I sent out an article to the executive team of our church about the topic of excellence. Then I received an e-mail from one of the leaders in response.
Here is a portion of the e-mail (I normally don’t do post other people’s e-mail but I thought it was pretty significant… and I received permission from this person to post it):
This person has a valid point because excellence needs to permeate to all aspects of our lives, even in loving people around us – we need to do this with excellence. It is sometimes harder to gauge or measure. But this person’s point is taken – I could emphasize this more when I talk about excellence.
But the question that comes to my mind is – “Is it better to teach about “excellence” in general or to give every single example so that people can understand?” When I teach it in general terms, people have a hard time contextualizing it to specific areas in their lives. If I start using specific examples, then I might miss an area where excellence should be demonstrated or emphasized. Oh, the dilemma.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines “excellence” as, “the state, quality, or condition of excelling; superiority” and “something in which one excels.” I think we have lost perspective over this topic of excellence. It really comes down to some basic questions:
With these questions, it WILL ADDRESS all the various contexts a person can possibly think of. The problem is that too many of us dichotomize our lives. But the passion of excellence has to be reflected on all areas of our lives – work, studies, serving the church, etc. Even in loving people, we need to excel and reflect God’s glory.
I pray that we will not excuse ourselves when we do not do things with excellence. God’s glory and honor is on the line. Can people see the excellence of God in us?
