Using a Christian Musical
Why use a Christian musical? From the outset, Christian Music Ministries has used musicals as tools for bible teaching, encouragement, mission and evangelism.
• According to David Spriggs of the Bible Society , “People learn when you tell them a story.” Psychologist Dr Renée Fuller goes even further in her research and writing. She believes that not only do humans learn with stories, but that story-engrams (combinations of nouns, verbs and adjectives) are the basic building blocks of the way humans think .
• Jesus knew the importance of story. He told parables – stories that helped people understand their faith through everyday illustrations.
• Music is a communicative language, and furthermore, it involves our emotions. Music’s use of melody, harmony, rhythm and colour all leads to stimulation of emotion, mood, imagination, response; and ultimately, identification and relationship. The result is heightened understanding, experience and hopefully growth in faith. See diagram on page 99.
There are several different ways of telling a story through music :
• Cantata: Using a choir, soloists and a narrator – e.g. JS Bach wrote one for every Sunday of the year, and extra ones for special occasions. Other commonly used cantatas include Stainer’s Crucifixion and Maunder’s Olivet to Calvary.
• Stage Musical: With costumes, drama, dance, soloists and chorus – e.g. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Godspell, Les Miserables, The Sound of Music.
• Worship Musical: Encouraging audience participation and introducing Christians and non-believers alike to an experience of worship and spiritual gifts that they may not have been experiencing in their own churches at the time – e.g. ‘Come Together’ by Jimmy and Carol Owens or ‘Hopes and Dreams’ by Paul Field and Stephen Deal.
Musicals can be performed on a large scale, or using just a few people. Annie has been known to conduct a musical with ten people in the choir, and pressing play and pause on the CD player herself! If members of your church and community can catch the vision, there are a great many jobs that can be created to involve as many gifts and skills as possible. Some of them may lead to those outside the church taking part. The more that are involved, the more friends and family come and watch. It is also great to include children wherever possible, firstly because they are introduced to Jesus through the story, but also because they come with an audience of parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts. What a wonderful way to tell the gospel story!
Annie: I once taught the CMM musical Jerusalem Joy from scratch in a day to a choir in a small village. One of the ladies had brought her granddaughter. When I taught them the song ‘It is over now’, which comes just after Jesus’ death, the little girl started crying. She had never heard the end of the story! In the middle of the choir rehearsal I was able to explain to her that Jesus came alive again. The whole choir was blessed by this fresh reminder of the gospel.
Making it work
If you don’t expect God to do anything he won’t disappoint you!
• Firstly, have a vision for it – in terms of evangelism, teaching, and ministry to the believers taking part.
• Secondly, make it spiritual – be church-based, and backed by prayer.
• Thirdly, have a strategy in the preparation – rehearsals are a great place to learn not just the music, but for bible teaching, worship, prayer and openness to the Holy Spirit together.
How will it end?
There are a number of ways of ending a musical:
• Let the work speak for itself.
• Have a short talk, inviting a response.
• Get someone (soloist?) to share briefly about what God has done for them.
• Give words of knowledge .
• Come and ask for a leaflet – how to become a Christian, local church contacts.
Roger: We performed the musical Jail Break at a small theatre in the south of England. To help their revenue they insisted we have an interval so that they could sell ice creams. As this didn’t fit with the flow of our performance I managed to argue that they could sell them after the performance. I took great joy in announcing at the end, “Go to the right of stage to meet the cast, centre stage for prayer ministry, left of stage for ice creams!” Some went to all three!
Musicals can have a huge impact on local churches. Here are some comments:
"The majority of our youngsters come from holiday club and have no other church contact, so your musicals are doing much to bring the Bible alive for them. Your musicals are helping to tell the good news to our friends and parents."
"It was a tremendous healing experience for the congregation – a great piece of outreach. We have lots of local contacts to follow up. We look forward to moving on."
"I am convinced that many who came were deeply moved by the very powerful message portrayed through the music and drama ... there was a real galvanising of the Spirit, which we pray was taken away by the many non-Christians in the audience."
"One man had suffered a severe nervous breakdown some years ago, and since then had been withdrawn and taken no real interest in being actively involved in anything. He joined in with ‘Saints Alive’ to support his wife, and ended up gaining confidence and volunteering for the speaking parts. His wife is praising God for the healing effect this had on his morale and outlook."
A musical may have many benefits
The thrill and the experience of the Saturday night musical should impact what happens on a Sunday morning:
• An experience of worship. A choir member, having been released into a PSH (see chapter 8) in the musical, people can see how it can happen in ‘normal’ church worship.
Roger: Having experienced a PPH in a musical (a planned prophetic happening), one of our worship leaders introduced it into our normal morning Eucharist. She sang out what she thought God was saying and people were blessed.
• Personally relating to a bible passage.
• A deeper appreciation - having learned it for the musical, the occasional use of a new tune to a traditional hymn may add an extra dimension to the Sunday morning service. In the hymn Just as I am , one of our soloists noticed the line in the last verse, “Here for a season, then above” in a fresh way; she had sung it all her life, and suddenly, using the different melodic contour, the words came alive for her. Sometimes, familiarity can breed immunity to many of the wonderful words of our traditional hymns.
• New recruits! - having sung in a musical and discovered gifts and gained confidence, some may be ready, willing and able to join the choir or music team.
Roger: My former vicar Peter Lawrence was often heard to say, “You know you don’t have to be able to sing in order to sing in one of Roger’s musicals!” I take this as a compliment!
• Remember and think about a time you were deeply moved by a musical presentation of a bible story e.g. Godspell, the Oberammergau passion, or Handel’s Messiah, or one of CMM’s musicals. What was it that touched you? How did you respond?
• Have you ever considered doing a musical at your church? What would be the benefits?
This article is from Chapter 13 of "Worship Works" by Roger Jones, Annie Routley and Helen Pollard on church as a place for performance.