best

At church the other day, in the midst of a conversation, someone stated that our VBS is the "best." This wasn't just casually thrown out there, it was repeatedly said with increasing insistence - to the point of saying that no other church's VBS in the area even comes close. For this person, this was a big deal.

What struck me most about this is how different our values can be from one another.

I just don't have a frame of reference for this idea of being better than other churches. I'm not in this gig called ministry in order to make the church at which I work "better" than the others in the area, I don't even understand what that means.

Here's a dictionary definition:

best (n): that which is the most excellent, outstanding or desirable.

If the goal, the purpose, of the church, local and universal, is to 1) expand the Kingdom of God on earth and 2) be Christ's hands and feet in serving and loving a hurting world, what does "better" and "best" mean? In order to be best, that means someone has to be not best. If other churches are "not best" at expanding the Kingdom of God and being Christ's hands and feet, how does that help our goal, our purpose? What does any one church gain by being "best"? Particularly if "best" comes at the cost of negatively impacting another church's efforts in even the slightest way.

Don't get me wrong. One of my core values is doing everything with excellence. In all that I as a person and we as a church set out to do, I believe we should do it to the best of our ability and always be striving to improve and do better. I believe it is important to do the "best" we are able to do, but not in comparison to someone else. Rather, in comparison to ourselves. Being "best" in the sense of competing with other ministries and churches is just not something I can wrap my brain around.

I desire to see this church be the best it can be, to serve the Lord with faithfulness and integrity, to be effective and excellent in being the expression of the body of Christ that God is calling her to be. I also desire to see the other churches in the area do the exact same thing. No one church can effectively reach the vast array of personalities, interests and needs in any community. And there is certainly enough hurt and lost-ness for us all to partner together in reaching.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15