Christian Excellence

In the sect of Christianity I grew up in, and am currently on my way out of, there is a predominant attitude that excellence is not important in the church. There are the occasional exceptions to this rule, but by and large this is the way it is. Cutting corners is usually considered a bad thing in business, especially when it weakens the quality or presentation of the product. Now, I’m not saying that “the Gospel” is a product necessarily, but it is something that we want to put in front of people’s faces as much as possible (it’s called evangelism). Since I’ve never bought anything that someone tried to sell me forcibly, I doubt I would respond well to forcible evangelism. When Jesus met the woman at the well, he didn’t have to scare her with threats of eternal damnation. However, He did help her realize that she was a messed up person. Most of us know how that story ends.

Back to excellence. I’m constantly reminded of the man who gave 3 of his servants each a different sum of money to trade and invest. (Matthew 25:14-29) When the man returned, 2 of the men had used the money wisely to earn a return. The 3rd man simply buried his money, so as to take no risk and guarantee that he would not lose his master’s money. The master was happy with what the first 2 men did and displeased with what the last man did. Consequently, he took the 3rd man’s money and gave it to one of the other men.

If you’ve been at this blog for any amount of time, you know that it sickens me to see Christians living substandard. Kent Hovind thought he was above the law. Christians misunderstand and distrust science. It’s all very frustrating.

On top of that, Christians are criticizing other Christians for pursuing excellence.

But the question inevitably comes up, who determines excellence? What is “our best”?

I’ve been learning from my buddy Matthew, who blogs at exno.blogspot.com, that quality can be quantified. Of course, he is speaking in terms of biology, but I believe the principle applies to much more than that. So we must understand how the quality of our service to God can be quantified.

OK, I know that sounds confusing, so let’s go through it. I LOVE Chick-fil-A restaurants. I believe they are a high-quality fast food establishment. Now, if I think about it long enough, I can successfully quantify WHY Chick-fil-A gives me the impression of excellence. They always have clean floors, their staff is courteous, their fries are always hot, you can be in and out in under 3 minutes most of the time, etc. Now, we could go deeper and deeper quantifying management structure, top-down quality vision and leadership, but you get the point. Quality is directly correlated to quantities.

So, how does that relate to the Christian church? Is God the judge of quality, or is “the world”? Could it be both? Could it be neither?

It’s the natural question to ask, right?

There are tons of things that God is silent about in the Bible. For instance, the early church never used big projector screens (duh, they weren’t invented). But they also never used hymn books. The early church met in houses and Jewish synagogues, not in church buildings. They wore robes, not suit-coats. They sang cultural Jewish styles, not contemporary Christian music (or classical for that matter). The early church did things much differently than even the most conservative of modern churches. The same with the reformers, the Puritans, the fundamentalists, etc.

But they did them in excellence! One of my favorite passages in the Bible is 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Now, some people use this verse as an excuse to NOT exercise excellence in the church. In fact, it means quite the opposite. Essentially, Paul decides to go in and preach a simple message to the Corinthians, rather than a deep theologically rich and impressive message (I liked Perry’s take on this in his post today). Instead, he came in with simplicity and spoke to them simple truths that they would much more easily respond to. But the key here is HOW Paul came to that decision. Look at his words:

For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Paul knew his audience. This is key, remember this.

And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom

Note that Paul does not condemn a message that is expository, just one that is full of a bunch of opinion. Paul stuck to the primaries, and left his opinion on the secondaries out of the message.

that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

OK, that’s really good stuff, did you catch it? Paul was obsessed with making the message about GOD, and dedicating every part of it to pointing to Christ and making sure that it stuck! There’s no point in talking about Jesus in Spanish to an English speaking man. He won’t understand. Likewise, if you talk for 45 minutes in today’s culture, there’s a good chance that people won’t retain much of what you said (yeah, you can complain about how immature we are, and how the early church would listen to hours of preaching all you want. you’re just in denial about reality. Paul wasn’t). I’ve said it before, but a well placed illustration can be priceless for hearers. I’ve retained more of the Biblical principles listening to Andy Stanley than I have any other preachers (from all over the map, McArthur, Piper, Swindoll, J.R.Rice, the whole bunch).

Even in his simplicity, Paul teaches us a lesson about excellence and who judges it. God judges the excellence through our efforts, our obedience, and sometimes through results. If that means “the world” has developed a standard of excellence (for instance, piano playing. Certainly, “the world” has set a standard to use more than just your index fingers to play piano. This is a standard of excellence we would have no problem striving for), then so be it. You can’t reach them if you purposefully repulse them (I’m not talking about the Biblical “the world will hate you”. I’m talking about the attitude of “screw you ‘world’, we’d rather not have you in our church anyway, and we’re darn sure not going to up the quality of our service so you’ll come to church!” That goes for unchurched Christians as well).

Remember back in the parable of the talents (the 3 guys and the money). Notice how the master didn’t inquire into the methods of the 3 men in their quest to invest, he looked at the results. No doubt, the master would have been very upset if the men had used illegal practices to appreciate their money (much like we are to obey scriptural prohibitions in our methods of service), but assuming they followed the law, the master didn’t ask which stocks the men invested in, which brokerage firm they used, what the rate of return was, or any of that. He simply saw efforts and results. No doubt the efforts must not violate scriptural prohibitions, but effort does matter.

God works the same way, folks. Now, I’ll fight you tooth and nail over using methods prohibited in scripture to bring in crowds, but everything else if fair game. I liked this illustration: If God tells you that you have the entire Interstate highway to drive on, no traffic, just you, but tells you that you have to stay on the pavement, do it. But that doesn’t mean you have to keep it in a particular lane. WE’VE GOT THE WHOLE ROAD!!! Take advantage of it!!!

Excellence can be defined as our best. The best we have to offer in our service. If God has blessed you with enough money to buy a sound system that rivals the best in the business, why not get it? If God blesses you with talented musicians, use them!!! If God blesses you with a great video editor, take advantage of that!!! I’m not saying to be a bad steward of God’s money, but the fact is, when you are in charge of a church, you are responsible to NOT put obstacles in the way of a person’s salvation or worship experience. It fact, it’s your job to remove them (that’s why I love apologetics). If your sound system sounds like crap (and God has given you enough money to get a better one), or if your projector is worn out, or if your preaching style can be improved (something every pastor can help), and you don’t remove those obstacles, then you must take partial responsibility for someone tripping over the obstacles. Sure, it would be nice if every human being on earth wasn’t looking for reasons to run from God, but the fact is, we do. It’s a sin (I believe) to hand them excuses to use.

Excellence is quality. But the quantities of excellence must not violate scripture. God’s given us the road; why not use all the lanes? Wake up, Christians! God has called us to excellence!

(Lest I’m accused of taking the versed above out of context, the passage goes on to describe HOW they determined who needed what among the Christians who they taught. Paul also tells us that the more mature Christians are taught deeper information about God. This just goes to show how much God emphasizes giving people what they need. Christians today are bombarded with sex, more-so than any previous generation, due to online pornography, easy travel, etc. This is an example of an issue that all Christians face, and what the church needs to address. I’m a believer in small group classes to dive into deeper issues, and not addressing them in the main services. It seems that Paul knew this principle well.)

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[tags]excellence, christian excellence, church excellence, god, jesus, church[/tags]

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