I absolutely love my church!! If you were to ask me, I would tell you that NewSpring Church is the most awesome, incredible church on the planet…no exceptions!! It’s not a knock against anyone else’s church…I just love my church!
Matter of fact, I believe that anyone who works in a church should believe that their church is the most awesome church around! If you are working in a church & don’t feel that way about your church…it might be time to find another job?!
I don’t mean that to be rude, it’s just that if your passion doesn’t seem to be where you are; then maybe God is calling you somewhere else? I believe God calls us to the things we are passionate about in Him (meaning our passion derives from our joy in Christ…but that’s another post for another day).
Now some of you may be wondering…why does he love his church so much, what’s up with his church, what makes his church so great? Well, I can’t list every reason I love my church (because that would take forever), but I will share with you my top 5…
- Everything we do is about Jesus!
- Our Senior Pastor, Perry Noble, is the most passionate Jesus freak & the best leader I know!
- We have the best volunteers ever!
- Our staff is more than a team…we’re family!
- Excellence isn’t a question, it is a standard!
Where there are many more GREAT things I could say about my church…I won’t right now. Instead I would love to focus in more on that last one…excellence! Most of the time this word TERRIFIES people…especially people in the church! To be clear, excellence isn’t about perfection…it’s about so much more!
Many times “excellence” is seen as doing everything perfect, with no mistakes, and on the first time…which is impossible! We can’t do everything perfect, but we can do everything with excellence! Doing things with “excellence” means doing everything the very best we can do them! It means not holding back or putting out anything that is “second rate” to the absolute best we can do! It means doing things the best you can the first time you get the shot to do it and avoiding all mistakes possible because you have put your very best into it!
For churches, I believe excellence shouldn’t be a question…but a standard! I just find it hard to believe that organizations, schools, and businesses make it one of their core values and the church…doesn’t! Instead, most of the time we hunker behind the word in fear and think of as many excuses as we can as to why the world can be more “excellent” than us (Warning: each of the following reasons are false):
- They have more talent (We have so much untapped talent its down right shameful)
- They have more money (Not even going to touch this one…)
- They have more time to be creative (the world isn’t more creative than Christ…He created us…that’s creative)
- We don’t have that kind of staff (the world can just keep hiring…funny, the church has passionate volunteers)
- But she has a passion to sing (her voice sounds like a dying raccoon, but her heart is good)
- Blah, blah, blah…
I know I may be coming across a little strong, but I believe it is time for us to stand up as a church! I believe God has called us to excellence and has equipped us to be excellent and so much more!! We have Jesus Christ…what more do we need? The answer…nothing! We just have to change the way we think. Check back tomorrow when we will look at a new way to think through things so that doing everything with excellence becomes our standard…
In case anyone is wondering…I will post the results of the “CEC” (Creative Exercise Challenge) later this week! Also, I am working on a more creative name for the creative challenge than “the CEC.” So, if anyone would like to submit some ideas…feel free (as a comment…below)…
May 29th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Hey Pudge!
Great stuff here man!
Thanks for thinking out loud!
Paul
May 29th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
Pudge, have you ever heard of someone being passionate about what they do, but not passionate about the place in which they do what they do? But as you said, a discussion for another post…
Anyway, excellence is something that I not only aim for, but strongly encourage in the ministry I serve in, mostly because I believe that God smiles at nothing less than our best…. But I must say that out of all of the places I have worked, the church (though I LOVE it) has got to be the most challenging place to hold excellence up as a standard…. It’s like all that we know to be important and beneficial during the week in terms of standards of excellence, etc somehow becomes ok to lay aside when we enter church doors…. Go figure
By the way, I was on your web site the other day and listened to a sermon by your SP and I was so inspired…
June 1st, 2007 at 7:42 am
Paul:
Thanks for the encouragement! I am pumped you like the site!
Darlene:
Thanks for the input and I am pumped you like the website…Perry is a great communicator, pastor, leader and man of God!
To answer your question…yes I have heard of that, but like you said…another discussion for another post (maybe next week). I will say this, I believe we are called to the church we serve & then to the ministry we serve in. For me, if our leadership decided I would be better as a janitor or a GROUPs pastor or anything…I would still be at NewSpring! I am called to NewSpring & then I am called to be a children’s pastor. When you feel like you love what you do, but not where you do it…well we will get into that in another post. Honest questions though…I love that!
thanks guys!
pudge