DRAMA: IMPORTANCE OF CHRISTIAN DRAMA MINISTRY

 The Importance of Christian Drama as a Ministry

Drama is a very powerful ministry tool. It can be used to impact the church and the world for Christ. We would like to encourage more Christians and churches to be involved in drama ministries.

Let’s start from the beginning. The bible is full of drama! Some examples from the Old Testament can be seen in the Songs of Solomon, Ezekiel and Hosea. In Songs of Solomon God adopts the art of poetry in His communication. There is a dramatic dialogue between the characters with responsive chorus. It is written in scenes like in a drama and is full of imagery and metaphors. The reader’s heart is warmed and impacted by its message of love. In Ezekiel, drama is used as a tool to communicate God’s message. God is the writer and the casting director.

He instructed Ezekiel to build a set. The scene told a story that captivated the audience, making it possible for Ezekiel to deliver a powerful message from God. This can be said to be the birth of drama ministry! This scene in Ezekiel brings to mind a quote by shake spare “All the word’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players…”

Another dramatic story is found in Hosea. God casted Prophet Hosea as an actor in this intimate story, which God used to illustrate his redeeming love.

In the New Testament, we see the example of Jesus. He adopted the method of storytelling in communicating with his audience. Mathew 13:34 “Jesus always used stories and illustrations like these when speaking to the crowds. In fact, he never spoke to them without using such parables.” I cannot imagine Jesus telling a boring story. He would have livened up his stories with different gestures, facial expressions, voice tones. He may even have asked someone in the audience to act as a character in his illustrations as he did with child in Luke 9:46-48“… so he brought a child to his side. Then he said to them, anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my side…” This is drama!

God chose to communicate through arts and drama. This clearly shows that Christian drama, as a ministry is important.

We are genetically compelled to love stories. Thus a very good way of captivating our attention is by telling a story. Once the preacher has the attention of his audience he can impact them with a very a powerful word from the Lord.

We remember plays or movies we saw many years ago, especially the very good ones. We have the tendency to recall pictures and images or things that we see and hear together. So, if a message is communicated via drama we will remember it.

When a sermon gets too long, the tendency is that the audience will lose concentration. The hour-long lecture style usually works best with the young students. Not very many people can take in a one-way stream of information for long. However, if the Preacher includes stories or drama in his sermon, he will mostly certainly retain the full attention of his audience.

Drama can be used to meet people, especially unbelievers, on their ground as encouraged by Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23; “Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some”

It is suggested that more people attend the cinema and theatre weekly than churches! The industry of performing arts knows how to captivate its audience. It is an industry that generates millions of incomes yearly. The industry understands its audience. People want to be entertained; they watch movies or plays to find meaning or purpose or to be informed.

The percentage of secular moves made is huge in proportion to Christian movies! Why? This is because Churches have not fully grasped the importance of Christian drama as a ministry.

We have been given the gift and medium of art and drama to impact our world for Christ!

When the movie, The Passion of Christ by Mel Gibson was made, millions of people flocked to the cinema to watch it. Millions of people worldwide were impacted by its message.

WHAT IS IMPORTANT

Drama is just as important as other areas of ministry and should be invested in. Some Christian movies and plays have the tendency of coming across as very cheap; this discourages people. Thus it is important that Christian Drama is done with excellence so that people can be impacted!

‘Drama is a very powerful ministry tool. It can be used to impact the church and the world for Christ. We would like to encourage more Christians and churches to be involved in drama ministries.’