On December 12, 2022, Erik Reed wrote a thread on Twitter about how excellence looks different in small churches than big churches. I intervewed him about the content of it for The Church Lobby podcast (released Jan 26, 2023).
- Here’s a link to the article, where you can listen to the podcast.
- Here is a link Erik’s Twitter thread.
If you’re not on Twitter, this is the entire content of Erik’s thread.
– Karl Vaters
Churches should do things with excellence…but excellence doesn’t mean big lights, sound, and band.
A church of 50 that focuses on having a band and lights for worship will likely come across as lame.
Excellence for them may be a guitar and a hymnal.
Why? 🧵
**Excellence is connected to authenticity
A small church doesn’t have the people or resources for a phenomenal band and lighting. Nor do they need it!
So when they attempt to do that in a small context, it feels inauthentic and out of place.
*imagine this in a small church 🥴
Seek quality musicians and aesthetics, but don’t seek imitation of some other church.
Do things with excellence in a way that matches your context and setting.
If I were to become the pastor of a small rural church, I would seek to do things with excellence.
But that wouldn’t equal turning the place into a smaller version of a mega-church.
I want to make the aesthetics in the worship space beautiful, but in a way that fits that context.
We shouldn’t be scared of the word “excellence” in churches.
Excellence honors God and seeks to glorify Him through beauty.
We should be scared of equivocating excellence with mega-church stage aesthetics and worship style.
95% of churches in America are not mega-churches.
The vast majority of the 380,000 churches are small.
– Seek excellence with the resources you have
– Stop measuring yourself with the mega-church down the road
– Beauty through simplicity and intentionally honors God
Last thing:
I’ve spoken at tons of student events over the years.
Often times in those environments there’s an attempt at cools lights and big band…but students aren’t engaged.
Why? It’s not real excellence. The students have a bologna detector when something feels goofy.
What would be better in those environments?
IMO…someone with a guitar or piano leading songs that are less hype and more substantive.
Genuine singing of the gospel without attempts to wow through other means is far more effective than bells and whistles.
That’s excellence.
I hope this helps church leaders think through excellence in their own contexts and liberates them from imitating churches with different contexts.
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Feeding & Leading the Sheep – Revue
