A More Excellent Way

“And yet I show you a more excellent way.” – 1 Corinthians 12:31b (NKJV)

Excellence is a word used by many individuals and organizations to communicate high standards or outstanding qualities. Though many Christian organizations desire excellence, very few have a clear understanding of how to achieve or measure it. There are many definitions of excellence. Godly excellence is defined as a standard of superior qualities that are above the world’s best standards, with the goal to reach Christ’s standards. These superior qualities exceed natural high performance with love.

The Christians in Corinth competed against each other to demonstrate who exemplified the best spiritual gifts, and this caused them to approach excellence from a worldly paradigm. The world uses excellence to compare someone’s performance with another, rather than using it as a tool to achieve one’s best with love. Godly excellence must be achieved with love; otherwise, it is a purely empty performance.

Unfortunately, Christian organizations that desire excellence often find themselves either striving to achieve high performance without love or love without high performance. High performance without love creates a culture of competition, pride, and self-centeredness. On the flip side, love without high performance creates a culture of slothfulness, excuses, and low productivity.

How do we achieve Godly excellence? First, we must understand that Godly excellence will cost us. Organizations that desire Godly excellence must be prepared to invest their time and resources to achieve it. To achieve Godly excellence, you must first determine your definition of superiority and then identify the areas in which you are trying to gain superiority in. You must discover the best practices within your industry, or among similar organizations, and then determine Jesus’ best.

Godly excellence must find itself between the world’s best practice and Jesus’ best. Too often, Christian organizations that strive for excellence in the name of Christ demonstrate natural performance that is beneath the world’s best standards, yet they wrap up their mediocracy with biblical values; this is not excellence! Godly excellence must include high natural performance.

Each organization has four functional departments that make up its infrastructure. These departments include marketing, administration, finance, and operations. Some organizations may have different names for these departments, some even combine some of these departments, but all organizations have them. To create a culture of Godly excellence, your organization must determine the best practices in each of these departments and identify key performance indicators. Those indicators should not only line up with the world’s best practices, but they should also exceed them and reach the standards of Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ standard is defined as doing things well as unto the Lord in love, with a redemptive purpose. In other words, your marketing, operations, finance, and administration departments have to be run in love, based on the best practices in your industry, with a redemptive purpose in mind. This is a high order because whenever you strive to achieve high natural standards, there is a possibility that stress and anxiety will occur because you are pushing human limits. There is also the possibility that you may become arrogant when you achieve those standards since you may have a sense of personal accomplishment without God.

Godly excellence cannot be done by might or by power; it is accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit. Man was created with the ability to reach natural peak performance, but it comes with a price due to sin. To avoid that price and maintain our peak performance, we need to access a supernatural power beyond ourselves. This supernatural power is the power of the Holy Spirit. His power can help us strive beyond our limitations and achieve God’s best, with love, in all situations.

Finally, excellence cannot be achieved without the right people. No matter how effective your processes and systems may be or how clear your measurements are, without the right people who are properly equipped, you will never achieve excellence.

Do you still desire excellence? Research similar organizations in your industry to identify their best practices, determine key performance indicators (based on Jesus’ best), identify the right people, and ask God for the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit to inspire your team to strive toward “a more excellent way.”

My prayer for you today is that God will give you the grace to strive for excellence and be excellent in everything you do for His glory.