I’m really trying to help our team develop what I’d call an eye for excellence.

I really believe that excellence honors God and small things make a huge difference. It’s the broken window theory. For example, something as subtle as the color of a room or color scheme of a website can totally dictate your emotional state. A few degrees difference in room temperature can dicate how alert or sleepy you are. The sound level and light level in an auditorium is the difference between feeling awkward and comfortable. And something that seems as inconsequential as a church bulletin immediately creates positive or negative expectations and perceptions.

I think Jesus had an eye for excellence. I love what Dorothy Sayers said: “No crooked table legs or ill-fitted drawers ever, I dare say, came out of the carpenter’s shop in Nazareth.”

I’m preaching on integrity this weekend. I think one dimension of integrity is excellence in the little things. It’s not just doing the right thing. It’s doing the right thing the right way. The big idea this weekend is: don’t cut corners. It’s based on the story of David cutting off a corner of Saul’s robe in I Samuel 24.

The ancient principle has never changed: “You have been faithful with a few things I will put your in charge of many things.”