- Article: Excel in Excellence
Article: Excel in Excellence
The business world may call it professionalism, the man on the street may say its "putting your best foot forward", however we all know that excellence is about going beyond the average and being the very best you can possibly be. But how important does God see the issue of excellence?
Psalms 8 Vs 1 declares to us that the name of our God is excellent. Therefore as the representatives of God on Earth we must represent his name in an excellent way through every area of our lives, including excellence work, college, home and church.
How the world does it
In the secular world successful businessmen such as Richard Branson (CEO Virgin Group) and millionaire Charles Dunstan (CPW) attribute the success of their companies to the high level of excellence in the service that they offer.
When you think of things like booking into a hotel, after looking at your personal budget you then want a hotel that is going to give the best quality service for the money you have to offer. As we look into the Bible we see that Daniel was living in a kingdom, which was not his native land, yet he found favour and promotion into government. Daniel Chapter 6 teaches us that there was only one primary reason why Daniel was preferred above all the other officials in the kingdom. It was not because they heard he could interpret dreams or because they knew he interpreted the writing on the wall (Dan 5:7-25 KJV) but the Bible says in v3 (KJV) of chapter 6 it was because he had an "excellent spirit" (KJV). Having an excellent spirit (or spirit of excellence) means to have the internal character that makes you excel beyond the average. If we are to develop this excellence then we must be prepared to invest in ourselves, to bring about professionalism and a high quality of excellence corporately in our church services and ministries and also importantly in our individual personal lives including our conversation, our stewardship, relationships and actions.
Fast facts:
1) Excellence must become a part of our internal character
This point is another way of expressing Daniel Ch 6 Vs 3 _Concerning "the spirit of excellence". If we first have excellence in our hearts and as a part of our character then it will automatically be expressed in every other area of our lives.
2) Excellence attracts excellence
Whenever my father used to take his car to the garage for mechanical repairs or just an MOT he would always try and wash the car first. I found this so strange as I knew a part of the service he was supposed to receive was a full "car wash and valet" once the mechanics had worked on the car, I mean if it's a part of the package then why wash it first yourself. Then he began to teach me a lesson, which is "people will only treat with excellence what they see you treat with excellence". This principle is very simple yet important. If someone comes to your house and sees it presented in an excellent way then they will treat it that way. If you respect and carry yourself with a spirit of excellence then those around you will also treat you with excellence.
3) Excellence will take you where you've never been!
I remember several years ago I was getting on a plane to go and minister in the USA. At the check in desk at the airport I felt like the favour of God was on me and so with politeness and excellence, I asked the lady who was operating the desk if she could bump me up to first class? The first thing she did before saying anything was to look me up and down, (with a polite smile) it felt kind of strange but I knew what she was doing, she was checking out how I was presented and dressed. Well thank God I was looking presentable that day (normally I like to fly dressed dooooooown. Especially if it's an 11 hour flight!); and my God what a world of difference first class made to that flight. I wanted to ask the pilot to keep flying, as I didn't want to get off. You see basic things like how we speak and present ourselves when interacting with people is a part of excellence. Jesus understood this better than anyone else he taught us to treat others how we ourselves would like to be treated. (Luke 6:31).
As children of the King
We as Christians have a responsibility to make sure the world takes the church seriously by showing that we are strong believers in excellence. As children of the King of Kings we must strive to excel in excellence in every area of our church and our lives. It is important to God and so it should be important to us.