The final worship song was reaching its climax. Our worship leader had experimented with displaying Bible verses in the middle of the instrumental bridge of the song, and you could feel God’s presence moving in the room. Hands were raised, hearts were surrendered, and now was the time when he would bring us home.
Instead, I was filled with confusion when he stopped the band with this phrase: “Wait a minute, wait a minute. Are you OK?” he said, and waited for a response. I was in the back of the room and didn’t want to cause a scene, so I slowly walked to the front to see what had happened. By the time I got up there, the young woman in the front row who had fainted in the middle of the song was doing fine, her head a little sore, her ego a bit more bruised perhaps.
The worship leader then finished the worship set, leading us all in a final chorus, just his guitar and the voices, and prayed a prayer of thanks for God’s faithfulness, including peculiar moments such as this one.
Studies have shown that unexpected events can occur at the most unexpected times. So what can we learn from this? Mostly it’s that we have to be ready for unexpected disruptions, whether a medical emergency, an unwelcome interruption or something else.
Take some time to ask yourself: If a meeting is in progress, what would you do in case of…fire, tornado, lockdown scenario? Review these procedures with your supervisor and see if he or she has any input. Spend 10 minutes in a meeting with your volunteers to talk about these scenarios, and make sure they know the proper procedures.
What about if you are interrupted? Let’s say someone who struggles with mental stability disrupts your meeting or event and demands to have everyone listen to him or her. In that situation, everyone is looking for someone to take control. If you’re in charge of the meeting, you might consider insisting graciously but firmly that this is not the time for outsiders to talk, and either you or a trusted leader should try to usher the person from the room where he or she can be listened to with respect. This is a particularly good time to talk about having someone play safety.
I have an adult at my regular youth group gatherings who is there each week to—in his words—”play safety.” Similar to the safety position in football that stays at the back of the field and makes a tackle or breaks up a pass when needed, my volunteer is around to step in should there be a situation that requires attention, one that I wouldn’t necessarily be available for if I’m expected to run the youth group. During the past years, this volunteer has wrangled students who took too long getting back from the bathroom, chatted with new parents who stopped by to see what our meeting was all about, and most recently, met the police in the parking lot when it was discovered that a thief had smashed several car windows and stolen items from the cars. It is incredibly reassuring to have him there, knowing I am free to run the meeting and that he has my back.
What about the situation with the girl who fainted during worship? My worship leader asked me later how he did. I told him he handled it very well. He wasn’t sure whether he should have stopped the song—although it turns out she was fine, he wasn’t sure. Had there been something seriously wrong, he would have been faulted for moving forward with the worship song, no matter how powerful the moment was.
The only unforgivable response in an emergency situation is carelessness. People will understand if you’re overly cautious, but not if you’re too flippant. Plus, it affords you the opportunity to show people how it looks to display grace under pressure.
