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September 2002 Table of Contents
Producing Results
More Than A Drama Presentation
By Keith McClung
Minister of Music & Fine Arts
19th Street Church of God
kmcclung@wirefire.com
Just this morning our Church Staff sat around a crowded office looking at the Sermon Series on our heels. As the one who is viewed as the "creative minister on staff" (cough, cough), all eyes turned to me to come up with a creative twist to our "Praise Under Pressure" Series. I felt this tingle of excitement knowing that once again, our church has the great opportunity to present the ministry through drama!
The direction of my Pastor, as well as his heart, is geared towards a Seeker-Sensitive Audience while still being able to pull back to the Biblical Stories and Principles that we learned as children. Our Staff enjoys putting together 3 and 4 week Sermon Series' with elaborate themes. We realize that we are reaching out to a sight and sound generation and we must be multi-sensory in our presentation.
You may be saying, "Whoa...Keith...you've lost me." The words from a conference, that I recently attended, are still ringing in my ear..."If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten!" Let me take a moment to share with you how our church staff has been able to incorporate a different twist to our Worship Services through the use of themes and drama.
Our Pastor just celebrated his first anniversary with our congregation. It was in a staff meeting that we discussed the opportunity to expand our presentation of the spoken Word through more multi-media, drama, and themed presentations. Delight overwhelmed me when he said, "Let's do it... let's do something different and let's see what happens!" I thank God for a Senior Pastor with vision who is not afraid to step out in faith.
The Creative Themes and Ideas came from every day items. I hope these ideas can be "tweaked" for your own ministry and my prayer is that you see the results that we experienced through changed lives for Jesus Christ!
Biblical Living Statues were a very recent presentation by our Church Staff. Our Senior Pastor presented a "Hall of Faith" sermon during our Faith Series. Our creative seamstresses created solid grey Biblical Costumes. We purchased grey theatrical make-up and we were all set! Roman Pillars set the stage with large curtains and one by one we presented living Biblical Statues (real people posed and frozen) who are Biblical examples of True Faith; the Woman with the Issue of Blood, Abraham and Sarah, Jairus and His Daughter. That morning, we had a flood of people come to the altar with a need of "faith pick-me-up" from God. It was a simple presentation...not much thought was put into the drama...but it changed lives!
Anyone For Popcorn? It's not my favorite snack food, but it's one of those foods that becomes instantly recognizable when it's popped. Imagine a hungry congregation, with growling bellies, watching the Pastor open a microwave oven, unwrapping microwave popcorn, setting the dial and popping as he waits. Our congregation was in total confusion. "How dare he pop popcorn and then EAT IT!" It's now about 11:45 am and the dreams of going to the steak house after service have turned to the want of stopping by the gas station to pop a bag of popcorn. Well, this dramatic illustration was used to hit home the point of "Praise Under Pressure!" Popcorn, when put the test, produces a great snack. It has to go through the heat and the pressure put on each kernel. Our lives are much like popcorn. We tend to face circumstances that put our faith to the test but in the end result, we can take those pressures and feast on the result of relying on the Lord for guidance. And, of course, as our congregation left the sanctuary they were each given a bag of microwave popcorn with a label attached to each bag with scriptures showing us ways to rely on God during our times of stress and pressure.
Just Hangin' Around People in our congregation thought we had really lost our marbles when they arrived to see a high school gym rope hanging 40' in the air from the ceiling. This was yet another dramatic illustration to show that sometimes we see our goal ahead of us, but our faith is so weak that we can't hold on. The illustration allowed us to show a young man trying to "climb the rope to his faith goal" but as he climbed, we saw him holding a world globe which represented his attachment to the world. We also saw that his feet were weighed down with bags of sand representing the various other "weights" of life. Our Senior Pastor shared a message that sometimes our faith is weak because it's not refreshed and it's crowded out by so many other things in our lives. Of course, our young man lost his weights, and the globe, and victoriously climbed the rope as the congregation applauded his success.
These three ideas were all part of 3 and 4 week Sermon Series' that we presented to the congregation. We direct mailed post cards with the theme and weekly breakdowns of what was going to take place.
It's the every day things that have caused our church to look of adding visually appealing dramatic elements to our services. You'd find it odd to know that our next three sermon illustrations use Sit & Spin's, Candy Bars, and Recipe Boxes! Think outside the box and realize that ministering through drama is more than bathrobes and skits.
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