Jun
30
2011

What Pastors Can Learn From Jerry Garcia

An article by Matt

Seth Godin had a post last week where he wonders aloud whether Jerry Garcia ever got jealous of bands that had regular radio airtime.

The Grateful Dead had precisely one hit record over their thirty years as a band… yet they are known not only as one of the most influential bands of all time, but also as one of the most successful. The loyal fan base that would follow them from concert to concert is the stuff of legend, and the following that they have to this day is still strong.

All this for a band that turned its’ back on the popular model of musical success: pursuing the top of the charts and getting your song blasted every three minutes by radio stations. The band knew what it was good at, knew what it loved to do (besides the drugs), and did it well.

Not every church is going to be a mega-church.
Not every pastor will be asked to speak at leadership conferences.
Not every church leader will have the influence of Billy Graham.

The question is, would you consider yourself a successful church leader if your church never gets written about?

So often pastors chase the magic bullet trying to be something that they are not because they want the same “success” as the church that is written about. The tragic truth of this is that in trying to be something that they are not, the pastor misses out on what he was called to be. Whether it is for pride, arrogance, or unchecked ambition, we all sometimes get off course because of our desire to be recognized for our greatness. In our pursuit for this recognition we miss out on the generations that we could be impacting, one relationship at a time, in the context that God has placed us in.

How do YOU define success in ministry?

Anonymous

This is a tangent, but I was something of a Dead fan when I was young (before I became a Christian). I saw them in Boston a couple of times. I loved a line in their song “Scarlet Begonias”. It went, “Strangers stopping strangers just to shake their hand. Everybody’s playing in the Heart of Gold Band”.

I can’t pretend to understand what that song meant, but that line always struck me as very Christian. I sometimes think of that line at the passing of the peace. “Strangers stopping strangers just to shake their hand”. It is beautiful.

http://www.churchthought.com Matt Steen

Hey Rick! Thanks for sharing your thoughts… I doubt anyone can truly understand the meaning of of many of the Dead’s songs (well, at least while sober), but I do love the imagery!