(Some thoughts on legacy, ministry, and leadership, following the death of Brian Wilson, the heart and soul of the Beach Boys.)
I’m a huge fan of the Beatles and The Beach Boys. They’re both in my top five list of all-time favorite musical artists.
During their heydays they were bound together in a friendly, competitive loop, making it hard to consider the legacy of one without contrasting it to the other.
For instance, one thing that always struck me about the Beach Boys was the huge gap between the quality of the music (legendary) and the lack of quality in their presentation. While the Beatles had high musical quality and a high cool factor, The Beach Boys had virtually no cool at all.
Take their 1964 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, for example. While the quality of their songs stand toe-to-toe, The Beach Boys performance of I Get Around can’t hold a candle to the Beatles singing I Want to Hold Your Hand.
Pet Sounds v Sgt. Peppers
Perhaps the best place to see this is to contrast the cover of The Beach Boys greatest album, Pet Sounds, with the Beatles album it inspired, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The Pet Sounds album sleeve looks like what it was—an afterthought (“it’s called Pet Sounds? Let’s get some photos of the band feeding zoo animals”).
Meanwhile, the cover of Sgt. Peppers influenced the look and direction of modern art.
And even when the Beatles did a photo shoot as an afterthought (“let’s just walk across the street and see how that turns out”) it became the coolest, most recognizable album sleeve of all time—Abbey Road.
The Beach Boys almost never looked cool, but the Beatles seemed to fall into it without trying. Maybe because they weren’t trying.
So what does that have to do with pastoral ministry?
Pursue Quality Over Cool
As pastors, there’s a growing struggle between doing good work and presenting it in a compelling way. Quality versus cool.
But, unlike the kind of generational talent it takes to write and perform songs like A Day In the Life, and Wouldn’t It Be Nice, quality church work can be done by anyone with a willingness to worship and serve.
As pastors, it’s easy to look at Fab Four churches—the ones that have the content and the cool—and try to duplicate that by working hard to be cooler. Let’s get bigger screens! Paint the walls black! We need an interactive app!
But cool isn’t what matters. Don’t try to be the Beatles, be the Beach Boys. Do great work and if it happens to be cool, that’s fine. If it doesn’t, that’s okay, too.
In most cases you’ll do quality work and someone else will get to be cool.
Honor God, love people, serve the community. God Only Knows the eternal rewards that will garner.
