Artistic Control

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…

In the early years of Pearl Jam, guitarist Stone Gossard was the creative force behind the band, with a little help from Jeff Ament. The two each contributed to coming up with ideas and writing songs. But then it became increasingly obvious that Eddie Vedder was actually the one bringing the most to the table. Gossard talks in the documentary about, “fighting over scraps of artistic control, then you meet someone with so much creative energy your arguments become pointless.”

I think a lot of pastors, and especially church planters, view themselves as the creative force behind the church. And there may be a few others who come along with some good ideas. And there may even be a little power struggle over who’s ideas will win the day. But the best thing that can happen is to realize that God Himself is the one bringing the most to the table, and that He has so much creative energy that the wise choice is to hand over artistic control to Him.

So what would it look like for you to recognize God’s creative energy?

And what would it look like for you to give Him artistic control?