Those times when we go for the high note and fall miserably short. (and flat)
Those times when we play loud and proud and hit the wrong notes.
Those times when the guitar starts by itself and the band kicks in later, only the guitarist had his capo on the wrong fret.
If you’ve experienced any of these, congratulations, you are normal.
Undoubtedly, there were instances this past Christmas season which program directors would like to soon forget.
Here at LifeWay Worship, we are searching for the ultimate funny story that really happened from a Christmas or Easter pageant/presentation. The story can include any part of a presentation, and is not limited to the musical aspect.
If you are comfortable with sharing your story, you may submit it in writing or through video to worship@lifeway.com
Everyone who submits a funny story will receive a free Choir Room Mug. The person submitting the funniest story will receive 2 free registrations to any LifeWay Worship 2013 event, and the story will be featured on this blog. (If you are really daring, you can post your story in the comments.)
Submissions must be received by January 31, 2013 to be eligible.
Listen to Craig Adams, manager of creative development and publishing, share one of his stories below.
It was 4 or 5 years ago and we were without a pastor and in a big transition time in our church. During our Christmas program, I thought it would be a cool idea to have someone dress as Santa, walk down the center isle, come up on stage and kneel at the foot of the cross. So he did just that and as he stood up after kneeling at the cross his pants fell down. Yes right in the middle of our program. The program came to a dead stop as Santa pulled up his pants and excited the stage. After several minutes of laughter by the entire congregation we recovered and finished the program. I haven’t used Santa since.
The program ended up being a real time of fun and healing for our congregation.
Good one.
Excited the stage?
Haha. Too funny. (And yes, I do know what you mean!)
That should have been exited. lol
My husband is the minister of music at a small church. One Christmas we used live sheep for the Nativity. The sheep had been on winter grass and messed up the shepherds costumes.
They played it well and then went to throw up out the back door where they were greeted by a large chow dog who wouldn’t let them out of the door. We have laughed for years!!
Thanks for the story.
I was directing the preschool choir’s song as part of the children’s Christmas musical, and they were dressed in little “box car” (copy paper box) costumes. After they sang, they were supposed to sit down, but hey….they’re preschoolers! One little girl remained standing, and my assistant gently tugged on her pants to get her to sit. You know the ending….down came the pants! Thankfully the box covered the panties, and actually very few people (except Mom, of course!) noticed.
I suppose the little girl was young enough to not know the difference.
One Christmas program several years ago, one of our narrators got WAY off script, just totally lost. No one knew what the guy was going to say next. He was improvising and looking around to the other narrator from time to time. The program went on, not quite making as much sense as we had hoped. The other narrator, a strong-as-an-ox older gentleman, maintained a pretty cool exterior and tried to figure out what was happening and what he should say next. The program ended well, and I did not realize just how stressed he had become. I later found out that, yes, he had had a mild heart attack. He turned out to be fine, but he was not anxious to be our narrator again.
Is it bad that I laugh at a story about a man having a heart attack?
This past summer we built a new church sanctuary. On dedication Sunday, with the band and orchestra playing and 500 people in attendance, The new projector, with the song lyrics, decides to quit working. I was trying to play the guitar, lead the music and look back over my shouler to see what was happening. The people in the sound booth were trying to do everything, to no avail. Finally, after the song, I directed the congregation to our 2008 Baptist Hymnals in the racks and we sang the next hymn, #5, “How Great is Our God” from the hymnal. Thank you Lifeway for having such a great hymnal that spans many types of worship music and for saving the day.
Approximately 15 years ago, the anticipated night for our Christmas presentation had arrived. The choir was ready to celebrate the birth of our Lord. As choir director, I was sitting on the front row waiting for the pastor to begin our evening of worship. As a mom, I was also trying to comfort my young child sitting beside me who was sick. I had wiped my daughter’s nose multiple times, and the tissue pile was growing. Finally, the time had come and I took my place on the platform poised and ready to begin. I was certain my black velvet dress was hanging properly, but people in the congregation began snickering. The laughter grew. I felt it was necessary to determine what was drawing the attention of the crowd before the first note of the music had begun. Before I knew what was happening, the pastor returned to the stage beside me. He politely picked off the tissue that had clung to my backside and began to return to his seat amid more laughter and applause. On this particular night, I was very grateful that the pastor was also my husband! That was certainly a Christmas program that will not be forgotten.
We’re loving all the stories and positive feedback. Keep them coming.
It was probably about 10 years ago or so during one of our Easter musicals. The choir was singing along and all of a sudden the director got too excited and on the downbeat swung his hand too low, hit the edge of his book and it totally flipped off his music stand which meant he had to bend over to pick it back up. Luckily the choir didn’t start cracking up and just kept singing especially seeing how red in the face he got. In the same program, the pianist totally skipped a song. She flipped too many pages. That didn’t mess the choir up as it was mostly a instrumental piece only but it did have some narration. Luckily the narrator had practiced with us enough to tell what had happened and was able to carry on.
In a LifeWay chapel service about a year ago, I can’t remember exactly how it happened, but between songs I was feverishly trying to turn pages to the next song. Somehow, all of my music fell to the floor, to which I had to get off the piano bench and grab them. As the choir accompanist, everyone was waiting for me to get organized before we could start the song. About 30 embarrassing and awkward seconds later, I looked at Mike Harland (choir director) to indicate I’m finally ready. With a sheepish grin, I shrugged my shoulders and arms to the audience as if to say, “What can you do?” So, I can very much relate to your story.
When I was 16 a local church called me to lead worship for them. I was trained as a classical pianist but I knew I could conquer these foreign things called chord charts. After hours of practice each day I finally felt I was ready to lead these difficult songs. That Sunday morning began with a heartfelt prayer of praise and adoration. As we began to sing the congregation was smiling and singing and smiling more. I thought the Lord must be moving! After the service my mother, who is also a musician, said “You did a great job! But did you know you were singing the chords instead of the lyrics?” We both had a good laugh as she sang “G I lift your C on D”
This is hilarious. Love it.
Several years ago our choir was performing a Chirstmas cantata that required them to go back to the beginning of the book and sing the first song again for the finale. They were doing a wonderful job, and at the appointed time, all of the choir turned their pages back to the beginning of the book to sing the first song again. But, a little boy in the audience, anxious to get to the food and fellowship (presents!) scheduled for after the cantata, saw the choir turn their pages back to the beginning of their books, said in a most audible voice, “Oh no! They’re starting over!”
Our choir has had many a chuckle recalling this story over the years!
This did not happen at Easter or during Christmas, but a very embarrassing moment. I am the worship director up in Canada, and one Sunday there was miss-communication with our Children’s Church leader. So after our congregation singing during our Pastors message, I went to go lead Children’s Church.
We always end with a closing song, and I knew i had about 20 minutes. So I had my phone on the table watching the time, and all of a sudden one of my worship team musicians is phoning me! I flew out of the classroom to get to the sanctuary because I had to lead the last song. When I entered the back of the sanctuary, our Pastor had just said “Amen”, and everyone was standing to sing, the worship team was up, but I was not there! The nightmares of that moment lasted throughout the rest of the day!
Our children were dressed in Christmas pageant clothing, we had stuffed sheep that would “baaa” when moved, we had a manger and a doll dressed in swaddling clothes. My son was “Joseph” and my daughter was “Mary”. After singing Away in a Manger, “Mary” was supposed to place “Jesus” in the manger and then they were all to sit down. Towards the end of the song, “Mary” mishandled “Jesus” and he rolled out of her hands, came undressed, and landed at the bottom of the steps to the stage. Horrified, she looked at “Joseph” who promptly ran after “Jesus”. He handed the doll back to “Mary” and she rewrapped him, hugged him and kissed him before placing him in the manger. The sheep went “baaa”, the angel exhaled, but the adult choir couldn’t keep it together.
Love these.
Last year I was leading worship for the youth group. I had just finished a song on guitar and was moving around to the piano while the pastor prayed. We have a very wide and narrow stage so the piano was close to the steps. I set my guitar down and grabbed my mic stand and headed around the piano. As I stepped down onto the stairs my left foot slipped and went down to the main floor. When it hit the main floor it rolled under and I could hear a “SNAP” in the foot. I was still able to hold on to the mic stand and the kids decided to to have a laugh during that prayer. After I collected myself I got up to start the last worship song before the message and while I was playing my foot felt like it was on fire and throbbing really bad. Later I went and got x-rays and found out I had broken my foot. The biggest part is that I had never sung the lyrics, “I need you Jesus to come to my rescue” with such conviction!
A broken bone during worship! This is the first time I’ve heard of something like this. A similar situation happened here at LifeWay. Ed Stetzer and Mike Harland did a webcast a few years back, and right before the stream went live, Ed slipped on the stage and severely bruised his lower leg. He was a trooper and still did the webcast like nothing happened, but during each break of the webcast while the cameras were turned off, Ed pulled up his pants to look at the damage and the bruise kept getting bigger and bigger. At the end of the webcast, almost his entire lower leg looked bruised. He was in immense pain, like I’m sure you were.
Several years ago, while performing an Easter drama, our actors were transitioning from one scene and getting ready for the Triumphant Entry. Not knowing his wireless mic was still on while walking around the building, the man playing Peter said, “Man, I really have to go to the bathroom.” Needless to say, the triumphant entry was complete with laughter from the congregation as we entered.
Love it. Its as if Peter denied Jesus for a fourth time.
I worked hard preparing for our Christmas Eve service for 2012. I am the worship leader, but our pastor, who is much more talented than I, was leading the choir, leading the congregation in singing carols, and also singing a duet with me. I depended on him tremendously for this service.
I arrived at the church about an hour and a half before the service was to start, and as I walked into the sanctuary, I saw a man lying on the floor. On closer look, I realized that it was the pastor. I asked him what was going on, and he said, “I just need to lay here for a few minutes.” I thought he was joking and started to laugh. One of the guys from the tech team looked at me and shook his head, He had fallen down the two steps of the stage!
His ankle began to swell, and he couldn’t put any weight on it. I put ice packs on it for him, and we went on to practice. By the time the service was about to begin, his foot was so swollen that he couldn’t keep his shoe on, and his whole foot and leg was turning numb.
He prayed through the pain, and the service went on as normal, with only a few winces from him. Turns out his ankle was badly sprained.
God is good!!
One of the funniest moments that I ever experienced in worship was when a friend of mine was leading the congregation in “Indescribable”, and instead of singing “heavenly storehouses laden with snow”, he sang “heavenly whorehouses laden with snow”
This is outstanding. (In a humorous way, of course) I suppose a follow-up post could be “misplaced” lyrics such as this.
We always have a candlelight Christmas Eve service. This year our new pastors wife wanted no lights at all and made luminaries to fill the church. This presented a problem for my husband who is the worship leader and keyboard player who could not see his music. So last minute they decided to put candles on his keyboard for his light. As soon as he started playing the vibrations of the keyboard made the candles slide right off! He didn’t miss a beat, but the expressions on the praise teams faces were priceless as the candles went tumbling to the stage and they were trying to stomp out the flames without knocking over all the other candles surrounding them or catching their own pants on fire!!! “Joy to the World” had a lot of “fire” into that night!
I almost thought you were going to say that the candles fell and his music caught on fire! Still good and funny nonetheless.
This was my husbands first job playing keyboards for a church and it was his first Sunday. The morning services went great and he was thrilled they didn’t introduce him, even though most people there already know us. The evening service came around and to his surprise they decided to announce the “new” keyboard player and at this time there was loud feedback in the sound system. Everyone looked around and I looked at my husband and see him struggling to hold his very heavy keyboard in his lap. The stand they placed it on had given away. No one else had noticed. He thought he was off the hook until they asked him to stand up but by this time he could no longer balance the keyboard and it went very loudly tumbling to the stage! Talk about an introduction! The Music director played it off very well. The sound guy then figured out quickly where the feedback came from!
My wife tells the story of a Sunday night in her church where the music minister was leading the song, “Happiness Is.” The lyric in the middle of the song goes something like, “Real joy is mine, no matter when teardrops START; I’ve found a secret: it’s Jesus in my heart…” Well, when the minister got to that part of the song, he anticipated the lyric to be “no matter when teardrops FALL” instead of START. So, what he ended up singing was “no matter when teardrops ffff…art.” They had to stop the song because he and the congregation laughed so hard. He still hears about this 30 years later.
It happened back in the day when we “song directors” stood at the pulpit and led the “congregational singing” by waving our arms. My wife and I were, as the saying goes “as poor as Job’s turkey.” We were able to scrape together enough for me to buy a new sports Jacket. I proudly got up on Sunday morning, hurriedly got dressed, and walked across the church parking lot (we lived in a trailer on the other side of the lot) to get ready for the service.
As i raised my arms to begin the first song, I was confused as I saw many in the congregation begin to laugh instead of sing. I looked around to see what might be happening behind me. Nothing there. As I turned back toward the congregation, people are pointing at me. My first thought was to check my zipper, but, since I was standing behind the pulpit, that wasn’t the issue. It wasn’t long before I realized the problem was my new sports jacket. In my haste to get ready that morning, I had neglected to remove the tag from the sleeve!
Needless to say, now almost 40 years later, my wife has checked me over every Sunday before we head out the door. Unfortunately, she’s not always there to do the same when I walk out of the Men’s Room on the way to the sanctuary but that’s another story!
I take no shame in admitting I still ask my wife if I can wear certain shirts with certain pants. Despite my belief that I’m getting better in doing this myself, she still corrects me and says, “You need to choose a different shirt.”