Bubba Theology

That's how one of my friends referred to the dramatic piece I did on Sunday with Brian, our new student pastor. Like myself, Brian has a Bachelor's in Fine Arts and a strong background in Theatre Arts. (He was also born in Sacramento, though a few years later than myself).

The morning's focus was that God created us to love, and that's the main idea behind "the image of God". Al suggested a drama about misunderstanding the image of God and thinking it was about how we look. He said "Give Brian a spot in it". So I roughed the idea in for Brian and said "Let this brew for a couple hours and then we'll go into the Worship Center and improv our way through it." And I don't think I've ever worked with someone who was able to do that so well. We had a real synergy thing going and never actually wrote a script. We played these 2 good ol' boys on the porch drinking orange pop and talking about the image of God. "Does he have a nose? Does he have eyes, arms, legs, a belly button?" Finally he brings up Psalm 92 and its references to taking shelter under God's wings, and my character waxes long and theologically, but doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.

Throughout the drama we waved to friends driving past in their pickup trucks, with the refrain "Is that a new truck?" "Nope, same old truck" "Hmmm. must've washed it". And then synchronized drinks from our bottles of orange drink.

Finally at the end when he says "You don't know what you're talking about, do you?", I reply "Nope. Not a clue. I only know one thing: I'm gonna go wash my truck."

Al and Mark followed up on this so sensitively. Al had prepared a series of screens with scenery and scripture verses connecting "image of God" and "love". And Mark played a beautiful George Winston-ish piano underneath it.

It was beautiful. The humor opened hearts right up, and the music and screens gently reached down and taught a biblical truth.

I wish I had an audio recording to link to, but we had a CD recorder crash. I am ordering a new CD recorder today.