In some of the seminars I lead for church leaders I stress that smaller churches can often accomplish more by doing less. Sometimes smaller churches try to compete with larger churches by offering more ministries and programs than it can do well. It is far better to do a few things with excellence than a lot of things with mediocrity.
A good thing to do is to try to look at your church and its ministries through the eyes of a stranger. Some churches even hire "church shoppers" to do that for them. When we've been part of a church for a number of years we stop seeing the things that a new set of eyes would see. There was a time when the church nursery could be in the basement next to the furnace with a couple of teenage girls watching over the kids. New parents visiting a church for the first time are not going to find that acceptable today. There was a time when visitors to the church were asked to stand and introduce themselves. No one wants to do that today! I've been in churches where it took almost as long reading the announcements out of the bulletin than it took for the preacher to deliver his sermon. Few people want to hear an announcement about an upcoming finance committee meeting.
People today have an expectation of excellence. They shop in stores that provide good value and a nice shopping experience. Most people would rather eat in a clean restaurant offering well prepared meals than to eat at the Road-Kill Grill. We want fast, reliable Internet service rather than the slow dial-up Internet we started with. When something goes wrong we want a quick response to our problem, and we want it fixed right the first time. That same expectation of excellence is carried over into our church experience as well.
How would outsiders rate the quality of your worship service? I realize that is pretty subjective, but there are some things you can measure. Are the people in your service engaged in worship or is there a sense of boredom and weariness? Do people rush out to their cars when the service ends or are groups of people standing around chatting after the service? Is there a warmth to your service? I've attended the First Church of the Refrigerator where there was a coldness felt throughout the worship service. Do things move along quickly? Our attention span decreases almost every year, and just like radio stations don't want dead-air time, our church services need to move along quickly.
As churches struggle financially one of the first things that often happens is that building maintenance and upkeep suffer. What do people see when they drive by your building? Is the yard kept mowed and the flower beds weeded? Do the windows and doors need a fresh coat of paint? How long has it been since the carpet was cleaned? Do the interior walls need a fresh coat of paint? If you're still using hymn books, what condition are they in? Are the bathrooms kept spotless and smelling good? Are there signs directing new people where they need to go? Do you have trained greeters at the entrances ready to welcome people as they enter? First impressions do matter, and they influence a person's entire worship experience.
Excellence is a mindset. Anything that a church is doing that is being done in a haphazard manner should be stopped. Either improve the way it is being offered or don't do it until improvements can be made. "Good enough" is not good enough for the Kingdom of God. I'm not talking here about perfection. We may not do some things perfectly, but they can still be done with excellence. Focusing on doing those things we can do with excellence will impact our ministries and make them much more effective.
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