Doing Church With Excellence

I have heard many Christian leaders say that, "church should be done with excellence." As far as the biblical definition of the church (our mission and our relationships) goes, I agree 100%. God's word gives us a guideline on how to conduct ourselves, what we are to do and how we are suppose to treat one another. It is a definable type of excellence. As far as the modern day, programmed, 'meets-on-Sunday-morning' church structure goes, this statement becomes vague and far less specific. After all, what it excellence to one may be chaos, confusion or yawn inducing to another. This is where denomination comes into play. Why some of us go 'here' while other's go 'there'...why what works for one, doesn't for someone else.

I have the opportunity right now to be a part of two very different church structures. I am working for an Episcopal (Anglican) church while attending a Church or God (Pentecostal). Their bible is the same...their definitions of executing 'church with excellence' are very, very different.

The Episcopalian church has an extensive history, hundreds upon hundreds of years of tradition infused into every service and it's complicated...well...complicated to someone who is outside looking in. The thing that strikes me most about it, is that I have been a Christian my entire life, raised on biblical principle, fed scripture from an early age, and I am in need of a serious Episcopalian education in order to understand the basics of their Sunday morning meeting. The RITE I and RITE II readings, the 'Book of Prayer', the hierarchy of leadership, the protocol for weddings, baptisms, funerals, etc. All is very intricate and very detailed and very....man-made. I came home after my first few days of work and confessed to Jay that I needed to be very aware of how I treat my position because things that seem needless and petty and over-complicated to me are dearly loved and important to the people I am working with and for.
On the other side of things, I greatly respect and have learned a lot from the reverence I see in this working environment. The Reverend has a vesting room where he prepares himself in beautifully decorated robes prior to service. There is a little, old man who comes in daily and shines the silver cups used during communion. The way leadership treats the parish and the volunteers is so deeply encouraging, it's no wonder why families stay in the congregation for generations. The church is STUNNING and I mean breath-taking. Carvings and details as far as the eye can see...a temple built unto the Lord. Whoever worked tirelessly to create that place, did so out of a heart of service and reverence to the High God and you can sense that when you're in there. It's absolutely beautiful...like a physical house worthy of God's name. I just want to sit in there for hours...In the midst of beauty, reverence and attention to detail lies a lot of other stuff that isn't anywhere in scripture but is held in high regard by the people just the same. Is this church being done with excellence? They believe so...

The church I attend on Sunday's is a different matter. It's technology driven, 2010, aimed at meeting people where they are and giving them tools with which to live their lives. The messages are raw, emotional and applicable to real people. You can hear a message at genesis and leave different than when you came in with practical information about how to live your life. This, as well as the children's ministry, are my favourite things about gc.tv. In an effort to be cutting edge, it has taken on the physical appearance of a theatre. The windows are boarded up and painted over, there is an intelligent lighting system, smoke machines, loud music, triple projection screens and speakers delivering cutting edge audio and video. The bulletins have flashy pictures and the service is planned in 5-10 minute increments as to not go over time, since there are two services back to back. People wear headset microphones, similar to a television production, to communicate about lights and sound and distractions. It's really dark and loud in there, so sometimes it's hard to see and meet new people but anyone could feel right at home there...whether you've been a Christian your entire life or are coming to see what it's all about for the first time, you'll understand what's being said and sung. Instead of being focused on where they've come from, they are very focused on the now and where they are going. They have their own structure for weddings and baby dedications, baptisms and so on...Periodically the stress of the operation (electrical outages, video malfunctions, projector issues) become the center of the Sunday morning experience for those of us who are involved with the show and that's always unfortunate, but for the most part I think we try to do the best with what we have. Is our church done with excellence? I think that's the goal...

Since excellence is so relative to the person, I thought I would end this by sharing my most excellent church memory:

I've been attending genesischurch.tv for about 4 years now. For 2 of those years, we were a mobile church that met in a local high school auditorium. This required extensive set up and tear down of equipment and often, things didn't go as planned. On this particular Sunday, we had the stage wired and ready to go, the lighting system was in full force, the curtains were drawn to completely darken the room and we were about 20 minutes from starting the service. Then it happened. The power went out. Everyone went into freak out mode. What do we do? People will be here any minute, they are already showing up! The order of service began to crumble before our very eyes. It was too late to cancel so we improvised.

We opened the shutters and allowed the natural light from God to fill the room. We could see each other's faces in the daylight. It was surreal. I was so use to squinting to see my church family in a smoke-filled, dark room and it was as though I was seeing them all for the first time. Then, we closed the stage curtains. The intricate set up we had spent hours constructing that morning was now hidden behind two, giant, red curtain panels. The band went from being 8 people to two people, and they took to the stage with nothing but acoustic guitars and their natural voices. When everyone gathered, we were told to move as close to the front of the auditorium as possible so that we could hear what was going on and all be together....and with the sun filtering in through the bright, open windows, we sang together...we could hear each other's voices...we could see each other's faces...it was unscripted and unrehearsed. It was real life and real church. After a few songs, the pastor got up and spoke to us briefly about God's greatness. No one was able to play on their iphones or pass notes because we were all gathered so closely together, our eyes and hearts fixed on one thing and one thing only. God's word.

In the 4 years that I've attended this church and the 22 years I've attended others, this is the one moment that sticks out to me as a memorable, powerful, meaningful Sunday morning church moment. It was lovely. It was excellent.