Mediocrity

Mediocrity. It’s not a word we hear a lot about these days, and certainly not something we often apply to ourselves, unless we’re saying something like “it’s good enough for government work” (which I object to, but that’s another post). Even though it’s not something we strive for, if you can even strive to be mediocre, it certainly drives a lot of what we do.

We end up getting into ruts and come to believe that because our past performance has been “acceptable” that it is all we need to do. Think of all the times you’ve been in a business that was clearly mediocre, where the service wasn’t good, where the items where a little disheveled, maybe there was just a little bit of dirt and grime, where everything said “we’re doing just enough to get by.”

The problem with that behavior is that it will infiltrate the entire system. Sociologists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling put forth their broken windows theory which says that if a window in a vacant building is broken and not fixed that more windows will be broken. The one broken window will become a catalyst to more destruction. If, however, the broken window is fixed then the building will not be vandalized more.

I think the same holds true with mediocrity. If mediocrity is allowed to exist in one area, then it will expand to other areas because it becomes the norm. Mediocrity becomes the accepted level of behavior and performance and it will eventually impact everything else. I remember being in a restaurant one time with my boss and there was a napkin laying on the ground and one of the employees walked right by without picking it up. When he saw that he said to me that he could guarantee that it would still be there when we left, because a pattern of behavior had been established, and sure enough it was. Mediocrity had entered the system, and mediocrity is much easier to achieve and requires a lot less effort then excellence, and so it becomes the path of least resistance.

When we moved to Boston, my wife and I were looking around for a church to attend. One Sunday we went to a church and there was just sort of general clutter up in the chancel area of things totally unrelated to that Sunday’s service. Then I noticed that there were crayon drawings in the two hymnals we were using, which led me to notice lots of other things that conveyed the attitude that they didn’t care about the appearance. Even though the preaching was good, it was not a church we ever went back to. I don’t know which thing came first, but metaphorically the church was full of broken windows, and who wants to worship someplace like that?

Another church I recently attended had its organ, which is at a major focal point in the sanctuary, covered in music and books giving, again, a generally cluttered look and feel which then matched other things in the church. A third church which I also recently attended had significant troubles getting their PowerPoint slides to work which added chaos to the system and made everything a little disorganized. They would have been better off shutting them down then to try and keep fighting with them and causing a distraction to what was going on in the rest of the service, because what I can clearly feel about the service was that it seemed rather disjointed. Was the entire service disorderly or was it just the slides? I don’t know, and in fact it doesn’t matter, because I walked away with the feeling that the entire service had this characteristic.

I can even see this on this blog. On week's in which I update the scripture readings for the week, you can be sure that I will also write a post. But on week's in which I don't even make that simple change then I usually won't write either. I have set the standard for myself on these weeks that this blog is not important, and so it isn't and it moves to the back burner.

Now I am not saying that everything has to be perfect, but what I am saying is that we must do the best with what we have. Mediocrity cannot be the norm. One church planter I heard speak said each week in his welcome he says to the congregation that he is glad they are there because that day’s service is going to be the best worship service they have ever done. And the week after that is going to be the best, and the week after that, and so on.

They are constantly striving to correct their mistakes, improve where they can and to keep moving on. When that is our goal and we honestly undertake that process then mediocrity cannot set in, because the constant review will not allow it. It also pushes us to look at the smallest, most minute things, which often are the ones that make the biggest difference.

Would we trust a business, or go back to a business, that was cluttered and dirty, that had boxes just laying around, or looked as if they didn’t respect what they were doing, or that they even knew what they were doing? Not likely, and yet we see this in our churches all the time.

What would our church look and feel like if we constantly pushed ourselves to excel? What would it be like if we were to say each and every week in everything we did that it was going to be the best we had ever done it? Would we always succeed? Of course not, there are going to be times when things happen, but recognizing those things, learning from them so they don’t happen again, and then pushing ourselves to do better will make everything better. It will also make people want to be a part of what we are doing.

People don’t want to be involved or go to places that are mediocre, that are just going through the motions. They want to be involved in places that excel, that do things better than everyone else, and that in turn push them to excel as well. People will rise to the expectation level set for them, and, conversely, they will also lower their behavior and performance to the expected level. If we hope to change the culture of our church we need to raise our level of expectation and our performance.

The church has settled for mediocrity in far too many places, and we are paying the price. We need to raise our level of performance in all levels of ministry and in doing so I believe we will see profound changes in what we do and how people respond. As Jesus said, we are called to be perfect as God is perfect; we are not called to mediocrity.