“Excellence creates comfort. We never, ever compromise on quality. The message deserves nothing less.” -Crash Course, Fresh Life Church
I’ve been a Christian my entire life. Growing up in a conservative, and slightly boring, Lutheran church, and then branching out to contemporary megachurches once I got in college. From college on, I moved around a lot at that point and found it fun to attend many different churches, which also made me notice differences and similarities that made churches thrive.
I’m a bit hesitant to say this because the point of church is really to develop a relationship with God and be in community with others. But, like everything these days, some people/brands/businesses/churches stand out, while others don’t. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It’s just like in business, you can’t continue doing the same thing year after year and expect people to be interested or excited. Sure you can offer the same exact thing (in this case, faith itself,) but to reach more people (which is the point), you have to continually work and be better.
Which is what brings me back to my original quote I mentioned.
Two years about I was up in Bozeman visiting a friend and staying in a cabin in the mountains. Since I was there over the weekend, and since Bozeman is bigger than Jackson, I thought there might be a chance that there would be a contemporary church in town. I prefer contemporary services because the worship is more engaging, the preaching is very relatable to today, and to be honest, they are often more welcoming and less awkward.
I came across a cool website, a church called Fresh Life, and decided I’d go, and talk my friend I’d driven up with into going. The funniest part was when we walked in and the band was playing and he turns to me, looking confused, and says “I think we’re in the wrong place.” That really made me laugh because if you’re only familiar with old-school churches this will seem a bit strange.
So I loved it, I came back to Jackson and wrote them an email that they should start a site in Jackson, and began watching online occasionally.
Fast-forward 2 years, and next month, they are launching their Jackson location. I really couldn’t be more excited!
Which brings me to the topic of excellence. How? Because a few of us who are helping launch the church are going through Crash Course, their intro course to the church and this piece happened to be what stood out to me the most. I actually am really enjoying the course, as it is enlightening for me to look at it in a business sense and hear how they have been successful while sticking to their morals first and foremost…something quite a few businesses fail at.
So what does excellence have to do with anything? When they said we do nothing half-way, it made me think of myself. I’ve always prided myself on a relaxed approach to business, making things happen but not taking anything too seriously. I try hard, but if it doesn’t work out, oh well. I work with a lot of people on projects, but if I’m being honest, I put my time before theirs.
So when this excellence point came up, and they talked about how they would never do anything halfway, never compromise on quality, because what they are creating deserves that, it hit home with me. It also made me think of Jo on Fixer Upper. When shes renovating a house and maybe the color she just had them paint it is one tiny shade off, but she has them repaint it. In my head, I’m always thinking, “Gosh that seems like unnecessary work” and I don’t think I’d redo it, but after this talk, it’s all making more sense. She’s not willing to give just enough to get by, and that is probably a key part of why she is where she is today.
Excellence allows people to understand quickly and easily, while also creating a comfortable environment. Whether that’s talking over a project that looks extremely professional and can be talked about with ease or entering a home that makes you feel amazing. We can agree that something nicely done is much more exciting and less awkward for both you and the viewer or client, or new person coming to church.
Stopping at 50 or 75% tends to not only leave others unsatisfied while also making us feel like we could’ve and should’ve done more. So set out with an excellence mindset. This is a challenge to do things 100% to the best of your ability today.
Have the best day ever!!!
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