I had never seen my daughter, Emmalee, so excited about getting her nails done at the nail salon. It wasn’t actually that she was able to get them done, but that she was adding sparkles to them this time. Since sparkles had been added to her nails before, why was she more excited this time? Because she works at Chick-fil-A.
Here’s why that is significant. She had a few days off to spend with my parents, who were ministering at a church in Arizona. Her Chick-fil-A doesn’t allow any form of two-tone nail polish, and sparkles are considered two-tone. This was her chance to have sparkles for a couple of days before she had to clean them off and go back to work. Come to think of it, her Chick-fil-A does not allow tattoos to show, either. Thankfully, Emm draws the line with sparkling nails, so we were good there. Actually, Chick-fil-A has several rules she has to abide by as an employee. There is the mandatory, yet cheery, “My pleasure!” for which the restaurant is known. There are the requirements on what they wear, along with the details of how they put orders together, how they treat mistakes, along with a myriad of other guidelines that the company instills in its employees. Why go to such lengths? Chicken—to sell lots of chicken. There is a reason that the line is longer at Chick-fil-A than any other place in town. In its effort to do chicken better than anyone else, it created a culture of excellence that draws employees and customers alike. That was one of the reasons I wanted Chick-fil-A to be her first “real” job even though she didn’t want to do fast food. It is a company that feels so strongly about its values that it goes to great lengths to be sure that every employee demonstrates them. Honestly, though, the end result is better chicken.
Watching Chick-fil-A from a closer vantage point has caused me to lament the status of many independent Baptist churches I have visited over the years. It is beyond disappointing how many churches seem to care less about how they present the pillar and ground of divine truth than Chick-fil-A does about selling chicken. There often seems to be a vast difference between the amount of excellence expected, even demanded, from those representing the Gospel versus those who sell a customer a chicken sandwich.
Many times I have heard pastors demean the idea of pursuing excellence in church because they considered it more the domain of business and marketing than the ministry. There seems to be some resistance to developing standards or processes that bring some consistency to our particular ministries.
The idea of pursuing excellence in a church is entirely biblical, even commanded. Paul challenged one particular church in I Corinthians 14 because it was performing spiritual activities in ways that were not effective. Many in the church felt good because they were speaking in tongues, which was perfectly acceptable at the time. The problem was that it was not effective when it came to a church service. He describes the difference in an ineffective service (v 23), then illustrates an effective one (v 24–25). He spends the chapter saying that it wasn’t enough just to pursue their spiritual gifts. They had to do so in such a way that people could clearly understand what was going on. There were effective ways to conduct a service and ways that were ineffective. In one telling verse, he commanded a mindset to which every church needs to be passionately committed. He declared that while members were really excited about their spiritual gifts, they needed to actively pursue excellence in being sure those in attendance clearly understood what they were hearing. He went on to apply this to praying, singing, saying “amen,” teaching, and preaching. He then added that it should be applied to all things (v 26). Can you believe that Paul felt so strongly about this that he expected them to silence someone who refused to excel at what they all claimed to be committed to (v 28)?
Why is it that so many church members will go to a restaurant and be passionately frustrated that the person making their burgers couldn’t get their order right, then turn around and be equally frustrated that someone at church expects them to be consistent in helping in a Sunday School class? Why do we demand that a menu be right when it is listing the sides available for a steak, but it’s not that big of a deal when a bulletin representing a divine institution tasked with presenting timeless truth contains errors? It’s a big deal when someone doesn’t show up for work at Chick-fil-A to sell chicken, so why do Christians get offended when you ask them why they missed their spot for ministry? How is it the chicken restaurant deserves the right to tell employees how to dress, what to say, in what order to prepare food, and how to be kind to difficult people, while people representing God want the freedom to do what they want the way they want to do it?
At the top of the marker board in my personal study at church is a very important phrase: “Everything means something.” One of the greatest helps in developing excellence is the mindset of being deliberate. When Paul said, Let all things be done decently and in order, he was speaking to the whole church. It was his way of saying “everything means something.” Every detail of the institution entrusted with God’s truth says something about His truth. I hope this issue of the Baptist Times will help convince you to pursue excellence in areas small and great that represent the God we serve.