What is excellence
Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.
Daniel 6:3 ESV
When I first started attending Hope Church, I didn’t know the songs, and my eyes were wide open during the praise and worship. Which is how I always see the mistakes they make in the song slides. I was very critical of details like that, because I was in IT, and I knew all those mistakes can be easily avoided.
In my head I was holding the people behind the scenes to a high standard. In part because I knew how to do it, and also because I knew things could be, and should be, so much better. I wanted everything to be excellent.
Excellence is the quality of being outstanding, or being extremely good. It is initiated by God Himself. Our God, the creator of all things, is the paramount of excellence. He is the standard to which we should all strive to reach. Excellence brings honour to God, and as His people, our desire should be to always give Him glory.
Even though it is unquantifiable, excellence is a measurable quality. That’s why we can have statements like, “the level of excellence.” It is noticeable to people, a tangibly recognisable condition that presents itself most when things are going well, or going smoothly.
And it is noticeable not just to the people observing, but also to the one carrying out the work. You know in your heart when you are being your most excellent self. And you also know it when you are compromising.
Excellence comes about when each individual desires to do the best that they can for God with they have, and bring that excellent spirit to the team.
Misconceptions about excellence
1. Excellence is perfection
When I started serving in the life group (which we called Care Groups before), I was the one who made the song slides, and you can bet that I was very particular about the setup. When I made them, no one could touch them afterwards. In fact, there’s a story that I’m ashamed to remember now, that I actually shouted at someone who dared move the projector and laptop after I had already set it up. Because in my twisted head, it was already perfect the way it was, and I was the only who could do it that way.
Excellence doesn’t mean everything has to go right all the time, or everything should be the same all the time. Excellence in a team is brought about when we are all moving towards an established goal, or to meet a set of standards. And even if we don’t achieve the goal that was expected, it is how we choose to respond that is important. We can either respond with grace or understanding, or with an attitude of blame and finger pointing.
2. Excellence depends on our tools and abilities
I had a friend who talked about taking up jogging for exercise. Every time we would see each other, he would go on and on about it, for weeks on end, saying how much weight he would lose, and where he would go, and the foods and vitamins he would take to be the ultimate jogger. But when I asked him if he had already started, he would say he couldn’t, because he hadn’t yet bought the right equipment — bouncy shoes, athletic clothes, running watch, and this thermal shirt that he said he absolutely needed.
It is normal to think that the more tools or high tech gear we have, the more we can reach the pinnacle of our serving. Yes, these will help us to the work better. But these are not the symbols of excellence.
The measure of our ability to do the work is more accurate when we only have the bare minimum with which to achieve our goals.
People have the tendency to think that the more gears and gadgets that we have, the more that we would be able to reach peak excellence in our chosen field. That is correct to a certain extent, but it is not the entire truth. In reality, sometimes the more tools we have, the more complex things become, and the more things have the tendency to go wrong.
3. Excellence is only expected from those higher up
Just as the words in the Bible are for everyone, regardless of rank or position, place or location, so does God’s call for excellence apply to us all, in every aspect of our lives. It’s not just for leaders, or ministry heads, or pastors, or public servants. We are all expected to be excellent torch bearers in whatever capacity we have been called to serve.
4. Excellence is only applicable for major events
In a big church with several ministries and teams working together to build the house of God, it is normal for schedules to clash. This is where priorities are put in place, an organisational structure that is also mandated by our God who loves order and light. This is also where the term “church level” comes in. In general, activities that are meant to serve the church as a whole take precedence over pastoral activities. It is not a matter of importance, as we are all doing God’s work. It is simply a happy offshoot of being an organised, active church.
But this does not mean that we should only be excellent when we are doing church level activities. We should always give our best effort at all times in all things that are assigned to us. There are no small roles or menial tasks. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.
Conclusion
As long as we are still here on earth we are never going to reach perfection. That’s reserved for heaven. But for now, we strive to be excellent, to be outstanding, to do the best that we can with what we have, all of which also comes from God anyway. We reflect His light back out to the world. And be doing so, we glorify Him in our lives — in the way that we speak, and act, and serve.
Workshop
Separate into teams to do the following activites.
- What does it mean to be excellent in context of the ministry that you are in right now? Make a list in two columns:
- The standards or goals that you have in your ministry
- The specific tasks you have to do to achieve each goal
- Which of the four misconceptions can you most relate with? Share a time when made missteps in serving, and the consequences of these actions.
Teaching slides here.