Calvary’s Core Values – Serving with Excellence

I’m continuing my series of posts on Calvary’s Core Values.  You can read some of the previous posts here.  This week, we’re looking at “Serving with Excellence.”

If I can for a moment, I’d like to share a confession with you.  Just between you and me, one of my great frustrations from growing up in the church, and being around church for most of my life, is when people say “It’s good enough.”  Every time I hear that I wonder, “Good enough for what?” 

You see, here’s the disconnect that often happens in churches:  We separate effort from ability.  The thought is that if I give a good effort at something, whether I’m good at it or not, then it’s “good enough.”  While as a pastor, I really appreciate people that serve and give a good effort, the effort and energy that is given toward an area that a person isn’t really gifted in seems kind of wasted.  In 1 Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul writes that the body of Christ (speaking of the Church) is made up of many parts, and yet we are still one body.  What he means is that we are all gifted in different things, but unity happens when we can all work together with our varying abilities toward the same goal.

So here’s where our core value at Calvary comes in.  We believe very strongly in excellence.  What that means to us is that we are very committed to maximizing our resources and abilities to make the greatest impact.  This doesn’t mean we diminish someone’s effort, but we strive to help people find the right places in the ‘body’ that they can maximize their gifts to make the greatest impact.

For example, when I was a youth pastor a number of years ago, I lead worship one Wednesday night.  While I gave my best effort, it was anything but excellent…it was actually pretty pitiful.  Because excellence, giving our best to God, is so important, I didn’t lead worship in our youth service again.  That was my first time, and my last time.  Why?  Not because I’m not important or valued in the Kingdom of God, but my effort was better served in another capacity than leading worship…that wasn’t (and still isn’t) my gifting.

So how do we do things with excellence?  Here’s a few ways we strive to do that:

• We make it a point to be honest.  If we’re not good at something, there’s nothing wrong with admitting it.
• We strive to evaluate.  Evaluation isn’t destructive or negative, it is ‘iron sharpening iron’ working to improve and better the gift God has placed within us.
• We value a person’s place and wiring.  We are adamant that God has a place in the church for everyone.  What that means is that just because someone’s not good at one thing, doesn’t mean they’ll be bad at something else.  God gifts us each to be successful and effective in the purpose He created us for.  When someone discovers that purpose, it can be an eye-opening moment for not only their direction, but also the focus of their giftings.