How Highly Successful Worship Leaders Handle On-Stage Crisis

This past Sunday I was watching a vocalist lead a congregation in the popular song “You Make Me Brave.”  During the second verse her microphone went out.  At that moment, the worship leader stepped up to her microphone, picked the song right up and continued the time of worship.  It was seamless.  The moment the audience was experiencing did not miss a beat.  A member of the church’s staff then leaned over to me and said, “Did you see her step right in when that mic went out?  That was good.”
Afterwards, I was speaking with her and shared how impressed I was with how she handled that potentially service-altering situation.  She said, “You don’t know the have of it.”  I noticed as the song began, rather than facing the crowd she was looking at the keyboard player as she played her guitar.
She explained why, “They forgot to turn off the house music to our in-ears.  So when the music began we couldn’t hear anything but house music.  I was looking at the keyboard player to get him to turn off the sound.”
I then asked about stepping up to the mic and begin signing.  She said, “Even though she right beside me, I couldn’t hear anything else, just the house music.  The person at the sound booth just started shouting in my ear to SING!  SING!”
I said, “Well, no one in the audience knew anything except a mic went dead.  I am just really impressed with how well you handle crisis situations.”  It was at this point she dropped leadership gold.
She said, “I got really good at handling crisis situations by handling crisis situations…and when it comes to worship there is always a crisis.”
What an insightful statement.  Leaders cannot learn to successfully handle crisis by taking shortcuts.  They must go through the crucible.  Leaders can only learn to handle crisis situations by tackling crisis situations head on.
So when crisis hits, do not try to avoid it.  Do not delegate it away.  Press into it.  Learn to get comfortable in crisis.  Handling crisis will make you an indispensable leader.  This is vital skill because dealing with crisis situations is simply a regular part of the leadership.  It is why you are there.

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