Most Excellent! Or is it?

Kathy Escobar wrote an excellent very thought-provoking blog article about the perfectionism and performance issues that arise by focusing too much on excellence.

i’m all for doing a good job, and i’m a perfectionist at heart. but when i read the gospels and see the ministry of Jesus, “excellence” is not a word that i’d connect to him, at least not in the definitions we seem to use.

to most leaders, “excellence” means top-notch, focused, seamless, entertaining, powerful, inspirational, compelling, squared-away, strategic and organized events, gatherings, structures, and teams. and excellence sells. people are strangely drawn to it. the bar keeps getting higher and the need for “excellence” keeps increasing. no one means bad by it, but i also think we need to be aware of how much damage “excellence” can cause to the body of Christ. i really do think it does more harm than good overall. it creates a false sense of what’s really important in the “christian” life. it makes the less-excellent feel less-worthy & valuable. it perpetuates power & strength instead of humility & sacrifice. it feeds egos. it creates an “us and them.” it reflects the culture & not the kingdom.

yet, it’s incredible ability to have permeated typical christian culture should not go unnoticed. the pressure for leaders & churches to “raise their game” and perpetuate excellence can’t be underestimated. the competition is stiff out there & survival of the fittest requires the strongest swimmers to bring it, and bring it hard to “take it to the next level.”

Jesus did not model “excellence”; in fact, in so many ways he is the antithesis of all of the nutty things we build churches on. he chose the oddest, least likely, least qualified people to be in his inner circle, he was completely unpredictable, he continually interacted with the people everyone else looked down on, he was very fuzzy & confusing in much of his communication, teaching in parables. people looked to him to be the triumphant, powerful king, and he ended up hung on a cross instead.

when i think of kingdom values i think of equality, generosity, mercy, sacrifice, justice, freedom. i do not think of “excellence.”

and in fact, i believe that “excellence” gets in the way of so many of these critical values that Jesus spoke about, modeled, and embodied. here’s why:

Please read the rest of the article on Kathy's blog and be sure to read the comments as well. This is a very good discussion.

I'd love for you to share your thoughts here as well.