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A Dramatic Addition to Worship
Drama helps satisfy the desire within all of us to be understood, even in our secret parts.
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The use of drama in worship services used to be 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. There's no question that 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. Drama is one of those "cultural cues" the church needs to read and take advantage of in reaching people. It has become an attractive option to those 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. Worldly Entertainment?Drama in church is not without its critics. Some say it's "too worldly" to use in worship. But that criticism stems from 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 he or she is 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 from 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. Another concern is that by having a man and a woman play the role of husband and wife, we're playing with fire. Perhaps there is a danger, but I'm 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. Yet another concern is that drama is more entertainment than worship, and 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. When drama becomes showy, calling attention only to itself, it is wrong. |              |
