Excellent Ministry

In my class we have been discussing excellent ministry. Is the term excellent appropriate when speaking of church ministry? Or is it too extravagant a goal? And if we can use it what does it mean in the context of ministry?

I believe that excellence is applicable and attainable in Christian ministry. God's excellence is revealed to us in Jesus' cross and resurrection. Jesus' excellence translated into his life through his obedience, his self-emptying, and his self-giving "in vulnerability, in a love that reaches out to all, but especially to those at the margins of society, a love that death cannot overcome." (Jackson W. Carroll, God's Potters)

So then how do we bring excellence into our ministries today. Our ministries must be based and rooted in Christ's excellence, in His cross and resurrection. "Excellent ministry is deeply communal; it involves practices that are focused on building up and strengthening the whole body, which itself is called to be an agent of reconciliation in the world. Excellent ministry is less about exceptionally gifted individuals and more about a community that recognizes and depends on each person's contributions and bears one another's burdens." (Carroll)

A Chicago pastor said this "If our churches are not hopeful places where the gospel that is preached is not about whether the church has lost members or gained members, or about anything that drags people down, then we're just perpetuating a business or something. The church has to offer hope, and not just for people personally but also for the community it serves, and it has to be a place where people find resources for dealing with the world."

I don't know about you, but I long for an excellent church, an excellent ministry; one that is reaching out in love, one that is being the hands and feet of Jesus. One that is building up it's body and using the God-given talents and gifts of its people to reach the world. One that is listening to its congregations ideas and empowering its people to follow their passions, using them to produce a culture of excellence in our church. Excellence is attainable, we have just got to push forward towards it, we have got to remember the hope that is in Jesus' cross and resurrection and share it with the world.