When the Church gets Excellence Right

I’ve seen the phrase “doing things with excellence” a lot among various church spheres, referencing the story in 1 Kings when the Queen of Sheba visits King Solomon. 

The Backstory:

King Solomon is known as the wisest and wealthiest King of Israel. Perhaps the wealthiest man in history. 

When his storied reign begins in 1 Kings, we read about how it wasn’t just important for Solomon to be completely submitted to establishing God’s kingdom over the nations of the world. 

The survival and flourishing of his kingship and— more importantly— Israel’s legacy hinged completely on Solomon and subsequent kings staying faithful to God and only God in their kingship. So no other gods. No other alliances.

But you start to see Solomon stray from that devotion, like:

-In chapter 3 when he marries the pagan daughter of Pharaoh (beginning the slippery slope of political alliances and divided devotions)

-Also in Chapter 3 when the Israelites start offering sacrifices to God at pagan places of worship

-And in Chapter 8 where he uses slaves to build God’s temple (a 7-year work) and his own palace (a 13-year work…yep) even though slavery was forbidden among God’s people.

Nevertheless, God is patient with Solomon. In keeping His promise, He still imparts wisdom and wealth to Solomon but reminds him where his allegiance must lie, and what could happen should Solomon fall short of that (1Kings9v1-9).

Enter the extremely wealthy Queen of Sheba in Chapter 10…

The Gist: 1 Kings10v1-13

When the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame, 

which brought honor to the name of the Lord, 

she came to test him with hard questions…

When she met with Solomon, she talked with him about everything she had on her mind. 

Solomon had answers for all her questions; 

nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her.

When the queen of Sheba realized how very wise Solomon was, 

and when she saw the palace he had built, she was overwhelmed. 

She was also amazed at the food on his tables, 

the organization of his officials and their splendid clothing, 

the cup-bearers, and the burnt offerings Solomon made at the Temple of the Lord. 

She exclaimed to the king, 

“Everything I heard in my country about your achievements and wisdom is true! I didn’t believe what was said until I arrived here and saw it with my own eyes. In fact, I had not heard the half of it! Your wisdom and prosperity are far beyond what I was told. How happy your people must be!’

“What a privilege for your officials to stand here day after day, listening to your wisdom! Praise the Lord your God, who delights in you and has placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king so you can rule with justice and righteousness.”

1 Kings 10:1-9 

While the displays of beauty were excellent, her words show that they weren’t ultimately what took her breath away in this experience, but the conversations she had with Solomon. She was flabbergasted after her interrogations. Left breathless and in awe. “Phew,” she probably said.. in a way. 

Something set God’s kingdom and their unreasonable hospitality apart, and it wasn’t just the displays of wealth.

What truly set them apart from other kingdoms was their exhibition of an inward submission to, and transformation by, a more powerful, glorious, and holy Authority unlike any other. 

God didn’t set the bar of excellence on what the world was doing. His bar of excellence is literally out of this world. And when we live and serve by that measure, knowing that He who has placed us here to do this work so that our work—our exhibition of the fruit of the Spirit in our daily lives— points to him and his glory and his great love, such an impact can take people’s breath away (see Matthew 5:16, sort of).

Now, the displays of wealth played a part in all this, yes, but not necessarily a part we can take pride in to emulate, as some of it was tainted by Solomon’s inordinate desires. 

Hundreds of years later, Christians in Ephesus were not so different from Solomon. They were a people who, at their inception, used to care deeply about God’s truth and combating false doctrines. But at a certain point, they abandoned that “first love,” (Rev 2:4) or more aptly translated as “most prominent” love, in pursuit of lesser things like earthly treasures and distinctions.

We are not so different from Solomon and the Ephesians. In our appreciation for nice things and equating optics to efficacy and aesthetics to excellence and rallies to revivals, we too can get caught up and lose sight of our first love, placing far too much weight on things that don’t matter at the risk of falling short in what matters most.

I consider this for myself, when I spend in ways that prevent me from being generous. Whether that expense is my time, talent, finances, productivity, etc. I have to constantly ask myself, “Why did God put me here, and is what I’m doing enabling me to complete that good work or hindering me from completing that good work?” “Where can I exercise more patience/restraint, and let God do his thing where I may sense there’s a gap to the goal?”

The same evaluation can be done when it comes to serving the church. 

I like how Corey Russell addresses this in his book Teach Us to Pray:

“I’m greatly burdened for this generation of worship leaders, pastors, preachers, and leaders in the Church. In an hour where our worship leaders and communicators are the most polished, the most educated, the most articulate, and the most attractive, there is a painful gap that I’m seeing between the excellence of the presentation and the shallowness of the presentation. Yes, you read that right. I said presentation twice. It’s possible to say something and say nothing at the same time, and I believe we in the American Church have become professionals at it. I know there are exceptions to this generalization, but …

“How can we say all the right things, sing all the right things, yet nothing of eternity be imparted to those who hear us?

“I’m afraid that, after all of our Sunday services have ended and everyone has gone home, what most of us just experienced was more of a pep rally than an encounter with the living God.

“We are in desperate need of leaders who have been forged in the fires of prayer, fasting, and the Word, and out of that place, they lead the Body of Christ.”

You know that feeling you get when you walk into an older and more liturgical church tradition’s building? You lose your breath at its beauty as your eyes gaze… upward. Their designs intentionally draw your attention upward, to the glory and reverence of an extraordinary God. Even more so do their liturgies.

I wonder if we may benefit from taking a page out of their missional for our ordinary lives as well.

 When you think “excellence,” are you submitted? Because in the kingdom, excellence is an upward exercise that takes someone's breath away in awe God.

In love and veritas,

Chioma