A Definition of Excellence I Can Get Behind

When I get around creative ministry folks and hear the word excellence thrown around, I always cringe a little. For one, art is subjective. Who’s to say what excellence is? I see works all the time that people fall all over, that, quite frankly, look like they could have been done by a monkey and not even a trained monkey. I also see artists who clearly have wonderful technique, belittled and berated in the arts community. Excellence is in the eye of the beholder.

Moreover, excellence in art requires growth. It requires failure. It requires making work and putting it out there for the world to see. When we start to talk about excellence in creative ministry, I wonder how we will allow for those who are clearly gifted, but inexperienced, needing to learn and grow and display/perform but being deprived the opportunity in the name of “excellence,” whatever that means. The last thing the church needs is elitist creatives keeping people from walking into their God-given gifting.

Then in the midst of reading, Manuel Luz’ book Imagine That, I saw a definition of excellence I can get behind.

“Excellence is doing the best you can with what you have.”

That’s called faithfulness, it allows for growth, learning, failure, etc. If you’ve given your best today, that’s enough, because we all know this to be true. If you give your best every day, to every project, day in and day out, your best gets better, and better.

So work with excellence today, whatever that means today, knowing full well that you’ll be more excellent tomorrow.