Excellence

Leaders operating from a sense of mission care not only about what they do, but how they do it. They pursue excellence, not for its own sake but for the sake of the mission that orders their lives.

Pursuing excellence with this motive is not a burden; it is a privilege. It is not a pursuit of excellence born out of an obsessive-compulsive perfectionist pathology. Great leaders feel profound gratitude to God for the opportunity to give their lives to the mission he has chosen for them. For them, practicing excellence is part of a grateful response to him. Their commitment to excellence shows up in as many ways as there are for leaders to pursue mission. It may be apparent in organizing a meal for people in community centers, in training small-group leaders at church, or in maximizing the efficiency of operational costs for a global missions enterprise.

“We want to model excellence – from how people are greeted, to the quality of our coffee, to the graphics displayed in our print material, to our Web site, to our worship experiences – everything we do,” Garrett, a church planter, commented on his ministry while giving me a tour of his facilities. “We are committed to excellence because we want people to go, ‘Wow!’ when they come here. We want them to be intrigued in God.”

Excellence is not just a published core value of [Garrett’s] congregation; it is indeed what people experience when they intersect [his] church ministry. The volunteers, not just church staff, evidence this commitment to excellence by the enthusiasm and competence they bring to their work. All this flows from a solid central mission that everyone shares now but that began in the heart and mind of the church planter.

Contrast this experience with the all-too-typical lack of commitment to excellence evidenced on the part of many organizations and ministry groups. Often you run into sloppy work, uninspired efforts, and a “whatever” attitude. When you do, you can be sure that they suffer from a lack of mission.

How have you made excellence not just a value, but a trademark in your ministry?

Excerpted from, Practicing Greatness: 7 Disciplines of Extraordinary Spiritual Leaders by Reggie McNeal (Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2006). Posted with permission from Jossey-Bass/Wiley.