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Re: [WORSHIP] Christmas Ideas for Small Churches

Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 00:27:34 -0700
To: JReyno0425@aol.com
From: Kelly Dodge <kelly@alpine.net>
Subject: Re: [WORSHIP] Christmas Ideas for Small Churches
In-Reply-To: <970725005240_-391352984@emout06.mail.aol.com>

At 12:52 AM 7/25/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Does anyone have any ideas you would like to share concerning ideas for
>Christmas programs/musicals, etc.?  Our church is about 150-200.  thanks, 
>
>Joe Reynolds
>Freedom Fellowship
>
>

No offense to Joe, or to anyone else out there, but does anyone really
see much of a benefit to Christmas/Easter productions?

I've been in churches for most of my life.  Everything from Episcopalian
to Vineyards.  I have seen the following in productions over the years:

1.  Quality is not good enough to say "Come to our dramatic presentation!"
    It ranges from poor community player's productions to just bad.

2.  Work.  Everyone involved puts in hours and hours of extra work for,
    weeks, if not months, during the holiday season.  

3.  Stress.  Everyone involved gets really stressed out trying to do the
    best they can with what they got.

4.  Attendance.  Usually the people who are in the production can get 
    their friends and families to come, but not much of a community draw.

5.  Message.  I have yet to see a production change people's lives.  We 
    were excited after one production that we worked on for 10 weeks, and
    performed 5 nights to about a total of 400 people, and we got 1 report
    back from a man who rededicated his life to God.  

I've done the big choir thing.  I've done the big drama thing.  I've done
the kids thing.  I've done the multi-church thing.  

I guess my question is: "is it worth it?"  Is God's kingdom being advanced
through Christmas Plays and Easter Cantatas?  Would we be better off
packing up the worship team, a few volunteers, going downtown somewhere
and giving stuff away during a free concert/praise time?

Maybe the ones on this list who have had wonderful results can respond and
say that it was definately worth it.  I hope so.  After being involved in
over a dozen of these things, I took last Christmas and Easter off.  

Sorry, Joe.  Don't take this post as directed at you.  I'm not angry or
challenging people, I just thought I'd get that off my chest and also
see if my perspective is skewed.

Kelly Dodge


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