How to Handle Distractions While Preaching

What is the most distracting thing that has ever happened to you while preaching?

For me it was when I was a youth pastor at a church in New Mexico. I was preaching to a group of high school students.

In the middle of my message, a boy stood up, jumped onto his chair and began to do what looked like an Irish jig. And before I could say anything, the chair flipped over, dropping the boy flat on his back. The room exploded in laughter.

Fortunately, except for his ego, the boy was not hurt. But he definitely hurt my sermon. All eyes were on him. All eyes were off Jesus. Some students were literally rolling on the floor they were laughing so hard.

How do you recover from something like that?

Another time when I was preaching a silent fire alarm was falsely triggered somehow. So as I was wrapping up my message, four firemen in full uniform come walking down the aisle, up the side of the stage, and disappear into an electrical room behind me.

What do you do in that situation?

Nobody prepares you for falling dancers and firefighter appearances in seminary!

If you have any experience preaching, it is inevitable that distractions will happen. Maybe a kid runs on stage, a baby screams, or your mic dies.

Distractions happen.

So what do you do when distraction strikes? How do regain the attention of your audience so the power of your sermon isn’t lost?

How to Handle Distractions While Preaching

The way you should handle a distraction depends on the severity of the distraction.

Ignore small distractions. Address and redirect big distractions. And take action in emergencies.

Small Distractions

If a distraction only lasts a second and isn’t noticeable to everyone, keep preaching.

Small distractions could be a person in front row walks out, a cell phone beeps, a baby cries before being taken outside, or people in the back talking.

For minor distractions like these you can power through.

Don’t sweat the small stuff. Keep on preachin’ on.

Big Distractions

Big distractions are a whole different story. A big distraction is something that everyone cannot help but notice. They cannot be ignored.

Somebody’s phone rings with a Justin Beiber ringtone. A stray kid wonders onto the stage. Somebody shouts something out when you weren’t expecting it. Your microphone dies. A baby is screaming and the parents refuse to take the poor demon child outside. Your phone rings with a Justin Beiber ringtone.

In cases like these, the distraction is so big that everyone notices. You have to address the problem. If you don’t, people will wonder if you are blind or deaf. It will only become a bigger distraction.

The best way to regain control is to address and redirect.

Say or do something to acknowledge or address the distraction. Then redirect the audience’s attention back to the point you were making in your sermon.

In my opinion, the best way to address a distraction is with humor. Laugh it off. Crack a joke and move on.

Say what everyone else is thinking (as long as it isn’t offensive or rude). People will laugh, because they were just thinking the same thing.

If somebody’s phone makes a loud sound joke, “What in the world was that?” Take a moment to laugh if you need to. Then redirect saying something like, “As I was saying…”

You get bonus points if you can tie the distraction back in to your message. For a great example, watch this video:

Catch The Kid from Hickory Grove Baptist Church on Vimeo.

Something else that works is to pause the message, and stare in silence at the distraction with a funny look on your face. As long as your face is obviously comical – not red with anger and steam pouring from your nose – the awkward silence can make for a great laugh.

One pastor I know does this incredibly well. I have seen his mic battery die a few times, and both times he stopped and stared at the thing like he is trying to divide 1,973 by 17 in his head. Then he looked back at the sound guys with the same look, and back at his mic until somebody came and fixed it for him. It never failed to get a good laugh.

Acknowledge obvious distractions. Laugh it off to ease the tension in the room, then jump back to the message.

Emergencies

Finally, I have to mention emergency “distractions” (if it is even appropriate to call it that).

A man falls over in a seizure. A woman experiences a heart attack. The power goes out. The fire alarm rings. A tornado warning sounds. The building is hit by lightning.

I pray this never happens while you are preaching, but we have to realize that emergencies can even happen during sermons.

In the case of a serious emergency, there is nothing you can do to regain the audience’s attention. Do not even think about trying to power through or laugh it off.

The emergency must be addressed. You have to put the safety of your audience ahead of your sermon.

In an emergency situation, take action. If it’s a medical problem, ask if there is a nurse or doctor in the room and have someone to call 911. If the power goes out or fire alarms sounds, evacuate the building.

As difficult as it is to not preach a message you worked hard on, the urgency of the emergency trumps anything you planned to say.

What is the worst distraction you ever had while preaching?

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8 Comments

  1. I REALLY DON’T VIEW ANYTHING AS DISTRACTIONS BECAUSE I CAN PREACH OVER ANYTHING. WHAT I DO REQUIRE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD IS REVERENCE CERTAIN THINGS NEED TO BE SAID AND MADE PLAIN BY THE PASTOR, DEACONS AND USHERS BEFORE AND DURING SERVICE WE CAN’T GET OFF COARSE BECAUSE OF THING OUT OF OUR CONTROL FROM THE PODIUM WE SHOULD HAVE TRAINED PEOPLE WHO COULD DEAL WITH THING THAT COME UP

  2. In honour of Valentine’s Day, let me say my biggest distraction is my beautiful wife in the second row:) (Points are important wherever you can get them)

    Our church meets in a school gym and my distraction is not having enough space to move freely when I speak.

    In our second church we had a lady who sat in the front row and her phone went off. Instead, of answering it she walked all the way down the aisle with it ringing. Eventually, she came back, put the phone in her purse and continued to listen to the message. Then the thing went off again and once again instead of answering she fumbled with it and took out the battery all while the pastor was preaching.

    Another friend of mine was distracted by the new mom breastfeeding in the front row.

    Churches I have been in have not been boring:)

    1. Well played Peter. I wish I would have thought of using my wife as an example for this post 🙂

      The phone thing drives me crazy!

      Thanks for sharing!

  3. I had a very large man get out of his seat and walked up to me (he wanted to hit me) while preaching but 3 of my ushers tackled him right at the platform and held him there while they prayed over him. I told the congregation not to worry about it, that sometimes good people become emotionally stirred up by the enemy and that our team would pray for him and kept preaching … And surprisingly the congregation refocused and we went forward.

    When I was a youth pastor I had some girls that would turn around in their chairs and talk with the girls behind them so I used to bring 2 things – a water pistol and some of those mini candy bars. When there was a distraction I would distract them by sometimes just shooting the water pistol a few times into the audience wheel continuing to speak or sometimes I would throw out a few candy bars. Suddenly I had become the distraction and the eyes were on me. Instead of correcting / disciplining the girls I would go to them afterwards and tell them how much I appreciated all the efforts they made to come out to youth group and asked them if they had any input on how they could help to make it a better place for their friends. Slowly they became my biggest supporters and they created peer pressure honor and respect for me because I gave them honor and respect when they didn’t deserve it.

    1. Wow! That is intense Mark. I have never had anyone get violent on me. I can imagine that was a little bit distracting 🙂

      Good idea with the squirt gun! Maybe I should start packing a squirt gun with me too.

      1. VERY WELLED HANDLED YOUR MEMBERS ARE WELL TRAINED TO HANDLE SITUATION BLESS YOU MAN OF GOD

  4. As a youth pastor I had a fight break out on more than one occassion. Usually we had one of our leaders jump on the kids and I kept on trucking…
    Thanks for the video, that was priceless.

    1. Your welcome Gavin. Youth ministry definitely has a lot more kinds of distractions than preaching to adults.

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