Humans make mistakes, and all gear eventually breaks down. Sooner or later, something is going to happen in a worship service that leaves the person speaking on the platform hanging: it may be a dead mic, slides that don’t come up, a video with no audio, or one of a thousand other things.
Here’s the number one rule for Preachers and Service Hosts when you’re in a tense situation: NEVER yell at, berate, or speak ill of your team from the platform. Never. I understand that you feel exposed and/or helpless in that moment. However, remember your job…
Your job in these “mini-crises” moments is to reassure and provide calm and stability, not to cast blame or to express your frustration. To be blunt, if you are unable to control your temper in a situation like that, you shouldn’t be up there. That’s why good leaders are effective in their roles – they understand that painfully unexpected things are going to happen occasionally.
Instead of lashing out, think “defuse.” Something bad has happened. It’s not your fault, but that doesn’t matter (and ultimately no one cares). Make a humorous comment. Perhaps even use it as a time to call out volunteers/staff in a positive way: “Our awesome Production volunteers are on it – they do an incredible amount of things behind the scenes to make our services possible, including jumping in and fixing things when our gear goes down, etc…”
Don’t get me wrong… If it’s an ongoing human error issue, then by all means address it. Later.
Here the truth (and it goes for staff meetings, etc…, as well ): the aforementioned lashing out makes YOU look bad.
“Nobody is making mistakes on purpose.” – Justin Firesheets
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