Excellence Isn't a Spiritual Gift (And Why That's Good News)

In this episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, host Todd Rhoades discusses the tendency in churches to accept mediocrity under the guise of spirituality. He emphasizes the importance of striving for excellence in church work, not to impress others, but to honor God and serve the community effectively. Todd challenges the common dichotomy between spirituality and competence and urges churches to create a culture where feedback is not viewed as criticism but as an opportunity for improvement. He concludes with a call for leaders to model excellence to foster a culture of integrity and faithfulness in ministry. • Church work should strive for excellence, not settle for mediocrity. • Spirituality and competence should not be treated as opposites. • Excellence is a spiritual discipline, not a spiritual gift. • Feedback should be encouraged and not perceived as criticism. • Leaders set the standard for excellence and integrity in ministry. • Excellence reflects God's order and intentionality, impacting both the staff and community.

Have questions or comments?  Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com

Be sure to subscribe to The Healthy Church Staff Podcast wherever you regularly listen to podcasts.

- - - - -

Is Your Church Hiring?
If your church is searching for a new staff member, reach out to Todd for a conversation on how he might be able to help.

Are You Looking for a New Ministry Role?
If you are open to a new church role in the next few months, add your free resume and profile at ChemistryStaffing.com.

Transcript

Typos And The Mediocrity Lie

SPEAKER_00 0:08

You sent the all-church email, there were three typos, the wrong date, a deadly, and someone gently mentions that you think, hey, we're not a corporation here, we're doing ministry. Or maybe you're on the other side, you're the one who caught the typos, and you're biting your tongue because you don't want to be that person that brings it up. Here's the truth we're talking about today on the podcast. Jesus never said good enough for church work. Hi there, my name's Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders over at ChemistryStaffing.com. You're listening to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. We've bought a lie, I think, a lot of times. It sounds spiritual, but it just isn't. We've spiritualized in some churches, maybe many churches. Hopefully not your church, but maybe. We've spiritualized mediocrity. God looks at the heart, not at the details. We're volunteers. What do you expect? At least we're doing something. And listen, I get it. Ministries are is hard. Budgets are often tight. You're probably

Excellence As Worship Not Image

SPEAKER_00 1:18

understaffed. But here's what we've missed. Excellence isn't about impressing people. It's about honoring God and the people He's called you to serve. So where did we start to get things backwards? Somewhere along the way, I think we started treating spiritual and competent like they're opposites. If you care too much about quality, you're worldly. If you want things done well, you're a perfectionist. If you point out a mistake, you're not being gracious. So we lower the bar and we call it, guess what? We call it humility. We miss deadlines, we call it margin. We do sloppy work, we call it faith. And the world watches, your church watches and thinks hey, if that's how they run a church, why would I trust them with my soul? Now, listen, I know you're not lazy. I know you care deeply about the mission, but caring about the mission means caring about how we do the work. And excellence is not a spiritual gift, but it is a spiritual discipline, and disciplines can be learned. So, what does this actually look like? What I'm Todd, what are you asking me to do? Let me

Spiritual And Skillful Belong Together

SPEAKER_00 2:28

be clear. First, stop separating spiritual from skillful. Colossians uh 3, 23 says, Whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart as working under the Lord. That includes that email and the bulletin and even the announcement slide. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well. So that's the first thing is stop separating the word spiritual from the word skillful.

Excellence Versus Perfectionism

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Secondly, excellence doesn't mean perfection. And I am speaking as a perfectionist. Believe me, I delay a lot of my work because I'm just trying to make it better. Perfectionism is about you, it's about me, it's about your reputation, your image, your fears. Excellence is about them. It's the people you're serving and the God that you represent. Perfectionism paralyzes, excellence prioritizes. So that's number two. Excellence doesn't mean perfection. And then number three, create a culture where feedback is not an attack. I'm working on a project right now where I've worked really hard, I've even used some of my perfectionist and perfectionistic tendencies, and put it out there to my team, and now I'm getting feedback. And we need to create a culture where feedback isn't an attack. And I have to really guard this with myself, because sometimes feedback can feel like an attack. My perfectionism, even my perfectionism wasn't good enough. But that's not the thing. You

Feedback Without Fragility

SPEAKER_00 3:56

gotta create a culture, even if it's against how you normally work, create a culture where feedback is not an attack. If someone can't point out a typo without becoming a thing, your team has uh a whole lot of trouble. Or the capital T, as they say. I think was that the music band? I think that was the music band. Anyway, healthy teams say, hey, here's a mistake, there's a mistake here. Let's fix it, let's move on. Fragile teams say, Why are you so critical? And then nothing gets better.

Leaders Set The Standard

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Last thing, you need to model this from the top. If you're the leader and you're chronically late, if you're horribly disorganized or careless, your team will mirror that because you as the leader's at the ceiling. And here's why it matters more than you think, more than you think. Your work quality is a discipleship issue when it comes right down to it. When a staff member sees you blow off deadlines, they learn ministry doesn't require integrity. When they see that you care about details, they learn God is a God of order and intentionality. And when your community sees excellence, they don't think, wow, what a great staff. They think, wow, what a great guy. Because the gospel isn't just what we say, but yep, it's how we say it. It's not just the message, it's the medium. And if the medium is sloppy, the message gets lost. So here's your bottom line

Faithful Work And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 5:19

for today. Excellence in ministry is about being impressive. It's not about impressing others, it's about being faithful with what's in front of you. Hey, thanks for listening. If this helped you today, share it with somebody on your team. Remember, you're not aiming for perfect, you're aiming for faithful. That's the difference. If there's any way I can help you, reach out to me, podcast at chemistry staffing.com. I'll be right back here, and I hope to talk to you again right here.