About 10 years ago I began to notice a cultural change. As the Boomers were getting older and the Gen-X and Millennial generations were growing in size, the value for excellence seemed to be changing. 

At the church where I worked, our first service each weekend was our highest-attended. Scores of people were switching from Sunday morning to Saturday night services. Yet, the service was almost identical.

Almost. What was different? The consistent feedback we received was that people loved the “raw” and “unfiltered” feel of the first service. It was before we had shortened it for the tighter Sunday morning schedule, and the pastor wasn’t constrained by the clock. Nor had he been edited by the post-service debrief team. The worship team made some mistakes and the transitions weren’t as tight. Sometimes we’d start a few minutes late as we were still pulling details together.

By Sunday morning, the service was more polished and more controlled. The excellence level was notably higher. And yet, people were shifting away from these perfected services.

About the same time, the culture of YouTube was taking off. Rather than spending millions to produce entertainment in 30- or 60-minute segments, the average person began putting out a 2- or 3-minute clip and becoming famous overnight. The new values for entertainment seemed to be shifting to raw, grainy, and unfiltered.

Fast-forward to 2020 in our stay-at-home world.

On March 11, Jimmy Fallon hosted The Tonight Show in studio for the last time before a live audience. Several hundred writers, musicians, technicians and crew helped pull off what we’ve come to love about the weeknight show. They walked away that night not knowing if or when they would do the show again. 

Jimmy Fallon picked up some tripods on his way home and began dreaming with his producer what a show at home, with his wife and little girls as the producers and audience—could look like. Five days later, Jimmy would begin hosting the show from his home, using his iPhone and MacBook to record his bits with all the chaos of a household with young kids. .

An article last month in FastCompany reflected on it in this way…

“…Instead of the fancy studio, episodes are filmed inside Fallon’s house. As he performs the monologue, his younger daughter, Franny, 5, climbs up his shoulders to ask for gummy worms. In another episode, the camera jerks violently to one side as its operator, Fallon’s wife, goes to comfort her elder daughter, Winnie, 6, after she falls off a piece of furniture. When Fallon finishes a joke, he turns to his audience — his wife and kids — waiting briefly for a response. Instead, he ends up laughing at Franny, who’s messing up the music cues she’s supposed to be playing on an iPad.”

It’s as raw as you can get. The interviews have glitches. The audio levels aren’t always balanced. The kids are all around. The “sets” aren’t perfect. The jokes haven’t been tested on a live audience.

But guess what? His ratings are skyrocketing. Maybe it’s because people are stuck at home and have nothing else to do.

I think it may be deeper than that. I think authenticity is a commodity that people crave now more than ever. The more human, the more raw, the more we lean in. And the opposite is true as well—the more polished and scripted and produced…the harder it is to relate.

In the church world, I was an early adopter and big fan on the “excellence train.” Years ago I heard a church leader mock the value of excellence by countering with a philosophy of “good enough.” I winced with disbelief! So God only deserves your ‘good enough’? I don’t think so.

I’m still a fan of excellence. In fact, I’m drawn to something that is done at the highest level. But the thing that may be shifting for me is the priority that we attach to the value of excellence

I was sharing my thoughts with a mentor last week, and he put words to my disconnected ramblings: “Authenticity trumps excellence.”

That’s it. 

You see, I’ve seen the damage a culture of excellence brings when it is the value that trumps all others. People can feel used. Burn-out is high. Volunteers can feel under-utilized because they can’t possibly give enough time to meet the standard. Our services become a stage for paid professionals. Church multiplication becomes hard because it’s difficult to reproduce the production with all the equipment and talent that is required. So many good things never see the light of day because they aren’t good enough.

But more than all of that, our culture is shifting. Excellence used to be an effective method to reach people with the Gospel. I think there are some values in the younger generations which are beginning to rise above excellence. Even marketing companies are coming to realize this.

Every value requires some prioritization. Disney World has a value for happiness. But they have also decided safety trumps happiness. Safety on a roller coaster is more important to them than happy kids.

I still believe in excellence as a value. But I think authenticity trumps excellence. I think organizational health trumps excellence. And I think caring well for people trumps excellence.

I might be off. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Push back if you want. I don’t have it all figured out. Consider this post the half-baked ruminations of a church leader trying to figure things out. Jump in and add to the conversation.