Stage Fright - What are We Afraid Of?

Why is stage fright the number one fear of most first-world people? What is it that we’re actually afraid of?

Unlike folks in primitive or remote cultures, we’re not afraid, literally, for our lives. But it sometimes feels like that. The adrenaline surges, our palms sweat, our hearts speed up, and our brains lock.

In the worship setting, as lay readers, you’d think we’d feel at home and at ease. After all, we volunteered for this! We’re reading in a familiar environment. And yet, when we step up to the lectern, we can sometimes feel our throats go Sahara-dry.

Getting to the root cause of our fears can help us deal with the side effects of stage fright, so let’s dig down a little bit.

Do these resonate with you? Are you afraid of:

• Making a mistake

• Looking foolish

• Not measuring up - comparing ourselves to others

• Disappointing God or clergy?

Bottom line: we fear judgment.

What can we do?

Prepare - many people have the recurring nightmare of being on stage and not knowing their lines, or even what play is being performed. This is an easy fear to fix: take the necessary time to prepare. When we know our material forward and backward, fear has very little place to hide. Go through the process outlined in The Eloquent Lay Reader to get a good handle on the plain meaning of the text, discover and deal with linguistic land mines, and begin to internalize the lessons of the passage. Preparation brings confidence.

Pray - ask God to take away the sense of judgment you intellectually “know” is not present but feels crushing, nonetheless. Pray for your focus to be turned from yourself to the words you’re reading and the people you’re reading to. Ask the Lord for strong compassion for his people and their need to hear the Truth. Thank him for the privilege of proclaiming his word to the church.

Fear comes when we mistakenly think it’s all about us. It’s not, and that’s a very good thing.