Christian Leadership Alliance

Hiring

 1 of 4

Christian Excellence

Editor's Note: The systems we build in Christian organizations need to reflect excellence. Here are some thoughts on the topic by Dr. Ted Engstrom, who served as president and president emeritus of World Vision International and was former president of Youth for Christ International. This article with timeless wisdom is adapted from an issue of Christian Leadership Letter that Ted Engstrom along with Ed Dayton wrote during their time in leadership at World Vision.

In 1961 Johns Gardner, who was then head of the Carnegie Corporation and was subsequently to move on to prominent roles of leadership in the Department of HEW and Common Cause, wrote a book with the simple title, Excellence.

The book was subtitled, "Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too?" In this book, Gardner was attacking the idea that it is almost undemocratic to excel at something over your fellow man.

Gardner was on the right track. We need to excel. And yet, Christians also fall into this same trap of believing that no one should be better than someone else. We become uneasy with the idea of having the best, being the best, or doing that which is outstanding. In our thinking we all too often don't mind "excellence" if the Lord is given the credit: "The Lord has really blessed the ministry" or "The Lord really gave him great gifts." But we may become suspicious if someone is praised directly for doing an excellent job.

There are some very real tensions here, and they work themselves out in strange ways:

• I once visited a beautiful chapel on a new church campus. In contrast to three obviously expensive chandeliers was a hand-drawn Sunday School attendance chart taped on the foyer wall. They paid $1500 for the chandeliers, but the best they could do to communicate what was happening to people was a crude graph.
• Another time, World Vision was criticized for purchasing first quality plumbing for a new building, a long-term investment that has paid good dividends, but that seemed to some to be "too good."
• In contrast is the pride we exhibit when a Christian makes the "big time" in athletics or politics. For some reason, it's all right to praise man for excellence in the secular realm!

A Problem of Theology

Part of our problem is just defective theology. Most of us cannot live with the biblical (paradoxical) truth that God is doing it all—He is in all and through all, and the parallel, and just as completely incomprehensible, truth—man is the one who has not only been given complete responsibility for his actions, but is commanded to act. All of this is part of our tension in theology and life. We constantly struggle with the concept of operating a business and a ministry. They do not conflict; both are vital.

next page … |  1 of 4

See also:

Choose from these membership options:

• Ministry Member

• Business Member

---

See sample

See more …

Average Reader Rating: Not rated

---