Has anyone else noticed that professionalism seems to be a dirty word in the church? In the run-up to my church's Soul in the City mission this summer (yes, we are doing it again, and yes, I am aware of the irony in this, in view of the previous post), my colleague Anj Keel has produced booking forms for potential mission delegates. The idea is that we send these forms to our contacts around the country, and are then inundated by enthusiastic young Christians for 9 days in July.
Now these booking leaflets are good. Very good. Glossy, colourful, and, of course, proudly bearing the Soul in the City logo. Unfortunately, it was brought to my notice last week that these leaflets are so good that people are getting the impression that the Sydenham/Forest Hill project is the official Soul in the City mission! Now, I can understand the leaders of other SitC projects being frustrated by people getting this impression, but it's telling that their first instinct is not to produce publicity of their own which is even better, but to criticise our publicity for being too professional!
Perhaps this highlights a tacit belief within the church that it's in some way wrong to aim for excellence. How many appalling sketches have we sat through in church services? How many times have we been presented with unimaginative, monochrome church magazines? But how often do we get anything approaching quality at a church event? What are the chances of even getting a decent cup of coffee after the service? If we really believed that our God was the King of Kings, wouldn't we be motivated to make everything we do in his name excellent, rather than settling for mediocrity?