On the Very First Day...

Amazingly, truly amazingly, I'm now the Worship Arts Pastor at our church just over the hill in Sunny. It's such an honor, I can't even explain how much of an honor it is... I've been working at the church for the past few months contracted to produce the Christmas Event, but this is a brand new start and step for the worship ministry of the church. To give a little glimpse of my new world, I'd like to tell you about Monday night.

We’re doing an Easter Trilogy this year. That means three separate productions for the season. I have the privilege of creating the work and Monday night was the first rehearsal. Casting went well ~ we’re right at 60 people. A few newcomers and lots of energy.

I asked everyone to introduce themselves as we got started. One beautiful sweet gal, Melissa, said she was new to the church and told us she and her girls are going to be baptized next Sunday morning. Her husband missed the class and she’s hoping he can meet with someone this week and be able to join them as a complete family.

The rehearsal started with my introduction of the basic plans, set design and staging of the productions. We had the music on in the background and most people didn’t know the songs I thought were pretty familiar. It begins with the first miracle Jesus did at the wedding feast. (Melissa is a dancer in that scene.) I went on explaining a few other parts and began to ask the group to imagine what it would have been like to walk through town with Jesus. Just walking right along and standing there as the events occurred.

20 minutes or so of this discussion had taken place and Melissa raised her hand. “I have a question. I’m sort of new to all of this and I wonder if you could tell me where I could find these stories.” As I tried to keep my composure in place I guided her to any of the four Gospels and saw 59 people reaching for their Bibles to show her where the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were located. We moved on…

A while later we made a few more casting decisions with the group while they stood on stage together. I found the Woman-with-the-issue-of-blood, a blind man and still needed a prostitute. The first hand to quickly go straight up in the air was Melissa’s. “I’ll do it!” she said.

When we were ready to close in a time of prayer, our costumer raised a concern. “Do we have what we need for Melissa’s costume upstairs in the costume closet?” I assured her we would be able to find something interesting. Melissa put her hand up again and said, “We’re good. I’ve got it all at my house.”


Priceless.