So, you know you want to give God your best work, but can you really afford the price?

That's a scary thought.

Well, the answer is, what you cannot afford is to give God LESS than your best.

So, let's say for the sake of an obvious example, that you are an aspiring, somewhat experienced Christian music artist. You've maybe made a CD, and have performed quite a bit on stage and at church.

You know what your last CD sounded like. It was fine. Mom and Dad loved it (and were so proud). The church bought it up. Friends slapped you on the back and said, "Way to go!"

You sold a few hundred really fast...then several hundred sat. Or still sit.

Looking back now, it's obvious to you. It wasn't your best. Or if it was, you KNOW you can do better now. Your new songs are better, your voice is better, your playing is better, the way you express yourself and relate to the audience is better. Or maybe you are just more confident and REALLY ready to do ministry full-time.

Whatever it is, the world is not seeing the best you can be for God's work. And it keeps you up at night.

Why? What happened?

You probably know the reason. It could be you found the wrong people to work with. Maybe the songs weren't the best choices. Or maybe, you tried to get by with what you could, knowing if you just had a product, ANY product, you could get out there and begin ministering.

Now, when you show it to your friends or family, they say it's cool. But when you take a step towards radio, or someone in the music industry, they point out things that could be better and would limit their involvement (a polite way of saying, "We don't think it's good enough").

For whatever the reason, what seemed good enough at some point, isn't really good enough in the long run.

So, what do you do?

My new favorite slogan is "Good enough is the enemy of anything great". When you shoot to get by as cheap as you can, you severely limit how great it can be.

A few weeks ago, a client and I were having lunch at a Chinese restaurant. She was commenting that she really felt God telling her to do things right. That she had a dream that she was greatly blessed with the current record we were doing, and she felt she should really do everything to the best of her ability. We had already used a live band for the first time on her music, and had decided to do a much better photoshoot on this project than the others.

When we got our fortune cookies, hers read "You are smart, because you do things smartly."

Now it's not that she decided to spend more money (which she did) that made her smart, but her decision to not cut corners, and take her music (already original and stand out in her genre) and go to the next level.

Here's God's little fortune cookie: Ephesians 2:10. "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Our job is to put together something (whether it's art, design, music, poems, painting, whatever) that NO ONE can say, "Umm, it's not good enough because of..."

How do we do that? Well, sometimes it takes spending more time, effort, and yes, money than seems logical.

Of course, when I decided to buy the new family truckster last year, the price did not seem logical. It was way more than a normal album would cost here in Nashville with the best Christian players, engineers, and studios in the world. But I spent it, because I wanted a nice ride. Geez, we need the new van with the fold down seats and the DVD player for the kids, but we skimp on what we're putting together for God's work?

Most of us have other expensive toys we want. A new boat? A new camper? A new pool?

We don't even THINK of having to explain to our friends about those things, cause if we did everybody would have alot of explaining to do. But if we spend that much on a new CD to further our ministry, how will we ever possibly rationalize that to our pastors, our spouses, and our friends?

And the boat can't be a source of income for your ministry (unless you give free boat rides after concerts).

So, I know I'm rocking the boat (so to speak) and I will get responses like "I don't have to spend that much money to make a great CD". And you know what, you are right. Some of you are lucky enough to know how to make one on your equipment that sounds great. But for the other 95% of you, think about what it would be like if there were no regrets.

What if everyone who saw and heard your CD was blown away, from parents, friends, and church, to music industry, radio, and complete strangers.

Why is that important? Because we cannot afford to have one person be distracted from the message within our music products and ministry because of lack of quality. We have to be sure more than anything else, that the message shines through, that God is honored, or discovered, or worshipped.

That is why good enough, is just not good enough. The world looks at us as if we are just second class anyway. "Oh its a Christian album?" Already they are expecting it to be mediocre. And not only the secular world, but the gatekeepers in the Christian music world also look on "indie" albums this way.

If they cannot deny what they see and hear; if the sound is awesome, the graphics smoking, and the message indistinguishable; they have no way to ignore, miss the point, or ridicule.

They can only listen and hear the message. And that's why God made us in the first place.

Have a great week.

EC

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Eric Copeland is a producer, consultant, and songwriter who would love to say that every product he has worked on has been great, but will admit some of what he has done was just good enough. He's making every attempt to rectify that these days with his Christian music production company Creative Soul in Nashville, TN.

Check out their services at Creative Soul Online