I love technology, and implementing technology wisely in worship. That being said, one of the points I always raise with pastors and lay-people who are interested in integrating technology into worship (usually through digital projection) is that it will fail – and they needed to be prepared for the contingency. Well, this past Sunday we had our projector fail during worship, and I was so impressed with how people dealt with it that I though I could share a few points with you, my wonderful readers (all 15 of you).

1. Don’t panic! If people see you panicking, they’ll get antsy – and antsy people are easily annoyed.
2. If possible, have a spare. Our congregation has an older projector that we pulled out and hooked up in just a couple of minutes. A few years ago this would have been impossible to contemplate, but with projector costs coming down so rapidly it’s now more likely that even a smaller congregation could have a spare projector.
3. Remember to go with the flow (see point one). When I waved to a fellow geek to go get the spare he took off to grab it, then I thought, “He doesn’t have a key for that closet.” I was standing up front waiting for the offering plates to come forward so I could pray the prayer of thanksgiving, thus making it impossible for me to go after him. He arrived back in the sanctuary just as “Give Thanks” was ending and mouthed, “It’s locked.” So after the song was finished I handed the plates to the usher and said, “Here, pray – I need to go do something.” His look was priceless, the congregation (which had deduced the problem) laughed, and the usher gave thanks to God for all his blessings. We had the spare in place in time for the next song – which was, appropriately, “I Saw the Light.”
4. Laugh! It’s no use agonizing over things that are going wrong. Just chuckle a bit, let the congregation in on the joke, and move on.

So there you have my “projector failure” learning-points/funny story. I wish I would have thought to take a picture of the usher’s face when I took off to get the keys. I don’t think he believed I was coming back!