I want to be really good at what I do.
Actually, I don’t want to just be really good. I want to be the best.
I want to be a better worship leader than you.
I want to have a better blog than you.
I want to record a better worship album than you.
Go ahead and virtually punch my sorry, selfish self in the face.
Thank you.
If I’m honest, I’m a little confused by competition. Is it good? Is it bad?
Is it healthy? Is it paralyzing?
Competition is inevitable. Matter of fact, in the business world it’s encouraged.
Business in the church?
As the experts say, don’t ignore your competition. Find out what they are doing and do something different. Be remarkable. Stand out. Beat them by being unique and more helpful and more innovative and more…more…more.
Pastors and worship leaders can benefit highly from solid business advice. I love Seth Godin, Chris Brogan, Gary Vaynerchuck, Michael Hyatt, and others. I read their books and blogs, take notes, and apply what I learn.
But this competition thing irks me. And I’m sick of it.
Should church leaders be driven by competitive desire? Is it productive to want to be the best?
I would recommend a better way.
Stop trying to be better than…
Creating a worship album? Don’t try and beat the church down the road, create something your church is proud of.
Do you write a blog? Don’t try and be better…be helpful to your niche.
Are you a worship leader? Don’t try and be better than Chris Tomlin, love your congregation and serve them in their expression to God.
Trying to be better than someone else isn’t Biblical.
It shifts the focus away from ministry onto envy, spite, and selfish ambition. Which reminds me of Philippians 2:3:
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself.”
This verse has radical implications.
So what should you do?
Not only should we avoid selfish actions, we should consider others better. Better than ourselves.
I’m humbled by that. I’m infuriated by that. I don’t know what to do with that.
Rather than focusing on being better than someone (which if we’re honest, we all do) focus on being faithful.
Better is subjective.
I mean, who defines if someone is really better than another? Just be you. Be faithful to the people you serve. Love God with all your heart.
Learn and push and work hard, challenging yourself to improve, but don’t try and be better. It’s a waste of your time and your God-given potential.
“God, help us pursue faithfulness over fame – caring for others over competing with them. Save us from selfish ambition and vain conceit. Use us and challenge us to do big things, but keep us from worshiping ourselves in the process. Amen.”
Question: Do you think competition is an issue among church leaders? How can we avoid its pitfalls? Bring on the comments, my friends.
I think there is a huge can of worms here.
Competition exists. Period. And it sucks.
Recently there was a local church plant that started up. Their model looks just like the model of the church that I am on staff on. They asked us for help and even tried to recruit some of our staff and volunteers away. When faced with the question of “What are you doing,” there has yet to be a response.
The competition side of all of this blows my mind. It really does. The Church does enough to shoot itself in the foot that we don’t have to go around confusing church with Church and making it even worse.
I think you get my point and I want to move on because I have question:
You said: “Do you write a blog? Don’t try and be better…be helpful to your niche.”
My question: Is a church staff member obligated to cater their blog to their staff position?
You’re not obligated to cater your blog to anything. Your blog is yours. Write what you want to write about and what you’re passionate about. That may or may not be in line with your staff position.
However, if your pastor has asked you to blog about your position it may make sense to start another blog based on that.
Make sense?
How dare you throw a verse like that at me David! The audacity! LOL…
I just wrote my weekend for thought#22 and it goes hand in hand with your last verse…it’s called don’t live in a bubble…
I’ve never really had a problem with competition…uh…i take that back…
I remember a few months back…some one else at our chruch…well from the church band wrote a song and played it at a service….
to be perfectly honest…i got a little upset…and jeleaous…”i’m supposed to be the songwritter here! who does this guy think he is?” …
I felt so horrible after I thought that…horrible…
and I know that God is working with me on this…
I think we all struggle with competition. If someone doesn’t think they do, they probably just haven’t thought much about it yet. Anyone who is trying to do something remarkable or make a difference will feel the stings of competition.
I totally relate to your example. Aren’t you grateful that God is working in us?
I think competition can be a healthy thing as well. In any walk of life, be it academics, career, or ministry there ar always those people that we look up to and admire. It pushes development and stimulates growth. It can either inspire us to be better At what God has given. Or it can lead much like you have said to be an altar of idol worship to ourselves.
When we find ourselves rejoicing in others acheivements in who God has created them to be, it reveals a sense of security with who we are in Christ and what he has for us. Leaders should lift those around them and hopefully see them surpass. Of course it is easier said and thank God for revealing those tendencies in our hearts that lead toward sin.
Thanks David great subject
Raul, you make a great point in rejoicing in other’s achievements. So important. I suppose that changes it from competition to co-laboring, right?
Romans 12:10
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
Proverbs 27:17
Iron sharpens iron,and one man sharpens another.
I think that competition can be good and spur each of us to get better. If it’s done in the right mindset and has a healthy balance of humility, wisdom, and discernment, it can be great. I guess there’s a fine line between healthy competition and unhealthy. If there’s no iron sharpening iron we are bound to rust and not be used. And I want to be an instrument worthy of serving God.
Well said, Jason. Love these scriptures!
It goes back to that “famous but nameless” thing we were talking about….
The simple fact is that if we are looking at ourselves and others – either to try and see ourselves as better OR as lesser – then we are not setting our sights on CHRIST. The more we gaze upon Him, the more we seek His glory, the less we will care WHO is glorifying Him “the best”. HE is the best. He is the highest. The best songwriter, the best artist, the best teacher, the best writer (I mean really – LOOK at what happens when HIS words go out?!) By comparision – we are all talentless hacks playing with His scraps. We can look at each other and smile, knowing we are all about the same business…HIS.
But yeah. I suck at it too. I’m writing a cantata right now and I have to play that spiritual whack-a-mole moment by moment to keep all thoughts of “Our Cantata will whup YOUR Cantata” outta my sin-ridden neurons. He must increase. I must decrease.
I’ve seen the “famous but nameless” qoute before. How’s that song coming by the way! But I agree, if we’re focused on Christ, we won’t even care what anyone else is doing. He is the only One that matters.
HA! How timely is this?!
http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/serve-in-the-shadow-god-places-you?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+DGBlog+(DG+Blog)
I know! I loved reading this today.
Love this David – “focus on being faithful.” Amen.
I think we need to redefine who our competition should be. It’s not the church down the street, it’s the bar. It’s not XYZ’s worship CD, it’s well – you get the idea.
Our competition is the world, the flesh, the devil.
What we offer should be compellingly more attractive than what the competition offers.
Your reply made me think of a blog I read a while back by Pastor Steven Furtick. It’s a little eye opening and when I first read it challenged me to think differently about some things.
http://www.stevenfurtick.com/leadership/the-real-competition/
It’s a great post.
Hey Jason Thanks for the link and comment. Furtick has a good point of view but I wouldn’t end up with his conclusion – essentially, beat the competition at their game.
I say, change the game. Don’t compete with the world on the world’s terms.
Just offer your best “work”.
Thanks for the discussion starter David.
Dude, you nailed it here. Awesome.
This spoke to me ” Don’t try and beat the church down the road, create something your church is proud of.” I think that is where we struggle. We are trying so hard to “keep up” with what is trendy, that we forget where WE are. I fully believe that our eyes focused on God and in honoring our congregation should be our priority. What comes from that should be glorifying to God. Reaching out to our community will happen as a result of a healthy relationship with Christ. This will be developed through a healthy relationship with brothers and sisters in Christ. The overflow from that will reach out to those around us.
Jason, it’s on simmer. 😉 I’m not allowed to work on anything else until this cantata is done. Oy. (Frittering online doesn’t count *coughcough*)
Great words, David. There is an unfortunate amount of competition among church leaders. Even if it’s not fostered by them, it is often developed by their groupies. I remember reading many years ago (and I don’t remember where), that our competition isn’t the church down the road, but every other thing that people can choose to do. When we waste time competing with each other, we miss amazing opportunities to impact our world/culture in Christian unity.
The other side of that is, as you said, the internal competition that we create in our heads. I’ve been challenged myself in this lately as I’ve been looking for our next church to serve in. It’s easy to think that serving in a church of 600 is better than serving in a church of 60, but the best is serving with faithfulness wherever God places me. Whether 600 or 60, the group needs to hear and be reminded of the sufficiency of Christ all the same.
Which of course comes to the point of how to avoid this. The very message that I must proclaim is the one I must remember. That Christ is sufficient, it is for His glory, and my responsibility to walk in faithfulness in the place He has put me. Which includes laying down my ‘rights’ and ‘wants’ and picking up the cross.
I really appreciate your transparency here, David. This is something I’ve always struggled with, and my team and I have dialogued about this very thing several times.
I constantly try to remind myself that my position is not permanent – I’m 100% replaceable. I don’t like thinking about it, but it’s true and quite humbling.
Yea, that can be really humbling. But that’s a healthy thing to realize.