We no longer live in a churched culture, so we need to start thinking like missionaries who are sent out into the world to bring the Kingdom wherever we encounter those hungry for the presence of God. Yes, we will still gather back together to worship our risen Savior and Lord and to share stories from the mission frontier and to be equipped to go back out in His name. But we will do so in a more organic way, so that we can maximize our resources that we are pouring into mission.
Just to be clear, pursuing the missional frontier is not an excuse to give God sloppy, shoddy, second-rate offerings. However, giving Him a great offering of worship is not a synonym for everything having to be perfect. To help you hit the middle ground—great worship services that don’t deviate into the perfectionism that reduces resources (time, energy, focus, prayer, money, staff) available to mission—you need a shorthand evaluative phrase.
So instead of “Is this excellent?” how about “Is this good enough?” Being good enough is neither the unbridled pursuit of excellence that leads to perfectionism, nor is it the lazy apathy that leads to an unacceptable offering. Exactly where this place of “good enough” falls depends on your place of mission. In the scope of your ministry, is this good enough in the cultural context of the people you are trying to disciple? Good enough in suburban Ohio will probably be different from the good enough for downtown Las Vegas, urban Mumbai or the Amazon jungles of Peru.
One indicator of “good enough” is if what you do is reproducible by others. If your template can only be copied by rock stars with a massive trailer full of physical resources, then you’re in trouble! That will prevent you from building a movement that can be multiplied into a variety of contexts. However, being good enough—neither perfectionism nor laziness—creates a model that can be taken and applied wherever the Lord gives you growth.
Being good enough also builds a culture of authenticity—an authenticity that excellence fights against (because excellence is all bright and shiny and perfect). If you want to build disciples rather than consumers, going hard after authenticity is vital. Excellence and perfectionism won’t help in the war against our consumer culture.
How much energy for mission could you release by refraining from putting yet another layer of perfection onto your worship service?
Where on the spectrum of excellence to apathy are you personally?
Where are your church services?
What needs to change?
