Two decades ago the use of drama in Sunday services was relatively rare. When it was used, drama was usually limited to a children’s Christmas pageant or disciples in bathrobes and sandals appearing at the Easter sunrise service.
That was then. This is now.
Today, dramatic presentations in Sunday morning worship services are becoming as common as praise choruses or keyboards. Crossing geographical and doctrinal boundaries, the use of drama has mushroomed in recent years.
Why the sudden surge of interest? LEADERSHIP asked Steve Pederson, director of drama at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, about this renaissance in church drama.
Steve has been producing dramatic presentations in church settings for over twenty years. His early efforts included a Christian theater in the basement of an urban church in Minneapolis. From there, he went on to earn advanced degrees in theater and served fourteen years as a faculty member at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa. Seven years ago, he made the transition from the classroom to the local church when he was invited to direct the drama ministry at Willow Creek.
Your job title, director of drama, is unusual for a church. It sounds like a risky career move! What persuaded you to leave teaching to come to Willow Creek?
When Willow Creek contacted me, my initial reaction was, “No, I don’t think so.” The little drama I had observed in church settings I didn’t like.
Churches tended to define the use of drama too narrowly. Either they would limit it to retelling biblical stories and dressing all the characters in bathrobes, or worse yet, they would attempt to preach a sermon through it, wrapping everything up with tidy answers in an eight-minute sketch. The drama didn’t reflect reality as most people experienced it.
But the model Willow Creek uses I found very appealing. Rather than trying to raise and answer all the questions through the sketch, they were content to raise the relevant issues, to show the tensions. Then the pastor addressed the issues in the sermon. So rather than using drama to solve the problem, Willow Creek was simply trying to expose the pain and get the audience to identify with the characters.
How does drama create identification?
By helping the audience see themselves in the characters. That’s why we primarily use contemporary drama based on real-life experiences. The characters talk, act, and look like normal people. The audience then realizes the characters are dealing with the same problems they do at home, at work, or in marriage.
Drama in that sense helps satisfy the desire within all of us to be understood, even the secret parts of who we are.
Drama is people revealing their hidden parts, enabling us all to understand better the human condition. It creates a beginning place for the Holy Spirit to work in people’s lives.
How do you answer the criticism that drama is “too worldly” to use in worship?
The main problem is a misunderstanding of the nature of drama itself. Art, at its core, is make-believe, though our job in drama is to make it seem as true to life as possible.
We use the techniques of drama-movement, positioning, and scripting-to give it an air of reality.
People often ask how someone can take on the character of an unsavory individual without becoming like the person they’re playing. They fear, for example, that if a woman plays the part of a prostitute, her own morals will become corrupted. They see it as tampering with sin and becoming “of the world.”
The performers, though, don’t actually believe they are the person they’re playing; they’re disconnected with their character. More often than not, they are just trying to remember their next line or whether they’re at the right spot on the stage to maximize lighting. So there is little danger of their assuming the character and personality of the person they are depicting.
Those watching the drama also understand what’s happening. They agree to engage in what art critics refer to as a “willing suspension of disbelief.” They consciously pretend it’s real.
Are you playing with fire when you have a man and woman who aren’t married play the role of husband and wife?
I get asked that question a great deal. Perhaps there is a danger. But I’m very careful about the people I choose to act opposite each other. I know their spouses, I know the strength of their marriages, and I try to be sensitive to the situations I place them in.
How do you answer the criticism that drama in church is more entertainment than worship?
Entertainment is a bad word in many churches today. It has suffered from guilt by association: we tend to think of it as tawdry, cheap, or titillating.
But the term itself is not evil. Entertainment can move us powerfully and touch us deeply with truth. When it paves the way for the pastor to deal with a significant, deeply felt issue, entertainment can be a positive addition to the service. It can be used to create a response of adoration or thanksgiving or confession, as a hymn or song might do. When it becomes showy, though, calling attention only to itself, it is wrong.
If drama is just for entertainment, then we wouldn’t do it.
How do you account for the great interest in church drama these days?
Drama has become an attractive option to those who are asking, “How can we do a better job in reaching people, both the churched and the unchurched, in a creative fashion without compromising the gospel?”
For too long the church has relied on talking heads and robed choirs to reach people. Given the changes that have taken place in our culture, those two strategies won’t work as well as they did in previous generations.
How much of the appetite for drama is the result of the dominant media culture in American life?
No question the media have helped create a taste for drama. People today are so bombarded with images and fast-paced appeal that we have to speak that language to be fully understood. It’s one of those “cultural cues” the church needs to read and take advantage of in reaching people.
How has the use of drama changed at Willow Creek over the years?
Overall I’d say it has become more sophisticated, less like a skit (we prefer the term “sketch”) and more substantive. We also use more serious drama than we used to.
A turning point came with a piece entitled “Great Expectations.” (See the script on page 55.) The story focused on an infertile woman who had been waiting to adopt a baby for years. She was just three hours from picking the child up when the birth mother changed her mind. It went on to depict the woman’s anger at God. It raised the question, “Why does God dangle a carrot in front of our nose only to yank it away from us?”
So many people identified with the pain of this couple. We’ve used it numerous times in various settings. We’ve learned that serious drama, when done well, can be even more effective than lighter sketches.
Can a smaller church with fewer resources do a good job with drama?
Absolutely. Many people who visit Willow Creek assume we use professional performers. That’s not the case. Most of our actors have had little or no prior drama experience.
One of our best female performers had never acted before. She came to what was her first audition when she dropped off a friend. She happened to be standing in the hallway when someone invited her to try out. She ended up making the drama team while her friend did not. Today she’s not only a terrific actress but also a top-notch writer.
Our associate drama director, prior to Willow Creek, was in only one play his entire life, and that was in fifth grade.
You don’t know who you might have in your church.
What does it take to do it well?
Qualified leadership. At least one person with a working knowledge of the craft must be willing to lead the charge. This person doesn’t need a Ph.D. in theater, but he or she does need to be gifted in the area of drama.
If the person lacks training, the church could invest in sending a promising person to a local college to take courses in directing and acting. I’ve seen too many church productions where some basic elements of good directing were absent.
Bad drama is worse than no drama, so if you’re going to do it, make sure it isn’t shoddy.
What if a church has only one or two individuals with natural talent?
You don’t need a large performing company to produce consistently good drama; you need a leader and a few good people.
Out of everything we do in the fine arts at Willow Creek, I believe drama is the most transferable to other churches. It can involve only one or two performers, and it takes only five or six hours of rehearsal. We rehearse twice a week, once on Tuesday evening and then on Saturday afternoon just before the service.
What makes for consistently good drama?
First and foremost, the sketch needs to work well with the message. If the sketch raises questions that the sermon doesn’t answer later on, then we’ve got a problem. A great deal of coordination between what the pastor is planning to say and what we’re preparing to present on stage is necessary for success.
What was your most powerful presentation?
Perhaps one on the topic of guilt and confession. The sketch involved a grown man going back to his boyhood school. There he is confronted by the painful memory of the day he and a few of his friends tied the class sissy to the radiator and then pulled his pants down. When the bell rang and the class entered, the victim was left standing there naked, alone, and humiliated.
The memory is particularly painful because the kid who was picked on committed suicide as an adult, and the man recalling the event had for years assumed some responsibility.
When I first read that script, I hesitated. The whole incident seemed too close to the edge to produce in church. But when we performed it, the audience reaction was immediate. They seemed to put themselves into one of three groups: (a) those who had picked on others, (b) those who had been picked on by others, or (c) those who had stood silently by as others were picked on.
Once after we performed the sketch in Europe, a missionary approached me and said, “That sketch was the most powerful dramatic experience I’ve ever had.”
“Really? What made it so powerful?”
“I grew up in a Christian boarding school,” he replied. “Things happened in that school that I’ve never shared with anyone. When I saw the sketch, I wept as it all came back.”
What’s amazing is that it’s only a seven-minute sketch, not a major production. Such is the power of drama.
Are you saying, “That which is most personal is also most universal”?
I happen to have that particular saying hanging above my desk. That’s one reason why I urge our writers to write from their own experience.
One of our writers wrote a script that portrayed an angry father, criticizing his daughter for the way she was raising her kids. I read it and thought, Wait a minute, this is too much. This guy seems too vindictive and mean.
But I went ahead with it and was literally overwhelmed by the response. Numerous people approached me and said, “That was my dad.”
How do you know if a particular sketch has had the audience impact you were hoping for?
I watch the audience for attention, and I also place “thermometers” out in the congregation who tell me how they think we did. I’ll also evaluate the “laughter quotient” in some cases. If people didn’t laugh at a line I thought they would, then I make adjustments. If something falls flat the first service, I won’t hesitate to change it before the second one.
Audience reaction, though, is an inexact science. When we touch on sensitive topics, such as abortion, we know we may get mail. We make a concerted effort to be realistic, and that offends some people. Others are upset because the sketch itself isn’t more polemic. But again, our main purpose is to raise issues that the pastor will answer, not us.
Where do you draw the line to avoid offending some people’s sensibilities?
Each director needs to be attuned to his or her congregation. Respecting your audience, not trying to push them as far as you can, is important. Artists are often unwilling to make concessions to people’s sensibilities.
Today we do sketches we couldn’t have done five years ago. That doesn’t mean today’s dramas contain vulgar language or offensive content. Far from it. But the audience has grown and matured in their willingness to consider difficult and sensitive topics.
If I were trying to launch a drama program in a church, my first sketch would not be a monologue on a highly sensitive issue, such as the one we did recently on homosexuality. The basic rule is to use common sense.
Who makes the tough call when you know you might be close to the edge?
In our efforts to be honest, we do face hard calls. When I have questions, “Is this word proper?” or “Is this subject matter too volatile?” I run the piece by the staff programming team. If we aren’t sure, we’ll take it to a pastor or an elder.
If I know the content is on the edge, I make sure I have broader support than just from my writers or cast. I won’t make that type of judgment call on my own. The beauty of a team decision is that we all share the responsibility for the calls we make.
How can a pastor build support for a drama ministry in the church, particularly if the church is a bit skeptical of the whole idea?
Again, start with relatively safe material. Start with a sketch that contains clear gospel content, such as a mime we do entitled, “The Lane of Life.” Introduce it on a Sunday evening, or as part of a youth night, or at an alternative service.
Showing sensitivity and wisdom might be all it takes to get Aunt Tilly to give you the green light to do more. And you may need Aunt Tilly on your side. By all means, don’t get thrown out of the saddle in the first go-around.
Where can interested people find good material for this kind of drama?
That’s one of the most frequent questions we receive. We presently have four collections of sketches titled Sunday Morning Live. Each volume contains six sketches. We also have companion videos of each volume, which show all the sketches in performance. All of these resources, as well as individual scripts, are available through Zondervan Publishing Company, or by calling 1-800-876-SEEK and requesting a catalogue.
50 SUMMER/93
Copyright © 1993 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
