Drama Ministry...more of the story!

So suffice it to say my life journey has detoured me from writing about drama ministry. But alas the story must go on.

Script writing has been an essential part of the drama ministry for me. I am not so uninformed to think there is not available material out there but it has just been the case for me that God would stir in my heart and mind the story He wanted us to tell.

The more I wrote, the more at ease I began to feel about the way God spoke to me, however in those first few years when I was reformatting a script or finishing someone else's work, it was a daunting task for me. I felt ill equipped and not nearly talented enough. But I had said yes to God and I had to trust that He would do it through me. Those first steps were baby steps though and coming to a place to write the entire script was a huge leap of faith for me.

Inspiration would strike in the strangest places. Sitting in church listening to the message, during my quiet time, while at the grocery store, while watching a movie, during prayer, when reading a book. I literally was in safeway one day when a song began playing and as if everything were in slow motion as I liked around other shoppers had taken notice of the song at the exact time and all of them were nodding to the music, in my head of course. I am not sure that really happened but I could see it as if it were real and it inspired a scene in the play. That's what it was like for me.

Regardless of when; what always seemed to transpire would be clear and colorful pictures and images with story to compliment. And then I knew I had to get to my computer, very soon and write. It was overwhelming how the words and dialogue would spill out onto the page and scenes formed then directions followed. Amidst the drizzle from my visions a play would appear, taking shape, color, characters, and form. The process amazed and stunned me at the same time.

My very first full script was Beautiful which was taken from the book of Ruth. My Pastor had just taught through the book and I had begun dreaming of these characters in full vivid pictures only in a contemporary setting. That was the beginning of the most intense writing experience. As I saw this story of Ruth unfold in my brain I began to fall in love with the people, the families, the faces that stirred my heart. I became so emotionally attached to Ruth and her life that when it came time to share the script with my team I was terrified. After-all they might not like it. And then what would I do? I had lived with this story for a few months now. Fifty pages that were practically written on my heart and I had to let others share their thoughts and opinions about it, uhg! I just couldn't do it!

So I let my husband and my kids have the first go. Of course they were kind and encouraging but I realized something, hmm they were also pretty biased. Next my good friend Monique and her family, they were so supportive yet honest. They seemed to like it pretty well and got very excited after reading it. Also they had some good input that really helped in the initial edits.

Next up was the meeting with the rest of the leadership team. I gave the script to the stage manager, set director, lighting tech, choreographer, and it was out there. No turning back now.

I had written a script, for a play, and we were going to perform it. I am really glad I never set much stock in the words I had written and knew that the story itself would come more to life as the actors began to fill the characters and that is exactly what happened. I was happy to liberally give freedom in lines, for the most part, especially in rehearsal where some great discoveries were made and also when I would run through a scene and then I could see where holes could be filled in and also what was needed to fill it out more.

God was so with me, at every turn. I believe He carried me through that year by giving me the most gracious team of actors and crew I could have ever worked with. For some reason every single one of us felt this project was of the Lord and became really attached to the characters and story.

So what I learned that year; true humility is essential to survival in rehearsal, complete surrender would make it easier for my feelings to not get hurt, allowing the entire team to take ownership of the story really brought the project to life, and God comes through. Every single time. We do not arrive, He stretches us and grows us more and more every single step we take with Him.

That year was a turning point for me. What obedience looked like that year for me, really, was the greatest gift I never imagined I would ever receive from God. He flowed through my heart, mind, visions, dreams, and creativity to bring together a heart warming and vividly colorful drama that to this day is my most favorite story.

He so exceedingly abundantly went beyond so much more than I could ever ask or think. He radically changed me and I am so grateful to have followed Him in this calling, even through fear and attack and doubt, He so brought me through!

It was BEAUTIFUL!

Featured Artisan: Dearest Sara

There are some people who come into your life that make a grand entrance and hold a commanding presence. I lovingly refer to these people as larger than life.



Sara Stokes is just that. When I met her she was fresh out of high school ready for anything and everything. She was sweet and smart and sharp. We counted money together for the BBQ ministry at our church, then actually started working together at the credit union.

I quickly became one of Sara's adoring fans, there have been so many of us.

One thing I did not know about Sara was that she had been in dance since the age of three. I only learned this detail after one of the performances of the very first drama at Oregon State. She came up to me literally beaming and said, "the next drama, I have to be part of."

We had no idea then that God was doing something really BIG.



Sara did join our team, not only as a dancer, but as a leader, teacher, choreographer, visionary, actor, you name it, she was willing to do it. She poured her entire life into this ministry for several years and during the six months out of the year we were not working on a drama, she was dancing her heart out for Jesus in other Countries, working with local dance teams, or street performing.

Sara was extremely gifted in so many ways. Her dancing was beyond graceful, it was brilliance in motion, her creativity was limitless, and yet how she worked with her team astounded me. She could take untrained dancers and weave them into a collage of beauty, it was supernatural. She could see in a person something they did not see in themselves. She believed in people. It was inspiring. Once we had an audition where close to 60 tried out, Sara cast them all, not having the heart to turn any of them away.



In a sudden turn of events Sara was taken from us in a car accident on June 19, 2007. It was a tragic ending to an amazingly gifted and blessed life.

Yet Sara lives on. She of course is with her savior Jesus Christ. We however have so much of the life she left in us all. Determination, a hard work ethic, a heart to share Jesus, a commitment to excellence, reaching for more than before, CAN do attitudes, pushing ourselves to do and be better, Sara gave us that.

Sara danced for Jesus. She never made it about her, she walked in humility and led others to do the same. Working with her was a gift. I am a better leader and director because of it.

I miss Sara. Some day I will see here again. But until then I plan to go on living for Jesus, sharing art in life the way she lived.



Thank you Sara for what you have given us, we will continue to give as well.

Tree, dead girl, and demon.

Exposing our children to radical evangelism.

It's hard to believe that our kids were so young when this all started. LJ was 12, Jeremiah 10, Caleb 9, and Bethany 8. Whats even funnier was how we double and triple cast them. Bethany really was all three of those roles the first year tree, dead girl, and demon. I love that Kari didn't mind at all having my kids in the drama.

I wish I could say that Lionel and I knew exactly what we were doing when we put our kids in ministry with passionate and excited young adult believers. When I look back on it I think, genius! Genius God! He certainly did know, even though we were clueless. He knew that my kids hearts would be stirred at very young ages for lost and hurting people. He knew that they would be following the example of college students that were fully committed and yet desperate for Him. He knew that week after week they would get on their faces before the Lord, just like the rest of us pouring their heart out to Him, asking Him to do the work, asking Him to save the lost, asking Him to provide and meet our teams needs and to bring people to the outreach.

And when God did show up, and oh how He did show up, He knew what that would teach them about His faithfulness, about doing His work not our own good ideas, about answered prayer.

Over the years our family has been involved in several outreaches of this magnitude and it has been the testimony of our family that we trust God through each step. But the amazing thing is how that has spilled over into every area of our lives. So our kids want to go on a mission trip? They trust God to provide. They want to play instruments and minister in worship? God provides instruments, guidance, ability, and opportunity. They want there friends to know Christ, they one by one begin to come and God changes them. They want to step forward in obedience with something they have never done before and because of God's past faithfulness they have His confidence to move forward with Him.

One day a few years back Jeremiah had some big things going on that God really came through for him on, He said "I knew God would do it because I prayed and He always answers our prayers!"

Thank you for that Lord.

The other day LJ my oldest son said, "mom you ruined us for being normal teenagers and relating to kids in our high school(public) and the things they care about, you kept us with older people that were already out of those issues, and I am so glad."

Praise you Lord.

I had no idea what God was doing with them. I am glad because Lionel and I can not take the credit for what God has done in us and in our family through serving Him and ministering the gospel.

So go forward, serve Him and follow Him, you may have an idea of what things He can do, but you have no idea of ALL the things He will do.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think!

Spiderman Satan scaling the set; PRODUCTION.

Some things are just burned into my memory. This is one of those things I hope to never forget.

We sat around the table, Kari, me, Lionel and a few guys that would make up our crew. I was really excited to get input from the collective genius as well as vision and heart. Kari and I had shared back and forth plenty and it was evident God was aligning our vision, but there was so much more to our team.

Another thing was it just so happened that as gifted as everyone was for their prospective jobs, there wasn’t a lot of theater experience at the table. Which really didn’t seem to bother any of us, well ok maybe me, but only for second; so we began brainstorming.

We had lots of interesting ideas. Grand erect sets and buildings, cool revolving rooms that would be constructed, pyrotechnics was thrown in there as well, an idea that had come from the college pastor via Kari expressing his thoughts and ideas. Then my favorite of all, to hoist Lionel, our Satan, on a rigging (fly) system in order that he might be able to scale the set like Spiderman! Hmm, let that soak in a minute. I just have to say here I remember thinking through each of these ideas sincerely asking myself and God was there something in this and to not let me pass by anything He was saying to me. One look at Kari and a wink from her bright sparkling eyes assured me that even though we loved the extreme nature and excitement of these ideas, we would need to set out on our own to design the look and flow, then hand out tasks as necessary.

But before I move on there are great nuggets here. I love that anything was possible. I love that there was no holding back and we could let our imaginations run wild. I love that God would use a group that had never done theater before and give them the courage to do everything they could dream up. I love that Lionel would have been willing to harness up and FLY! I love that we had the heart and energy of THE CREATOR flowing through us and because of HIM nothing was out of the question.

Keep dreaming Kristen. Ok Lord!

Next Post: Tree, dead girl, and demon. Exposing our children to radical evangelism!

Rehearsals, something like a Richard Simons work out video?!

Well we weren't Sweaten' to the Oldies, but we could have given Denise Austin a run for her money!

I am cracking up this morning as I write this because thinking back at all the different ways we "bonded" as a team that first year, oh my goodness. I don't know that I can paint it now in words, but I will give it a try.

As the director I had to gauge my team and the skill levels, assess where we were at and where we needed to be while at the same time teach the blocking, help with character development and grow ALL of our abilities. I had in my brain the wonderful warm up techniques of working with previous directors, a packet Kari gave me that someone had given to her, pretty much stage basics 101, and my own ideas/eagerness/craziness. However when it came right down to it, that first Saturday morning at Northwest Hills walking in the door greeting all the expectant faces, including the smiling Kari, I had a huge realization...I AM THE DIRECTOR! (Hard swallow.) No, Lord, You be the director. That really was my response, not trying to be spiritual, I had to pass the busk to someone, He was all that was left.

Yes, Kristen, now you are getting.

We started those first few weeks with prayer of course, then worship, then lot's of breathing exercises and then worked into moving around the room for a while and then several games that were very helpful for new actors. I was stalling. It's true, we were having all day practices, I am not kidding about that either and I don't think I blocked more than two scenes that first day. Over an hour of warm ups. I was scared to death. But I didn't want to be. I had it stuck in my mind that we REALLY needed to be warmed up. Kari had this awesome worship music that had great rhythm to it and she loved to dance so after breathing and stretches I asked her if she would help us MOVE more. Twenty or so of us kicking and jumping and turning and swaying and doing our best to keep up with Kari, picture something like a very ill coordinated line dance.(Except our few gifted dancers of course.) To anyone looking in on us I am sure they would have thought they stumbled across a combo aerobics/beginning theater class. Sometimes we had one of our guys lead us in military drills, not kidding about that either. Sometimes we just shouted a bunch; I was really trying to stress the importance of projecting.

All in all, we were bonding. In the Lord, as friends, learning about one another, building trust and sensitivity, it was beautiful. And the bonus was the play was coming along. Woo hoo! And I learned so much from each person on that team. I am crying now because I can see each face and I am so grateful and in awe of how they placed their trust, in the Lord of course, but then in Kari and me. We did not have it all together, there was no good reason why either of us should be the leaders over any of them, but that God had made it so and so, we all gave what we had to give and prayed for God to come through with what we didn’t. And He did. God CAME through for us, HUGE milestone lesson in my life.

Kristen you don’t come through for me, I come through for you. Thank you Lord.

Next Post: Spiderman Satan scaling the set; PRODUCTION!

Anonymous Back-row Believers

The beginning is a very good place to start. I want to share about the birth of the drama ministry but in order to fully appreciate my perspective I feel the need to start at the real beginning.

Lionel and I moved to Corvallis in December of 1999. Whoa time flies. We came here a little worn and battered from full time ministry and some difficult times we had faced (those are stories for another time).

Needless to say churches had left a bitter taste in our mouth and towards Christians we felt an even greater disdain. But we were responsible parents and had a strong conviction to raise our kids in church. We set out to find a church where we could hear the word, enjoy the worship and blend in. Actually fade completely into the background.

That is exactly what we could do at Calvary. For about a year we would check our kids in, sit in the back and leave during the last worship song or prayer or anything that alerted us to nearing the end of the service. We were not looking to meet people, had no desire to get "plugged in" and we didn't really want people to know we had been youth pastors, not at all.

God put some people in my path that first year however that did open my heart a little. One was Kellie Dykast who I met my first day of work at OSU Federal Credit Union, she just so happened to be training me. The other was another woman I ended up working with every single day Lynn Christiansen. Both women were very sweet and incredibly easy Christians to be around. It was refreshing and surprising.

Slowly God began to heal us through the amazing bible teaching and by His spirit. We realized that we could not stay in our back row slump and needed more but we were fearful and not ready to reach out to people. The way we saw it we had two choices, fully commit to Calvary and the ministry there wholeheartedly OR leave and find a smaller place we could begin to serve and get our lives again centered around ministering.

One day after praying for a few weeks about this our son Jeremiah, at the wise age of nine said, "dad we were closer to God when we were in the ministry." It was like a hot iron to our soul. Those words burned in us. Because he was right, because we knew it, and because we had not been fooling our children at all.

We decided we would work in a ministry that we could do as a family, that was not a weekly commitment and that we could get out of. I know, we sound like winners right? But that is where our hearts were. SO we joined the Barbecue ministry. It was a good start. Gene and Trish were kind. It was practical service and the kids enjoyed it. It was also only half the year. We were both stunned by one thing in particular Gene said at the first meeting. They did not want anyone to get burned out serving.

Really? Did they mean that? Was this just lip service or was he sincere. We had been so abused as laymen and even more so as staff. We had been at everything and doing all that we could or should. Serving was what serious Christians did, all the time, serve the pastor, serve the body, serve the facility, serve the community, try to serve your family, occasionally have time to serve your marriage.

About four months after the barbecue season ended we read an announcement for the Spring Drama. I think my heart began to beat a little faster when I read that the first time. Something was stirring in me and Lionel too. I was very excited. I got the applications and filled them out for all of us. We talked to the kids and they were excited. We thought it would be so fun if we all had little parts or did something back stage or even helped make sets. We were willing to do anything.

The very next week at church we looked for the girl that was going to lead the ministry. I asked around and someone told me she was cleaning the bathrooms (it makes me smile just thinking of that). We finally found her, Kari Zyp, blond hair, black trash bags in hand. We introduced ourselves and she told us about the meeting then we went on our merry way.

To be continued...