1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
—The words of the Apostle Paul from Romans 12:1-2
As I sit in my office writng this blog post, I am dressed in my usual attire: bermuda shorts and a sweat shirt. Since my diabetically challenged feet require special care, I do have my $800 shoes on my feet. Sadly, I can never wear any other footware. My attire would offend most places of business. In fact, when someone comes to visit me, I quickly put on jeans. No one should be subjected to my funny-looking, Jobst-stocking-covered legs.
In the relative comfort of my office, my attire does not affect my ability to accomplish whatever work rests on my plate for each day. But I am not unaware that if I worked in other than a solo occupation, I would have to dress otherwise. In fact, for the 35 years of my formal working career, I did dress up.
When I first began working as a field engineer for the insurance company where I labored for 30 years, even though we had to visit factories, climb into some pretty dirty places, even descend into valve pits and lubrication cellars, we had to dress up. The insurance company expected us to wear white shirt and tie, a sports coat, and dress slacks.
My attire changed when I began serving as a full-time volunteer at a church. With little need to meet the public, I arrived each day in a jeans and sweatshirt. Comfort had become more important to me than “image.” I understand that after I left, a new pastor instituted a dress code for staff members. So I would not be able to dress that way if I still volunteered at that church.
“Why all this discussion of clothing,” you may ask.
An article in the daily Christianity Today e-mail newsletter caught my eye this week. Duane Litfin, former President of Wheaton College, had written an article entitled, “Clothing Matters: What We Wear to Church.” If you would like to read this rather lengthy piece—eight webpages—you may click here.
What Litfin really communicates in this article comes out of a plea for “excellence.” Since I have always championed excellence in every place where I’ve worked, I became quite intrigued with some of Litfin’ comments:
I recall hearing one pastor, for example, exhorting members of his summer congregation to join their “no-commitment choir.” All it requires, he said, is to show up a little early on Sunday morning. This pastor is a good man with a good church, but also with a common blind spot: he saw no problem in appealing to such low motives in his people, much less bringing God such a substandard, it-will-cost-you-nothing musical offering. Is there anything in the Scriptures to suggest that our inferior worship offerings waft toward heaven with a sweet aroma, “a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God?” (Phil. 4:18)? As one contemporary observer put it, “Too many of us today have got it backwards: we worship our work, work at our play, and play at our worship.”
What’s going on here? Could it be that our delight in the security of our standing before God—that is, that all who have “put on” Christ (Gal. 3:27) stand fully accepted in him—has blinded us to a different issue: the acceptability of our worship offerings? It would be the cheapest of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace” to suppose that because we are secure in Christ, whatever we bring to God in worship, however inferior or mediocre, pleases him (Eph. 5:10).
I will allow you to pursue reading Litfin’s article on your own, if you wish, to explore more of his ideas regarding what role “excellence” may play in our devotion to God and the work we do in His name. However, I strongly suggest to you that part of the enfleshing of the truth advanced by the Scripture portion at the beginning of this blog post calls for “excellence in all things.” The words “good enough” should never describe our attitude, or our effort, or our goal, or our work when it comes to the Kingdom of God. Pastors and church leaders who deside to settle for something less than the very best do their constituents a grave disservice.
Pastoral ministries where the pastor does not devote himself or herself to the study of God’s Word and prayer—and by “devote” I definitely do not mean a casual attempt to fit these disciplines into a busy schedule of social activities and worrying about the color of the carpeting in the nursery—run the risk of producing mediocrity in every aspect of church life. Similarly, when church leaders support a lackadaisical approach to any program or ministry of the church, they also endanger the health of the congregation.
No substitute exists for excellence. You either put forth the effort to hire the best people, develop the best programs, promote the best spiritual disciplines among the congregants, handle finances in the best possible way, or you don’t. Fail to do everything possible to assure excellence, and you fail to give God what He deserves.
After all, God gave us the very best that He had. He gave us His own Son to die in our place. He made a sacrifice for us, in so bold and decisive a manner, that we can hardly conceive any way to excuse a half-hearted effort on our part to serve Him.
I urge you to read Litfin’s most excellent article. Even if you do not agree with every point that he makes, at least consider how much more pleasing to God it would be in your own life if you follow the Apostle Paul’s urging and presented yourself to God as a living sacrifice.
Will you pray with me?
Thank You, God, for loving us. Thank You for sending Jesus to be our Savior. Thank You for sending us Your Holy Spirit to dwell within us.
Precious Father, we invite you to have Your Holy Spirit examine our lives, and particularly our service to you, to see if we have given you our most excellent service. We long to show our love and devotion to You by withholding nothing from You, even as You have withheld nothing from us. Be pleased to remind us that whatever we do we should give You our best. Help us to think in terms of “excellence” whenever we embark on service to You.
Thank You for Your faithfulness and for Your compassion. Thank You for Your strength and peace. And, thank You for hearing our prayer in and through the precious Name of Your Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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