It Keeps Getting Brighter
Recently watched the documentary Pearl Jam 20 by Cameron Crowe (I love you Cameron Crowe!), and I thought it had a ton of lessons for church planters. Here’s one…
At one point pretty early in their career Pearl Jam is playing a concert in which Eddie Vedder (the singer) can’t hear himself in the monitors. He looks stage left and makes a motion pointing up. He still can’t hear. He looks stage left and, again, points up, hoping to get the volume increased in the monitors. But, again, no change. He tries again, but still nothing. Now he’s seriously frustrated. He walks over to stage left, and rips down the curtain hiding the people over there. That’s when he realizes that he’s been gesturing to the person running the lights, not the sound. He says, with a smile, “I wondered why it kept getting brighter in there.”
As a church planter, you’re going to have days when the mic keeps cutting out, when the video doesn’t play, when the whole thing is just embarrassing to be a part of. And when you have that day, it may help you to know that even Pearl Jam experienced that. And Pearl Jam became, well, Pearl Jam. So you might have a bright future too. Especially if the person you’re gesturing to is actually running the lights.