The many joys of sight reading

This post is for all of the hack musicians out there like myself. Yesterday I filled in playing bass at a fairly large church in the DFW area. I think I'm probably the fourth or fifth call, but it's Christmas time, so everyone else was out. I get there to find a notebook full of charts of music that contained familiar songs and ones that I have never heard. The majority of them where in funky keys, not the standard E, D, G that are typical of most worship songs today. We also had to transpose on the fly. It was brutal! I fumbled through practice, somehow managing to make it through the service without the band leader walking over and unplugging my bass!
The lesson is this. I used to be one of those guys that thought learning music on a page was a waste of time. I felt this way because of all of the piano players that I knew who could not function or think without sheet music in front of their faces. So I worked on developing my ear, all the while writing and performing songs in the same easy keys that I have been playing in since I picked up the guitar 13 years ago. I have learned, however, that "playing by ear" will only get you so far. I have also learned that even the little bit of theory that I forced down has made me a more creative and thoughtful player. Unfortunately, the theory book I am reading has about 500 pages. I'm on page 20.