Defining Excellence
A working definition that takes the pressure off: excellence isn't measuring up to the church down the road — it's doing the best you can with what God has given you, right now.
Before we go any further, we need to define our terms. Here’s the working definition Alex uses for the rest of the course: excellence is doing the best you can with what you have.
What you have, right now
The question isn’t how you stack up against other churches. That’s not what God is measuring you against.
- He is not comparing you to the church down the road, or the church you see online.
- He is asking: are you doing the best you can with what I’ve given to you?
If all God has given you is an acoustic guitar player, a piano player, and a vocalist, then the question is simply — are you working on those people and on that arranging to draw out the very best from that small group?
Excellence is doing the best you can with what you have.
Don’t be discouraged
If you do that — if each day you work at it a little, and each day it gets a little better — then you are achieving musical excellence. As the course goes on, you’ll learn how to keep pushing the bar higher and higher for the greatest possible glory to God. But don’t let a small team, a little church, a bad sound system, or the cool big churches on YouTube discourage you. Are you doing the best you can with what you have? Then you are being excellent.
Application
- Name what God has actually given you right now — your people, your room, your gear. That, not someone else’s setup, is your raw material.
- Where are you comparing yourself to a church online instead of asking “am I doing my best with this”? Let that comparison go.
- Pick one thing this week — a player, an arrangement, your own skill — and move it a little bit forward. That’s excellence in motion.