What Pastors Can Learn From The Tesla Cybertruck Fail

A Tesla demonstration for their new Cybertuck recently went viral for all the wrong reasons.

While presenting their new Cybertruck to the world, Tesla claimed that their new “armor glass” was near indestructible.

So, they picked up a baseball-sized steel ball and threw it at the driver’s side window. But to the shock and awe of everyone watching, the window broke.

It didn’t shatter into a million pieces, but the glass spiderwebbed with a good, baseball-sized dent.

Embarrassed and looking for vindication, the demonstrator decided to double down on his indestructible window claim. So he picked up the ball while everyone cringed, and threw it again at the rear driver side window! 

Same result. The rear window broke like the front.

As you might expect, the video of this failed demonstration immediately went viral. All the major news outlets picked up the story, and everyone seemed to be commenting about it. 

These broken windows were a major public relations disaster for Tesla. Will people still trust the company’s bold claims, or will they now hold their breath, waiting for the glass to break?

Soon after, Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, attempted to throw some water on the dumpster fire of criticism. He posted a video on Twitter of a successful attempt behind the scene and later explained the reason the windows broke.

Franz throws steel ball at Cybertruck window right before launch. Guess we have some improvements to make before production haha. pic.twitter.com/eB0o4tlPoz

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 23, 2019

Yup. Sledgehammer impact on door cracked base of glass, which is why steel ball didn’t bounce off. Should have done steel ball on window, then sledgehammer the door. Next time …

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2019

Apparently, they had thrown a steel ball at the window without it breaking, but they’d never thrown anything at the window after hitting the door with a sledgehammer, which is what they did in the presentation.

The sledgehammer somehow weakened the glass.

And this is where pastors can all learn a very, very, very valuable lesson so we don’t make the same embarrassing mistake that Tesla made:

Never do a demonstration that you haven’t fully practiced.

Tesla had practiced the demonstration in part, but not in full.

When a demonstration goes bad, it steals all of the audience’s attention. The only thing they will remember from the speech is the failed demonstration.

Instead of talking about all the amazing features of the new Cybertruck, we’re all laughing, mocking, or cringing with them about the window fail. 

People will be making Tesla broken glass wisecracks for years to come.

How many times has this same mistake happened in churches?

The pastor has a great idea for some kind of visual demonstration to illustrate the point of the sermon, but the demonstration goes wrong, and that’s all the church remembers about the message.

I’m all for engaging visual demonstrations and illustrations to help engage your audience and drive the point home. However, be careful. 

The demonstration may sound perfect on paper, and in your head, there’s no way it could fail. But you never know how things will go if you don’t try it first. 

Always, always, always practice the full demonstration before doing it. You never know what might go wrong until you run through it.

It may take extra work. You may have to buy an extra set of supplies. But it’s better to do a little extra work than to allow a failed illustration to ruin an otherwise solid sermon.

A simple trial run could have spared Tesla a mountain of embarrassment. 

Don’t make the same mistake.

Have you ever had a demonstration go bad in a sermon? We’d love to hear your story in the comments below.

By the way, if you want some extra help with your preaching, check out Preaching Team. You’ll be glad you did.