Ok, I have a confession to make. My last post should have been tempered another day before I posted it. I do not make an apology for expecting excellence in The Church. Matter of fact, I was reading just a few moments ago from Ed Young's "The Creative Leader," and came across this:
The expectation of excellence goes back to the core values of your organization. We are by-products of our real values, not our idealistic values. For instance, if one of your stated ministry values is excellence, but there are no systems for evaluation and no expectations in place from your top leaders, excellence will not happen. From the very beginning, God has impressed upon me the need for ministry excellence. We're not talking about perfection, but we have a can-do attitude around Fellowship. Just like any company that expects to thrive in the global economy, the church must exude an atmosphere of excellence.
How many times have you covered your eyes (or ears) in shame or embarrassment during a church service because it was evident that the songs, transitions, prayer, and message were thrown together at the last moment? What kind of message does that send to your unsaved audience? How do you think Christ feels about a church that only provides the bare minimum - when He wants His bride to be magnetic, to draw all people to Him?
The church should lead the way in creativity and excellence. We are not performing for one another but attempting to honor our creative Creator. Excellence in our worship services will motivate our congregation to bring their friends. When a church is excellent in what it does, it will attract people to hear the message of Christ.
The church needs excellence as part of its core values. It is essential that your staff is committed to each one of your core ministry values and that they strive to implement those in their specific areas of ministry. It is also essential that your top leaders are reminded of these values in staff meetings and retreates. When you model excellence as a leader, you will set the tone for your entire staff.
I truly believe what Mr. Young wrote about this aspect of church leadership. My wife can attest to the number of times when I have cringed when the band wasn't together or one of the instrument players hit a wrong note. Sure, people aren't perfect and mistakes will happen, but when it is through an entire worship service, it is very evident to me that almost no preparation or practice has taken place.
Now to the confession/repentence. My last post borders on the seditious/treasonous against the church were my family and I currently attend. Today I was listening to Perry Noble talk about personal responsibility and how it is my job to feed myself. Now, don't get me wrong, if I was new in Christ, I would have no way of feeding myself. I would be just like a baby who has to be taken care of almost constantly. But I have been a Christian for over 20 years and I finally realized that I should not be going to church to be fed, I should be going to church to feed others!
Let me give you an illustration that will drive this point home. There is a video on youtube (do a search on extreme breastfeeding) about a woman who breastfed her daughter until she was almost 9 years old. I don't know about you, but that is just WRONG! By the time a child is 1 1/2-2 years old, they should be off the nipple! At least that is what my wife told me. Taking the analogy a bit further, by the time a Christian is 2 years old in the Lord, they should have been trained by other Christians how to get off the nipple and feed themselves. After my eyes were opened today, I saw why the church is in such a sad state today. Most people who are in church and call themselves a Christian haven't been weened yet.
Service is what all of us are called to. We are called to serve Christ. We are called to serve those around us in our local church. We can't serve if we continually come to church with a bib instead of a fork. I am going to make it a point to bring my fork from now on and get more involved and maybe make a difference in my local church for as long as I am called to be here. I want to grow stronger in the Lord and one of the best ways for that to happen is to get involved and reach out to those who are new to Christ and help them learn to bring their own fork.
Anyway, like I said in my last post, if you aren't part of the solution, you ARE the problem.
Pastor, please forgive me for being part of the problem.
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