As I’ve gotten ready to leave our church building for the last couple of days, there has been an unusual amount of activity in the building. Jackie Brown and Amy Smith have been rehearsing their upcoming production of “Newsies” with local kids for Spotlight Community Theatre. The production will run July 19-21 at The Contrarian Concert Hall Theater, 125 E Main St. in Festus. You can purchase tickets at spotlightjeffco.ludus.com.
I mention this for a number of reasons. It is great to have activity in our building, particularly involving kids. I’ve learned that churches attract new people in all sorts of ways and allowing your building to be used by community groups is one of those. I’m glad we have a yoga class here every week. I’ve been approached about another exercise class and about a recovery group. Our little building and its parking lot are assets we can use to extend our ministry!
For some of the kids in “Newsies,” this may be the first time or the first time in a while that they’ve been in a church building. As our culture grows more and more “unchurched,” our first job as Christians is to convince our neighbors that we are not “out to get them.” It may be hard to believe in our Midwestern-Southern “small town” but across America people are suspicious of the church. They think we just want their money and to lay a guilt trip on them. We’ve got to present an alternative view for them!
And, of course, having kids in rehearsal in the church building is near and dear to my heart. About the time of my first foray into theatre in junior high, Kirkwood Baptist Church, where I was a member, started a youth drama troupe, into which I was “shanghaied.” It turned out to be one of the significant points of my life. Not only did I go on to earn a BA in Theatre and a related MDiv in Communications and earn my living in the theatre for about 30 years, but I first heard the call to ministry on a tour of that drama troupe. And I met Connie when we had jobs at the same theatre.
Not all of those Newsies will end up being deeply involved in theatre, let alone majoring in theatre or having professional experience. But theatre and the arts in general teach us to see through the eyes of others,
helping us to develop empathy and to “love others as we love ourselves.” In the Bible, some of God’s prophets transmitted the Word of God to the people through what we would now call “performance art.” There is good evidence of songs (Psalms) and poetry (Song of Songs, Job) in the Scriptures and the first people of whom it is written that God “filled them with the Holy Spirit” were the artists in charge of decorating the Tabernacle (Exodus 31). From my life and from the Scriptures, I know that God blesses us through the arts!
Pastor Chris