Pursuing Excellence

Rory Noland has some awesome things to say about pursuing excellence that I believe needs to be heard without paraphrase. Why "recreate the wheel" when it's already said so well? Here is what he has to say: (You can find this passage on pages 136-137 of your Heart of Worship book)

By now some of you might be saying, "Now, wait a minute. Didn't the masters and the great artists of history have a perfectionistic streak that catapulted their art into greatness? Wasn't perfectionism part of their genius?" It's my observation that pursuing perfectionism is destructive to the artist and his or her art. Perfectionism is unhealthy. It inhibits performance and stifles creativity. I think the best artists pursue excellence, not perfection. In fact, I'd like to propose that perfectionism is more or less the evil twin of excellence. While perfectionism is destructive and man-centered, pursuing excellence is constructive and God-honoring. Instead of pursuing perfection, we need to pursue excellence.

Nancy Breach, our programming director here at Willow Creek, defines excellence as "doing the best you can with what you have." No matter how much or how little talent we've been given, we can all try to do our best. For all of you perfectionists out there, note the word TRY. God understands that we're not perfect. All He's asking us to do is to try. No matter where you are in your development as an artist, we can all try to do things with excellence. You don't have to be a professional to do the best you can with what you have. you don't even have to be an accomplished artist. you just have to be willing to try to do your best.

Pursuing excellence means we do our best with what we have, to the glory of God. He is worthy of our very best. We serve an ultimately creative God. When He created the world, He imbued it with breathtaking beauty and awe-inspiring majesty. God didn't just throw things together when He created the universe. He modeled creative excellence for us. Seven times during the Genesis account of creation, God stands back, looks at what He's created, and says, "It is good." It's obvious that we serve a God who delights in creativity and values doing things with excellence.

Excellence is also a powerful witness for Christ. Most non-Christians who ever end up in church expect the music to be lousy and outdated. They don't expect to be moved by drama or dance or the visual arts. Wouldn't it be great if they were to come expecting the worst but instead found the arts produced with creativity and excellence? Wouldn't it be great if the local church were leading the way in artistic excellence for our culture? Proverbs 22:29 says, "Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before Kings; he will not serve before obscure men." When we do things with excellence, the world will sit up and take notice, and we can point them to the God who created us, gifted us, and loves us.

Noland outlines several different points in the above passage that need some consideration:

1. Perfectionism is destructive and excellence is constructive and God honoring
2. We must always TRY for excellence no matter what
3. As Christian artists, we have a powerful tool at our fingertips that can engage non-believers and begin their Christ-centered conversations

Reflect on this passage by giving your insight on one of the major points. It would be valuable to hear how one of the points may be practiced in our worship team, how we may continue to move forward and be "current", or even personal success stories of how we have achieved one of the points.

Thank you for sharing!