Excellence, or involvement?

Excellence, or involvement? It's an interesting predicament. On the one hand, scripture tells us to do everything to the best of our ability, for the glory of God (Colossians 3:23), right? On the other hand, do we really want to focus so much on 'doing things well' that our church services effectively become a show- one among a number of weird and wonderful installments of weekend entertainment? I mean, if the Church is not the steeple, but the people, then what does it matter if the whole thing's a shambles, so long as we're all there having a good time with God...?

It's tricky, but like a good Anglican, I reckon there's a healthy third way somewhere in between that holds these two extremes in tension. When people walk into All Hallows for the first time, what do we want them to encounter? Absolute chaos, poorly organized and badly executed for the sake of getting everyone involved, stemming from the fact that we haven't put time in to make things look, sound and feel good and run with a certain level of smoothness...? Well, no. Somehow if this was the case, I doubt that many people would come back. Scripture isn't exactly silent on the ideals of ordered and orderly worship that at least makes sense (check out 1 Corinthians 12-14). So yes, we try not to put square pegs in round holes but rather to get people doing the things they're good at (or have potential for). Yes, we mess around with microphones and mixing desks, spending time trying to get instruments well-levelled and achieve adequate amplification in spite of obviously awful acoustics. Yes, we've spent some money on matching coffee cups and comfy carpet, some printer ink on artwork for our service booklets and some time sorting out a plasma screen for our song words, all in the interest not only of excellence but also accessibility.

And yet, we try to realize (and then remember) that it isn't all about that. At All Hallows, we want to empower our people to grow in their gifts... and that has to start somewhere. If we waited for everyone to be ultra-professional, none of us would ever get to do anything. So as much as we do want to do things well, we also want to include our people in the practices that comprise our Sunday services, and our other meetings and initiatives. If that means losing a segment of slickness and being a little rough round the edges from time to time... we'll take that.

In fact, we're happier with that.

In a culture that is overwhelmingly accustomed to high-quality entertainment at the touch of a button through the movement of just a couple of muscles, sometimes it's good to have a little humanity. Sometimes that which is a little raw is better, because it's also real. So yes, we allow people to wander in halfway through the first hymn instead of being there at the start. Yes, we give the kids rattles to shake out of time with the music and drown out all our voices for one song each week. Yes, we give people a chance to do things when we can see the potential of them improving to astonishing levels of eventual professionalism in that particular task. Yes, we love it when those who are tone deaf sing the loudest. Yes, we put up with toddlers screaming through our sermons. Yes, we stand by the policy applied to everything from inward attitude to outward attire to 'come as you are' to our gatherings. Many of us have caught on to the fact that the church is the people, not the building... but it's sometimes harder to remember that the church is still the people, not that one or two hour service. That being the case, we'll keep doing everything we can to walk well the fine line between excellence and involvement. And if you haven't yet ever been to All Hallows I hope that, when you do, you find a beautiful East End blend of both.