The Paradox of Every Service Matters
It was a big Sunday. We’d had the biggest VBS of my career and we’d invited all the parents to attend a family service the following Sunday in kids church. Multiple parents came, including some that didn’t go to my church. Naturally, this day needed to go perfectly. I had put as much pressure on this day as I do for Easter.
Then the unthinkable happened.
Right in the middle of my worship set, my entire computer system crashed. I use video worship and teaching so having this crash was worst case scenario. I didn’t have a backup plan, and I was the only one who could fix it.
Looking back now, I’m not entirely sure what we did to get through it, but we did. The Gospel was proclaimed, and we built relationships with the families that came.
But that was just one service. I could fill this post with story after story of successes and failures on big days and small days, and I’m sure you could too.
After that fateful day, I stumbled upon a paradox.
A paradox is two seemingly contradictory ideas that are true at the same time. It defies logic, but they do exist in our world and they’re fun to think about. Some of the best Sci-Fi explores the dichotomy.
Here’s the paradox for the church world.
Every service matters and no service matters.
Let me explain.
Every service is another opportunity for someone to make the eternal decision to follow Christ. Every service is another chance for God to do a miracle. Every service is a chance for the Spirit to move in an incredible way.
But also, every service is a lot like the one before it. Every service has most of the same people learning the same things, some new to them, some old. Every service is forgotten and summarized into two to three words.
“How was service?”
“It was good.”
And that’s it.
So, what do we do with the paradox? Do we put immense pressure on every week and fall apart when perfection isn’t reached? Or do we act like we don’t care and let whatever happens happen, because in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter?
Paradoxes are fun to think about because we're looking for an either/or solution but, Paradoxes can only be reconciled with both/and.
What do we do?
So, I suggest a third option, do both. Do your best every day. Bring your best effort, you’re A game. Strive for excellence in presentation, hospitality, security, worship, teaching and so much more. And when things go wrong, and they will, don’t worry about it too much because you'll have another chance next week.
There will be people in your church this weekend where it will be a big day for them. It’s their first visit, they’re getting baptized, they decided to follow Christ, that teenage boy finally got the courage to ask the girl out. It’s a big day for them.
There will also be people where this is just another Sunday. They got up, got ready, brought their families, sang, laughed, listened, learned, and then went home. The day wasn’t remarkable, but they made one more deposit on the spiritual walk. When they look back over their lives, they’ll see the impact their decisions made over time. They’ll see the change in themselves and their families.
So as a leader it’s your job to create an environment that facilitates both. An environment where we celebrate the big days, but it’s also a just another Sunday. We can never achieve perfection, but we can achieve excellence, and it’s through excellence that we see lives changed both in the immediate and in the long term.
Three Ways to Achieve Excellence
1. Attention to detail
Details are where the magic happens. It’s more than empty trash cans and clutter out of a corner. It’s looking at every element of the service including the facilities to make sure things look clean, tidy, and put together.
Even if you’re not a detail-oriented person, you need to develop this skill and surround yourself with people who are.
You do the same at your house when you have company come over. You want to create a place that’s welcoming, and your guests don’t feel awkward.
Many churches can become too much like home. They feel lived in and the people who come every week don’t see the holes in the walls, the smells in the bathrooms or the misspelling on the slides. That’s just the way it is. But if we’re going for excellence, we will see those problems and fix them as soon as possible.
2. Bring your best
Giving attention to detail is part of bringing your best, but not all of it. Bringing your best is being prepared before people arrive. Everything is in its place, so you can focus on the people and the task at hand. You're not running around looking for things at the last minute.
Bringing your best is practicing and knowing your stuff so when you’re standing in front of everyone you know what you’re doing and what’s going to happen next.
It’s also going back over the last week and inviting feedback so you can improve. We all have blind spots, and we need other people to help us see them.
3. Work as a team
Your team helps you find those blind spots, but they help with so much more. They help shoulder the load by seeing the details and solving the problems before they arrive. By bringing their A game with their own skills and talents it makes the service as a whole better.
Working as a team shifts the service from a one person show to a team sport that celebrates your collective wins and your collective losses.
When You Fail
Excellence is hard to maintain. You must be committed and surround yourself with other committed people. When you fail, let yourself feel bad… for a little while. I can tell you I did after that disaster of a Sunday after VBS.
But don’t wallow in self-pity. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and go at it again. You may not have achieved excellence, but hopefully you learned something, and you can be that much better next time.
Every service matters and no service matters. On the surface it doesn’t make sense, but when you think about it, it kind of does.
Either way, serve with excellence because you never know when this Sunday is going to be that special Sunday and trust God with the rest. Then when you look back over your life, you’ll see the impact every service made, big and small.