to the rest of the morning.
Will they be attracted to the Christian life? Will they ever come back to our church?
You’re smart. You know the answer, don’t you?
Now, imagine the opposite happens instead.
Imagine that this same family is greeted by some appropriately dressed greeters, encouraged to drop their children off in a clean, safe, and friendly children’s area, escorted to the sanctuary to listen to a professionally prepared worship band and a pastor who’s obviously been thinking about this issue for weeks, and are greeted by multiple smiling and friendly people.
Will they be attracted to the Christian life? Will they ever come back to our church?
Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t know. But I do know that they’ll be much more likely to come back. Right?
And they’ll be much more likely to come back because the door has been opened a little wider for the Holy Spirit to do His work because of a commitment on our part to do things with excellence.
So, what do you think? Do you agree with me that excellence opens the door for evangelism? Or is it worldly to try and do things as well as we can possibly do them? I’d love to get your feedback.
April 15th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
I absolutely agree that excellece is extremely important. But I always have to be careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. I have a tendency to interlink the two. If something is not perfect, then in my mind it is not excellent…but that is so not true. The world is full of mediocrity, individuals and businesses that are okay with just getting by. Although Christianity is not about perfectionism (and we shouldn’t even pretend to be perfect…I think this turns more people away…we need to be real), I think the world should see something different in us, a dedication and excellence in our commitment and in the way we do things. By the way, have you read the book “Purple Cow” by Seth Godin? I’ve been reading several excerpts from it, and the concept intrigues me. And even though this is not a Christian book (I believe it’s about marketing and advertising), the idea has implications that could definitely relate to the church. What is our “purple cow”? Maybe our whole church should be a purple cow, standing out in the crowd of brown cows…isn’t that was Jesus did? He was definitely “purple” in a brown world. Anyway, maybe I’m way off…that’s just what I’m thinking.
April 16th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
I couldn’t have said it better myself. I love the perfections vs. excellence comments too! Wow! And yes, I’ve read “Purple Cow” and it’s a classic. I want Southside to be a purple cow in a world of brown cows.
April 18th, 2008 at 9:46 am
This brought to mind the quote your dad used to say a lot: “The enemy of GREAT is GOOD.” We shouldn’t strive to be just ‘good.’ Rather we should strive for extraordinary in a world full of ordinary. -Jaimie
April 18th, 2008 at 9:55 am
I love that quote. Dad stole it from the book, “Good to Great”. It actually goes, “Good is the enemy of great.” Classic!!