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“Killer Serials” I’m a Star Wars fan. I especially love the last three films (or is it the first three?): the ones with Luke, Princess Leia, Han Solo, the older Obi-Wan, and of course the best villain ever, Darth Vader. Why do I love these films so much? Sure, it’s for the great heroes and marvelous villains and good triumphing over evil, but the big reason for me is that Star Wars is the modern day serial. Like the Buck Rogers or Lone Ranger or Three Musketeers serials of the 1940s. I love serials. So, what do these old-time movie serials have to do with today’s hip, cutting-edge sketches used in churches across the land? Everything! Most sketches performed in the church these days are stand-alone comedy or drama pieces. They run anywhere from three to four minutes up to ten minutes or more. They quickly get to the subject matter at hand, ask the appropriate questions that the speaking pastor needs asked, and then do a quick wrap-up. No time for character development. No time to get to know the folks in the sketch. One week they are there; then as quickly as they came they are gone again. A couple of years ago I approached our senior pastor with a kind of radical idea. How about if I were to write a series of sketches, a serial, and run it for his entire series on family values? I would create a single character that would appear every weekend. He would be a cross between the Narrator in Our Town and Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion character talking about his hometown. My pastor loved the idea. So for the next nine weeks I did a drama called Hometown Chronicles. My character would be found each week sitting in an office with an old Underwood typewriter and would stop his work to tell everyone a story about his hometown and some of the folks who have lived there. The congregation came to look forward to another visit from the old newsman. They got to know him and felt as if they knew his town and the people who came from there. Each story was written to transition into the pastor’s sermon and touch on his subject matter. The serial was a huge success. It was so successful that a few months later the pastor approached me about creating another serial. He was doing a series on people’s peculiarities. I wrote an eight-week serial about a family. The Strange Family. Sidney Strange and his wife Sheila Strange. Each week the congregation was privy to another weird quirk of the Strange family. From the way they raised their kids to the way they approached church going. Once again it gave the congregation time to get familiar with these people. To know them. To laugh with them and at them. I think you’ll find that people love this kind of drama. They enjoy the familiarity of the characters. They like spending time with them. They like comparing them to their own families and their own lives. It’s why we love sit-coms and hour-long dramas on television. We love to see people that we have invested time in go through hilarious situations and heartfelt experiences. That’s why we come back week after week. It’s why we TiVo every single episode of our favorite shows! It’s why I bought all the Star Wars films. We care about those people! The same is true of serial dramas in church. Try it sometime. Invite the folks in; have them sit down and get comfortable. I think you’ll find they’ll stay awhile. (Check out “The Strange Family” serial in this issue’s online script section. You can also access another great serial called “Bert and Ernie” on the Drama Ministry website at www.DramaMinistry.com.) |
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