Value Clarity 5: Counterproductive?
So you’re trying to discover your values and one you come up with is “Excellence.” Who doesn’t want excellence, and your church has a history of striving for excellence.
Question: What if our culture changed in such a way that excellence became counterproductive? What if, when people spoke of your church, they started saying things like, “Why would I ever go there? Their services are excellent,” and “Have you been to their church, they do everything with excellence. Yuck!” Would you still strive for excellence? Would you continue to invest the extra time and money to make sure everything was done just right? Or would you say, “We’re not going to be excellent if it doesn’t help us, if it doesn’t lead to more and better disciples.” If you wouldn’t continue to value excellence, it was never truly a value in the first place.
A value is something you would continue to embrace even if it became counterproductive. It’s a hill you would die on. And so, knowing that, what are your church’s values?