I’m in front an audience most of the week. In fact, between Sunday and Friday, I probably spend about twenty-six hours in front of a group of people, if not more. Sometimes, this makes for a fun and enjoyable week, but other times, it’s exhausting, especially when something goes wrong.
Of course, “something going wrong” is a very broad category of incidents, including oratorical flubs, technical difficulties, and a whole host of other issues that can only be described as “supremely bad luck.” Since the holidays are fully upon us and since some many of us are going to have even more pressure than usual placed upon us, I thought I’d offer a few words of wisdom about how to fail gracefully in front of your church.
What follows are three short anecdotes with a bit of wisdom drawn from each that will hopefully help you prepare for the holiday season.
The Energizer Easter Bunny: Keep to Your Routine
This past Easter, we did something crazy and had two services, one at 8:30am and one at 10:00am. Because I had to get up an hour and a half earlier than usual I made a stronger than usual pot of coffee. By the time I got on stage to do the announcements, I was speaking so fast that my voice actually began to travel forward in time.
What I should have done was stick with my routine where I could (the strength of my coffee pot) and cope with any forced routine changes on the back end. I had to get up earlier, and I would have been better served by taking a nap in the afternoon.
Lesson 1: Your routine is so much a part of how you do what, that you need to preserve as much of it as you can.
The Mission: Impossible Bomb Threat: Planning and Practice Make Almost Perfect
I changed positions at my church about two years ago and hard to start doing the announcements on Wednesday nights each week. Early on in this process, I was to reliant upon improvisation, especially since I was also very easily rattled. To that end, one night, when I was dismissing people to their classes from our large group gathering, I…made a dumb joke referencing Mission: Impossible and told the entire crowd that if they didn’t get to their classes in the next five minutes, their seats would explode.
Sigh.
I should have been better prepared, not to the point of having scripted jokes, but I needed—and am building—a more liturgical greeting, offertory, and dismissal so as to have anchors around which I can improvise. This should hopefully preclude any further foolishness.
Hopefully.
Lesson 2: Planning and preparation don’t seem that much, but they are the difference between living and dying when in the spotlight.
Mario Saves the Day: Redeeming Awkward Moments
Part of my shtick on Sunday’s and Wednesday’s is a simple slide listing upcoming events and such. I often rely on this slide to remind of the announcements, and that has occasionally resulted in some awkward moments. One time, at least, I was able to redeem the awkwardness.
I had just finished my welcoming remarks when the tech team transitioned to my announcement slide in ProPresenter. However, my slide didn’t appear on the screen. What did appear was a vague facsimile of my slide that had been plagued by a nearly Biblical level of compression artifacts. I got flustered and lost track; the audience was equally as distracted. Without much forethought, which is how most of my stories start, I blurted out: “Welcome to 1985, folks! (Pause for mild laughter.) Looks like we’ve got a Nintendo Entertainment System up there.”
I paused after I said that because I got a slight uptick in laughter, which prompted me to double down with, “It’sa meee, Pastor Phil!”
Not as many people laughed as I would have liked, but those who got the slightly-offensive-to-Italians Mario reference laughed loud enough to fill the void, and we were able to move on with the service without this unprofessional moment hanging in their minds.
Lesson 3: Staying on your toes, reading the crowd, and taking measured risks can help you to redeem an awkward moment on stage.
Conclusion
In the end, don’t stress. If stuff goes wrong, remind yourself that this is just one more instance in which the fallen nature of this world is getting in the way of God’s Kingdom work, and that He will still, ultimately, prevail. And all of these lessons aside, there’s not a failure in this world that God can take and redeem it for His eternal glory and our eternal good.
Auggie mueller says
http://youtu.be/3iYsZAMzzAk So this happened to my friend. To this day he endured all cables are covered with gaffers tape or a carpet
Phil Schneider says
Ouch! To be honest, I was expecting something like this: http://youtu.be/7B0p1fzU3EU?t=988
Which would have been way worse!
Eric Dye says
Even though I’ve heard these stories before, I read every word. Love these. 😛
Phil Schneider says
Thanks! I need to do a YouTube channel and fill it with stories.