Incidents & Contingencies¶
Owner: Director + Tech Lead
These are worship-team guidelines, not the church’s emergency plan. For danger, medical emergencies, fire, or security, follow the church’s emergency plan and call emergency services; do not improvise beyond your role or training. Production continuity is never more important than a person.
Principles¶
- People safety first (electrical, structural, medical, security).
- Preserve the moment second — quiet fixes over dramatic ones.
- Communicate once on the day-of channel named in Our Congregation; avoid five parallel panic threads.
Stopping for a person¶
Someone unresponsive, seizing, bleeding badly, or in apparent cardiac distress → stop the music, mute open mics, lights up, let ushers / the church’s response lead take over, call emergency services. Any lead who sees it may call the stop; no one needs permission. Do not crowd. Know where the AED, first aid, and exits are (Our Congregation).
Common failures¶
| Failure | Immediate action | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Lead vocal mic dies | Swap spare / channel; Worship Lead keeps singing if a handheld is available | Stage + FOH |
| Pastor / speaking mic dies | Spare handheld to the speaker at once; FOH prioritizes the spoken word | Stage + FOH |
| Click / tracks die | Worship Lead counts the band in; live arrangement | Worship Lead + playback owner |
| Lyrics freeze | Holding slide; lead vocal carries; switch to or reboot backup | Media |
| IEM pack dies | Spare pack; if none, nearest wedge or play on the room; tell the Worship Lead once | Monitors / Stage |
| Feedback howl | Pull the offending fader, not the master; find the open mic | FOH |
| Stream drop | In-room continues; restart encoder when safe | Stream |
| Power blip | Stay calm; wait for UPS/power to settle; bring amps and powered speakers up last; pastoral cover | Tech Lead |
| Medical emergency in room | See Stopping for a person above | Platform lead / any lead |
| Fire alarm / security threat | Follow the church emergency plan — not improvised heroics | All |
After any significant incident¶
- Care for people before gear postmortems
- Write a short factual note in the Incident Log: what, when, impact, fix, prevention — facts only, no names of minors, nothing that belongs in a protection report
- Update the relevant page if the doc was wrong or missing
https://theonize.github.io/petra/04-service/incidents-and-contingencies/
