I was born (and first baptized) as an Episcopal, soon-after became a Lutheran, than came to the Southern Baptist church in my adolescence (where I was baptized a couple more times for good measure). Moving from old-fashioned, liturgical churches to a contemporary one came with plenty of culture shock. Superficial differences were obvious enough (worship style, common church activities, etc), but what really shocked me was the presence of "charismatic Christianity". If you aren't familiar with the term, this is a flavor of religious practice and philosophy that focuses on extreme outward expressions of faith. It involves a lot of over-the-top yelling, preaching, and evangelizing during church services. [If you consider yourself a charismatic and that description irritated you, keep reading... it gets worse.]
Eventually I was able to develop a tolerance to this, but I never got comfortable with how sometimes these charismatics made others feel. In several formative interactions with other church members, I'd have charismatic Christians tell me things like, "the fact that you won't worship like me is proof that you just aren't really giving yourself to the Holy Spirit". Now, what was funny was that other Christians were not permitted to question the charismatic worshipper's motivations; questioning how they worshipped meant you were unjustly judging them. Apparently judging in the other direction was fair game, though.
I'm picking on worship style and charismatic Christianity, but the broader theme of "Christian competition" is not uncommon for individuals or organizations of all worship styles and mindsets. In the same way that children might compete for a parent's attention, it's almost like we sometimes feel the need to "prove to Jesus" that we're more Jesus-y than our neighbor. We're the REAL Christians and they're just going through the motions. That can't be a scriptural mentality to hold... can it?
23 If, therefore, the whole church assembles together and all are speaking in tongues and people who are outsiders or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your minds? 24 But if all are prophesying and some unbeliever or outsider comes in, he is convicted by all and is called to account by all. 25 The secrets of his heart will be revealed, and as a result he will fall facedown and worship God, proclaiming, “God is really among you.” 26 What then, brothers and sisters? Whenever you come together, each one has a hymn, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Everything is to be done for building up. (1 Cor 14:23-26)
In this section, Paul speaks about individuals who perform all sorts of actions "during church services" and the impact it has on others. The key is found there at the very end... "Everything is to be done for building up".
Sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking, "I am serving God by setting the example for others to follow!" This, of course, forgets that we're all pretty terrible examples of what Christ wants us to be. As it turns out, it is very difficult to truly act like Jesus. The words of Paul admonish us all to maintain an others-first mindset, even in our worship, our service, and our discipleship. Instead of digging our heels in and suggesting that "others just need to get more Jesus-y like I am", we should adopt a mindset of "how can I better meet these people where they are to help them grow?" Sometimes that means restraint. Sometimes that means doing what is ignoble or inglorious in order to serve more effectively. Sometimes... looking Jesus-y means adopting the humility of Christ and the apostles... treating our brothers and sisters in Christ as friends to be encouraged and not petulant children to be lectured and chided.
Our obligation is to one another and to God. There is no variable in that equation for self-flattery. As we constantly evaluate our growth in Christ (... you are constantly evaluating yourself, aren't you?), we should also be keeping our motivations accountable. Am I seeking to serve God through focusing on others or am I trying to convince the world that I somehow occupy a higher station with God than the rest of society? The Pharisees and Sadducees were fans of this approach and it was not popular with Jesus.
Simply put: we have to make sure we aren't being "Jesus-y" just for the sake of everyone staring at us and saying, "Oh wow... they sure are more Jesus-y than me!" The reason for our corporate worship and public displays of faith should be serving to others and point towards the Creator. If we're "Jesus-ing" in such a way that it throws the attention on ourselves and our own piety... we're doing it wrong.
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