25 Easy Ideas for Drama in Worship!
Drama, for the most part, requires a little planning. But doesn't everything worth its salt? Here are some simple, easy and inexpensive ways to make dramatic changes in your church-
1. Instead of simply having one person read the Scripture, have two or three people divide the Scriptures into parts and read it. For instance, read the story of Adam and Eve, using a narrator, someone reading Adam's words, another reading Eve's, another reading the serpent?s, and one reading God's lines. AND ZAP! There's drama in your worship. The people listen, perhaps even laugh. The message is communicated and a Scripture is received.
2. Next time you speak on mercy or "the least of these," have someone dressed as a homeless person come into your worship service and sit down among the regular attendees.
3. Have someone learn the American Sign Language interpretation of a familiar hymn, and let someone sign the words as the congregation sings. There's a good chance someone in your congregation already knows sign language and would love to help you with this.
4. Allow your youth to act out one of their favorite Christian songs. The MTV generation enjoys doing this, and you'll be surprised by their insight and creativity. Be sure to give them some adult supervision.
5. On a Sunday night try showing them a 20-second clip from a TV drama or sitcom that illustrates a concept you are trying to drive home. TV drama in very small doses can set up a crisis or concept. Then, you can turn to the Bible for the solution.
6. Next time you preach on the crucifixion, distribute nails to the congregation. Ask them to press their nails against their palms as you listen quietly to a hymn of commitment.
7. Buy a subscription to the Let's Worship (available on the dated Order Forms or by calling 1-800-436-3869s). It's a quarterly publication of scripts and worship ideas that gives you photocopy rights to all the material. Most require limited props and lighting. They are short enough to be incorporated into a traditional worship gathering. Over 100 scripts a year for only 35 dollars!
8. Preach through the beatitudes and have teams of youth or adult assigned to improvise a situation that illustrates a certain beatitude. Give each team a few weeks' notice, and if you keep encouraging them, you'll be surprised what they might create! (This would work with many other series, such as the phrases of the Lord's prayer, the parables, and others.)
9. If you have one puppet and one puppeteer with a little improvisational flare, you'll never have to make a boring church announcement again. Let the puppet do the talking. It?s always amazing how well people will listen to a dummy! (I'm speaking, of course, of the puppet, not the preacher!) It is even more fun if the minister gets into an off-the-cuff dialogue with the puppet. Fun things happen!
10. For a week don?t shave one side of your face! Do an improvisational monologue about being a half-hearted person, always doing things half way, never able to make up your mind. Then shift gears back into the teacher/preacher mode and talk about the absurdity of this lifestyle. Relate it to the absurdity of the half hearted Christian.
11. Teach about the Lord's Supper and its correlation to the passover meal. Have someone in your congregation prepare a passover meal. Let each member taste the bitter herbs, the lamb, and the bread. You may even choose to dress in Judean attire.
12. Assign certain people in your church to pray as if they were Moses, Daniel, Elijah, Paul, and John the Baptist. Between each prayer sing the chorus of "Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying."
13. During a camp fire service, sing hymns and songs about the cross. Have someone dressed as Jesus carry a large cross and come toward the crowd calling, "Cross for Sale!" Have two or three previously assigned people respond with reasons they couldn?t take the cross. Jesus leaves calling into the darkness, "Cross for Sale!" After he has left, you will experience a deep worshipful time, if done in the right way. Have someone spontaneously begin singing, "I have decided to follow Jesus." Soon, everyone will be singing and walking in the direction of the actor playing Jesus. Have that character leave the cross standing alone.
14. Use sound effects during Scripture readings. Sound effect tapes are easily found in most music stores. Imagine reading the parable of the wise and foolish builder with the sounds of construction and then sounds of a coming storm!
15. Make use of short biblical movie moments. The Ten Commandments, Jesus of Nazareth, King of Kings. Make them brief and applicable.
16. Pastor or minister of education?next time you go on vacation, tape record your announcements and have a member lip-sync your recording. For a comical, light, non-worship moment nothing beats the surprise and humor of your voice with someone else's face!
17. Ask the youth to create their own video movie for Sunday School. Give them the topic and a video camera and watch the creativity and fun begin.
18. Candles can add drama to any service. Try turning the lights off, lighting a candle, and reading the following monologue:
This Little Light of Mine
We loved the light, so we built a church around it to
shelter it from the cold, dark world.
. . . and every Monday night we take it out to visit those who saw the light last Sunday.
We have matchbooks we carry with us, but we?re afraid to use them for fear that something might catch fire and we wouldn?t be able to control it.
So we leave the candle at the church where we can visit it whenever we want.
We love our light, but it seems these days that the light is getting dim . . . perhaps because it?s running out of oxygen due to the walls we?ve built around it.
Every now and then I wonder what would happen if we opened the door and let the fire warm and the light shine, but we?ve grown quite accustomed to the darkness.
Hide it under a bushel? No.
We?d much prefer hiding it in a church. . . .
We know Satan would never find it there?would he?
(Pause, next line to be sung)
Don?t let Satan-
(Blow the candle out)
19. Use Readers Theater It's easy and nonthreatening to the untrained dramatist. It requires rehearsal, familiarity, and expression, but it doesn't require memorization. For a wealth of readers material, let me recommend The Imaginary Stage. This is a book of easy-to-do Readers Theater sketches. Also see Darlene Tullos? article in this issue.
20. Use poetry! Even Dr. Suess can be spiritual. Green Eggs and Ham is a great parable of stubborn attitudes and closed minds. You'd be a big hit with all ages!
21. Invite a potter to make a pot on the potter?s wheel while you preach on Jeremiah's Potters Story.
22. Use clowning for nursing home visitation. This is a great tool for breaking down barriers.
23. Read the famous poem "Touch of the Master's Hand." Hold a violin as you read about the auction, then have a violinist come out of the audience and play it as you read the concluding verses of the poem.
24. Learn the fine art of story telling. Read and listen to the greats: Max Lucado, Garrison Keillor, Paul Harvey, and a score of others. Nothing beats a story told well. If you can incorporate a visual element it will make the story more memorable and powerful.
25. Encourage your artistic members to express their gift in the life of your church. For some it will be story telling, painting, song writing, acting, or clowning. For others it may be simply a concept that someone else may be able to interpret. One thing is certain. If you open the door for drama, done with excellence and creativity, it will breathe new vitality and vision to whatever church you are serving.
Matt Tullos is editor of Let's Worship, LifeWay.
