This past summer a favorite band of mine, The Who, was performing a concert at Fenway Park in Boston.  I know that many people like the band and their popular songs.  I am a really big fan.  The Who was my first ‘favorite band.’   I was the kid who obsessed over their albums.  They have been a favorite of mine since their first farewell tour in 1982.  When I heard that they were coming to Boston in the summer of 2019- I began to research the cost of the tickets.  I quickly realized that I could feed a family of four for six months for the cost of one ticket.  Honestly, I love the band, but the mortgage has to be paid, and there are starving children in the world.

When did it get like this?  Concert tickets are priced far too high now.    I was able to see a different band last summer three times for the cost of one ticket to see the same band at one of the local casinos.  In spite of these high prices—the concerts were still ‘sold out.’  People are going, and they are mortgaging their future to see a musical act perform live on stage.

I could have gotten less expensive seats to sit several hundred yards away from the stage and watch The Who mostly on the mammoth screens mounted throughout the ballpark.  However, then I am really just watching them on television, and I could do that in the privacy of my own home without having to deal with overpriced drinks and traffic.

But here is the thing: somewhere near your town there is a small club.  In that small club there is a man or woman with a guitar and they are playing music to a very small crowd.   You can sit a few feet from a stage and observe some amazing music.   Maybe they don’t have any top 40 hits yet, or maybe they are playing someone else’s top 40 hits- but chances are, they are pretty good.   It’s true that the ones on the biggest stages are not the most talented in the world- they just happened to find themselves in the right place, at the right time, in front of the right person.   Some of those local musicians have been honing their craft for decades, and they are really, really good.

I have been to a few small clubs over the years and I have seen some amazingly talented people perform.  I have shaken their hands after the gig.  A couple of the performers stayed behind to sign autographs and take pictures with new fans.   Some of these artists are on their way to greater fame, while others are still trying to come out of the shadows of their one big hit.

There are probably a million pastors serving what the world may consider to be a ‘small church.’  And most of them are very good.  Many have chosen (for a multitude of reasons) to serve God and the church, and have consciously opted to not climb the ladder of church-size success.  I am sure that there are pastors out there that would be considered superstars of the megachurch stage.   They have published best sellers, appear on television programs, or they have taken the internet by storm.   I have no doubt that they are very good at what they do.  But I also know that the pastor just down the road from where you live is probably pretty good too.

If you visit your local congregational church, you probably won’t find yourself saying during the final hymn, “If we leave now, we can beat the traffic.”  That little local church is providing ministry that is of great value to the community.   And when all the little, local clubs are gone—there will only be the really big places left, and the really expensive seats will be unattainable.  A lot of local talent will be lost.

You can sit in a sea of faces, with the lonely throng longing for connection to an image on a screen, or you can get up close and personal in an intimate setting with a real, authentic community of fellow pilgrims.

As for me and my house, we’ll be in the small room encouraging the encore.