Stage shock!

Yesterday at the special Sunday School event for Christmas, a major success: a quirky music drama put on by our muti-talented youth pastor, set in heaven during the lead up to the nativity: angels being organised for announcements, etc.; and a minor wobble.

One of the music items was a group of 7 year olds singing a carol, taking it in turns to solo the verses. They moved around a triangle formation as they took the solo which was very cute; then one of them forgot his lines part way into it. We all felt for him, so the congregation took up the singing; but he was very upset.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but as I was watching him forget, then he realise that he had forgotten, I was waiting for someone to prompt him. I've seen it at school plays where there is a prompter going along with the script...or we could have used one of the video fold back screens to carry the words (a kind of teleprompt). Not only for the child's sake, but to help us all have a memorable morning.

I don't want to be unkind, but I was reminded of an observation I made as a teenager at the outer-suburban church I attended in the 70s: it was only at church that one was reliably embarrassed. However, then that church was run by a crowd of untrained and largely self-appointed (albeit elected) ministers. Still, I wonder if ministers' training covers the practicalities of staging children's' events.