You’ve been there, I’m sure. You’re on stage, in the middle or your sermon, and there is a sudden interruption. It may be a disturbance in the audience or an emergency somewhere in the room. Or perhaps it’s a person who is being too loud during worship, too obnoxious with their “amen” or too disruptive with a protest.

If you have no plan, such moments can catch you off guard. That may mean losing your train of thought. It’s hard to get your audience’s attention back after that kind of interruption.

Worse, it robs people in your church of an opportunity for focused worship. They came to hear the Word of God, not the word of a heckler. They came to sing songs of praise, not listen to someone’s impromptu solo. Even an unintentional problem, like a medical emergency, can cause chaos that cuts off the flow.

How can a pastor handle these types of disruptions? What’s the best way to keep them from happening? What are some best practices for when they do? It all begins with proper preparation.

Are You Ready?

Are you ready for any and all disruptions? Are you sure? I was sure I had every base covered. That is until one fateful Sunday when a fire alarm went off mid-service. No one thought it would ever happen, but it did!

To compound the problem, ours was a multisite church with several satellite campuses, all of which were dependent on a live feed from the main campus. That means the fire alarm didn’t affect one building; it affected all of our buildings.

Now, you may be thinking that a room full of adults would know what to do in the event of a fire. After all, the fire exits are clearly marked. But you’d be wrong. No one moved. Not a single person got up. In fact, we all assumed it was a false alarm. And it was. But that’s beside the point.

What was worse, though, was the response in the children’s area. An adult may sit in a worship service through a fire alarm and think nothing of it. But they assume the children’s workers will take care of their kids, leading them out of the building in an orderly fashion. Without preparation, that didn’t happen. The next week, our children’s ministry performed the first annual fire drill on a Sunday morning. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

One job of our ushers was to make sure all aisles are clear for emergencies. But our ushers were of little help during the false alarm. Perhaps I had failed to train them. Next week would be different for sure.

It’s All About Teamwork!

That whole scenario taught us a valuable lesson. We thought our training was adequate, but it definitely was not. From then on, being an usher was about more than just helping people find a seat. It became a position of high importance.

If you have no plan, such moments can catch you off guard.

First, we clearly defined the role of usher. That included different seating procedures for different parts of the service. It also meant minimizing the distraction that someone exiting the worship center during the sermon can cause.

Next, we went over safety procedures and emergency situations. That took coordinating with the security team as well. Thankfully, we had a highly trained group of security personnel, as well as on-duty police, both in plain clothes and uniform, to shoulder the bulk of that responsibility. But ushers would need to know what to do if that pesky fire alarm went off again.

Preparing our team went beyond that. It also included talking about how to respond to any disturbances that came up. If someone became too loud or otherwise caused a distraction, our ushers had the responsibility of removing them. When an usher disagreed with our philosophy on these matters, we reminded him or her that the goal was to help people focus on God. Disturbances hamper discipleship.

Finally, we reinforced the importance of assertiveness and proactive action. It’s not enough to identify a disruption. You have to be ready to address it. Sure, we want to lead with grace, but never to the point that others are no longer able to engage in worship.

Be Vigilant

Assigning roles for your ushers and continually training them on these procedures is only one-half the preparation. You need staff who are vigilant. Who is watching out for possible disruptions in your church?

Once, while a guest speaker at a nearby church, I showed up early for the usual run-through with the staff. I got the wireless mic from the technician and did a sound check. Then I went over the order of service with the worship leader. Finally, I talked with the team about the response time.

Throughout all these interactions, I noticed one person following a few feet behind me. He wasn’t part of the pastoral team, and he never had anything to say. He just sort of stood vigil. When I finally headed to my seat at the beginning of service, it all made sense.

He leaned in and said, “I’m your security for today. I’ll be right behind you. I’ll be right there off stage during your message. If anything happens, I’ll take care of it.”

I have to admit, I had never before encountered that. But it was reassuring. Nothing disruptive happened that day, but I had an added layer of peace knowing that if it did, someone was ready to deal with it.

You may not need a personal security guard for your preacher (although you should definitely consider it). What you do need is at least one staff person designated as a watchman, ready to alert an usher about a disruption, or call security in the event of an emergency. Assigning that task to someone helps assure you that it will be taken care of.

Planning for negative events in your church is never fun. But it’s a lot better than experiencing them — especially when you’re unprepared. It’s always better to be proactive than reactive in these scenarios. If you think it won’t happen in your church, think again. And give yourself peace of mind by having a contingency plan in place.