From The Archives: This is the 9th most read Post of 2010
I cringe when I hear the word “excellence” thrown around in the church leadership conversation.
It seems everybody loves it. And…I think it is a great concept and something to be concerned about it…It’s just dangerous because no one knows what it means.
Here’s my problem. In my years as an educator and working in churches I have seen the word “excellence” used to validate and rationalize some of the most expensive and worst decisions I have ever seen.
Let me illustrate with a simple example from home. Do you have an “excellent” TV? If my vision statement is to have an “excellent” TV than I am off…credit card in hand…how much could I spend? How about tomorrow when the new models come out? The truth is…without qualifying and defining excellence, I have slipped into a bottomless pit of spending, constant research, and work. My vision quickly becomes an endless pursuit of more.
I see this in church programming all the time.
I felt the pressure of this last week at North Point.
Two weekends ago InsideOut put on MyLife Weekend. It was incredible! Their program was insane…I have never seen anything like it for high schoolers. My problem was that our event for Xtreme (Now called Transit) was the next weekend.
What do you think I wanted to do once I saw that production?
I wanted to “out-excellence” them!
I could have done it too! We had budgeted for fewer kids than showed up so I had some wiggle room. I could have spent a bunch…rented lasers, snow machines, giant sumo suits, some more P.A., and that giant dunk tank full of Twinkies that I always have dreamed of….all in the name of “excellence” and reaching a lost generation for the Lord!
Do you know why I didn’t?
Strategy stopped me.
At North Point we believe in stepping up programming as the kids get older…why throw a band at them when their eight when they are blown away by a single singer and a track? We introduce them to a band in middle school…etc…etc. This goes back to my Astonishment Post a week or two back.
So…I didn’t fall into the pit and we had an “excellent” program on Friday and Saturday night (I can say that because I had very little to do with it). Our production team pulled it off with excellence. It didn’t have all the bells and whistles of the program the week before…and that’s exactly how it was planned.
The pursuit of “excellence” outside of strategy is a dangerous and foolish pursuit.
This pursuit is organizational gluttony…..to put it in “church terms.”
So…where does “excellence” appear on your mission statement? Where do you find yourself using the word in conversation? Have you defined what it means? If not, quit misusing it.
Excellent post! You hit the nail on the head. What sparked my interest was you strategy for stepping up programming as the students get older. Could you share a bit more about that?
I just think you need to sit down “vertically” with the family ministry folks and talk about it…Here are some of our unofficials….Kids don’t get a band til Middle school…they sing with a 6 string in Waumba Land, the sing with Tracks and a worship leader in Upstreet, and they get a band for the first time in Middle School. They also don’t do overnights until they get to be students. Small group leaders dial up their game as they get older as well. The contact outside of Sunday increases as they get older. Those are just some ideas…make sense?
Shef
Yes sir it does! Thank you
wow Shef this is good, hit the nail on the head and made me rethink some things. thanks for this. i’m with micah, could u share more on HOW and in WHAT WAYS u guys step it up in HS vs MS years. in terms of camps and events, sunday AM event. what do you have MS holding for to get in HS? would love to hear.
Middle School to HS isn’t much different. we do give HS the better camp location. The kids love our camp…because they don’t know there is a better one. They also get a higher budget for video production and bands and such. we can keep things pretty simple and still blow the kids mind. It’s not as easy in HS. I call it the Law of Diminishing Astonishment.
Hey Shef, I can’t find the Astonishment post (link wasn’t working), but I love seeing this strategy of increased programming at the next age level applied at NP. My kids have such anticipation for what comes next. My Kindergarten daughter loved moving up to “rock and roll” music this year. She has already told us that she can’t wait to be a middle-schooler “because they get to do sleepovers with their small group.” Love it!
very cool…I fixed the link and also put the whole link up fresh.
Thanks Brian