Resurrecting Excellence

    In Resurrecting Excellence, Jones and Armstrong explore the idea of bringing excellence back as virtue of every believer.  They begin by focusing on the gospel and how we must have an attitude of excellence as we proclaim the gospel message to the world.  One of the most natural ways to flesh out this type of excellence is in the intersections of our lives.  As our lives intersect with God and others, we have opportunities to let excellence shine as we minister to people on God’s behalf.  As we minister and fulfill God’s calling on our lives, we must elevate the work we do to a new level of excellence.  This type of excellence is a mark on the life of a believer.  It will open the door for future ministry.  As ministers, our profession is that of a person who has been set apart for full time vocational ministry.  As a result, we must allow excellence to be a sign and marker to the world that we are a devoted follower of Christ and have been set aside for this task.  Jones and Armstrong also point out that excellence is a by-product of learning and leading.  We must constantly be learning.  We must look for opportunities to stretch and grow, and then manifest that growth as we exercise our leadership role.  One area we must constantly be learning and growing in is the way we treasure the gifts our faith.  The disciplines that we practice in our own spiritual growth must become the nuggets of gold we treasure and thus grow from.  The things that we treasure will be easily measured in the way we live our lives and lead our ministries.  Overall this book gave a well rounded view of what excellence is in the life of a believer and leader should look like.  It really helped me view leadership through a whole new set of lenses.

In society, success and excellence have come to mean the same thing.  Many people can not distinguish between the two.  If you were to ask 10 people to define these terms, many of the definitions would be the same or a variation of the same thought.  Through my reading, I have determined that as Christians, we need to understand these terms in order to be all that God created us to be.

      Success is a term that is usually imposed upon us by society.  It is a way for us to gauge the progress of an individual or a company.  Many of the tools we use to evaluate success are subjective and biased.  Success to one person may not necessarily be success to another.  As believers, we strive for success in our faith.  We tend to gauge our Christian walk by comparing ourselves to others, which only leaves us empty and defeated.  We can not compare ourselves to someone else.  God created each of us uniquely.  There is no one like us.  We need to strive for excellence rather than success.

  Excellence is the process of becoming all that God created us to be.  For example, if you have a brand new car, you would follow the manufacturers guide to servicing your car in order to maximize the effectiveness of the car.  It was created to operate under certain conditions.  If we want the car to be excellent, we need to operate and maintain it to the specifications that we were given.  It is the same in our lives as we follow Christ.  Jesus came to show us the way to have an abundant “Excellent” life.  We need to follow His guidelines to be able to operate at maximum efficiency.  We need to follow Christ the best way we know how out of the unique way God has shaped us.  When we do this, we will relieve the tension between success and excellence.  We were made to live for more than just existence.  We were made to be excellent.

We can only understand excellence when truly begin to understand the process of sanctification and what God is trying to do in and through us.  Sanctification involves more than a moral reformation of character, brought about by the power of the truth.   It is the work of the Holy Spirit bringing our lives more and more under the influences of the new principles placed in the soul at salvation.   In other words, sanctification is the process of perfecting the work begun at salvation, and it extends to the whole man.  It is the special function of the Holy Spirit in the plan of redemption to carry on this work.  Faith is instrumental in securing sanctification.  It also secures union to Christ, and brings the believer into living contact with the truth, where he is led to yield to obedience and to embrace the promises of God for this life and that which is to come.

             My motives to excel are derived from a need to please God.  I want everything I do to bring honor and glory to Him.  I do not have a hidden agenda.  I serve to bring Him glory.  I believe that others can see your motives if you are out for success through self glorification.  There is something not right about that.  If we are to please God we must put Him first.  The way I look at it, if I do my best to obey and serve God to the best of my ability, I can lay my head down at night and have no regrets.

Excellence has really become a part of who I am.  I believe that as Christians, we need to be excellent in all we do.  The world is looking for any reason to defame the name of God.  We do not need to give them any ammunition.  I believe as Ministers, we need to be excellent when it come to service, integrity, understanding our culture, caring and loving people, and setting the example.  I am not saying that we need to be perfect, but we need to be excellent.  When we do things right, we need to give glory to God.  When we mess up we need to show our students the right way to confess, repent, and thank God.  We need to set the example.  We need to lead from the front.  The people we minister to do not want us to point them to God; they want us to lead them there.