With my recent posts on worship leading blunders, it’s easy to laugh at the mistakes when you’re in hindsight. You can look back, learn, laugh, and grow to become more humble.

But in the moment it’s not so funny. Sometimes when we miss the mark, we get discouraged.

You’re asked to lead a song and you botch the lyrics…again. You’re excited for this rehearsal only to feel like no one on your team respects you. And that comment from a church member about how you don’t flow in the Spirit doesn’t help either.

Sometimes it’s easy to laugh at mistakes but sometimes it hits too close to home.

How can we be better prepared for this? Here’s 3 Ways:

1. Draw confidence from God’s love

Musicians and worship leaders need this. We have a tendency to base our self worth on how well we do. While we should place a priority on excellence, that has nothing to do with our self worth. Before we are musicians and singers and worship leaders, we are loved by Jesus. Period. You’ll also be a more effective worship leader with this truth at your core.

2. Surround yourself with those who believe in you

I have a great relationship with my Senior Pastor. I know he believes in me 100%. That also doesn’t mean he’s not afraid to point out what needs improvement. Surround yourself with great leaders who believe in you and take to heart what they say. Don’t allow the criticizers to discourage you. Be polite, but listen to those who love you.

3. Plan Well

You see, a lot of mistakes can be avoided if you prepare well. Look ahead and put out necessary fires before they happen. Things may still go wrong, but at least you’ve done all you can to avoid them. Spend time in personal worship, put front end work into your rehearsals, plan your setlist.

What about you? What has helped you deal with discouragement? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

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Vicky Beeching recently wrote an excellent, thorough blog post on dealing with disasters in a worship set. If you’ve been a worship leader for any length of time, you know encountering a disaster is a “when” not an “if”. Vicky gave some great advice for a variety of situations and I suggest you read it.

Whereas my last post was on worship leading blunders you should avoid, I wanted to expand on Vicky’s post to include a few more ‘blunders’ that just seem to happen…and how to recover. Here goes:

When You Say “Crap” instead of “Clap”

This may never happen to you. I mean, it hasn’t happened to me once. It actually happened twice. Let’s face it: sometimes you just say the wrong word. The best thing to do is move on, but if it was so obvious to the rest of the room that people are laughing at you, go ahead and laugh with them. Embarrassing as it is, it is a healthy reminder that you’re not an indestructible rock star for everyone to stand in awe of. Be human. Lead with humility. Laugh. Now, go. Lift up a ‘crap’ of ‘plaise’. 🙂

When that song didn’t ‘take off’ as you expected

Not every song you do needs to be done over and over. Some songs resound with certain congregations, others don’t. In my experience, there are three types of songs: songs that are instant hits, songs that take 2-3 weeks before they’re hits, and songs that need to retire. It’s not that they’re bad songs, necessarily, it’s just that your congregation isn’t engaging with it. So test a song out a few times and if it’s just not “working”, let it rest in peace.

The off-beat tambourine lady is on the front row

Actually, I don’t really need to specify that she’s on the front row. She’s ALWAYS on the front row. That’s what off-beat tambourine lady’s do. It must be in their contract. The best thing you can do is try and ignore it (I know, it’s tough) but also show the congregation how you want them to clap (check out what Jon Acuff has to say about clapping). The off-beat tambourine lady has good intentions, but she will threaten to bring the entire room into a code red state of chaos. As the leader, keep referencing the proper clap. And pray the tambourine breaks.

What about you? What are some blunders you’ve encountered?