Keeping the Ink Wet: What the Theater Can Teach the Church about Worship

Preachers, worship leaders, and actors are all trying to do one thing: make the words on the page come alive, making the texts of their respective authors "flesh" in real time and space. To do it successfully takes a mixture of natural talent, skills training, and lots of rehearsal. It's the work of communication, and the purpose is always to invite the audience or congregation into an experience of some mix of truth, beauty, hope, and reconciliation. Performers take years training in the skills needed. Ministers, unfortunately, often receive very little help or support in developing their own unique way of taking what is inside them--their faith and questions, their love and wisdom--and using that depth to open the living word of God. This book offers a journey through the wisdom and practice of theater for their benefit. A script, after all, is just a starting point. It is neither a play nor an act of worship until it has a body with breath to give it life. Each of us is that body, called to play with the Author to find meaning in the words. Consider this an invitation to come and play!