{"id":1909,"date":"2012-03-13T03:00:34","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T10:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=1909"},"modified":"2012-03-09T22:21:19","modified_gmt":"2012-03-10T06:21:19","slug":"3-ways-to-restore-sanity-to-the-excellence-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2012\/03\/13\/3-ways-to-restore-sanity-to-the-excellence-value\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Ways to Restore Sanity to the Excellence Value"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re in local church leadership there\u2019s a very good chance that you have excellence<\/em> listed as one of your church\u2019s core values.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a very good chance that the misunderstanding of that value has caused your church a degree of grief, frustration and confusion.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To help restore a bit of sanity to this important value, here are three important distinctions that must be understood.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0 Understand the distinction between professionalism<\/em> and excellence<\/em><\/strong>
\nProfessionalism is an often misguided attempt to mimic the sheen and polish of a Broadway production or Hollywood blockbuster. At its heart, professionalism is merely showmanship.<\/p>\n

Whereas the heart of excellence, to quote Bill Hybels, \u201chonours God and inspires people\u201d. It\u2019s reflected in a passionate desire to simply not settle for anything less than our best.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0 Understand the distinction between individual excellence<\/em> and corporate excellence<\/em><\/strong>
\nIndividual excellence means \u201cdo your best\u201d. Corporate excellence means \u201cdo OUR best\u201d.<\/p>\n

If deacon Joe sings a solo at the weekend service, individual excellence would call him to do HIS best. But if he simply cannot sing well, and if there are others in the church far more gifted in vocal ministry, corporate excellence would call for that more gifted person to do the solo.<\/p>\n

Corporate excellence calls for the congregation\u2019s best<\/em>, not just an individual\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0 Understand the distinction between perfection<\/em> and excellence<\/em><\/strong>
\nPerfection, almost by definition, is either unattainable or unsustainable. It can lead to an almost neurotic pursuit of error-free ministry that can suck the joy out of your church.<\/p>\n

Excellence, on the other hand, creates an inspiring environment which sees ministry teams spurring one another on. It recognizes that God has only ever given us His very best; therefore we ought to do no less for Him.<\/p>\n

If the excellence value has been causing your ministry undue angst, don\u2019t discard the value. Instead, take it out, brush it off, and apply these three points of clarity to how you live it out.<\/p>\n

Your sanity will be restored, and your church may indeed move to new heights of excellence you never thought possible.<\/p>\n

How do you apply the excellence value in your church?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re in local church leadership there\u2019s a very good chance that you have excellence listed as one of your church\u2019s core values. There\u2019s also a very good chance that the misunderstanding of that value has caused your church a degree of grief, frustration and confusion. To help restore a bit of sanity to this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,478,579,704],"tags":[824,677,805,825],"class_list":["post-1909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-featured","category-ministry-2","category-value","tag-church-leadership","tag-core-values","tag-excellence","tag-values"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1909"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1940,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909\/revisions\/1940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}