It Is Finished!

And…it’s over.  It’s finally over.  This year’s Passion Play is done.  And I for one am grateful that it’s behind us.  Now, that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t good.  In fact, this year’s play was AWESOME!!! Everyone loved it!  It’s been 2 weeks and I’m still receiving cards, emails, and messages from people telling me how much they enjoyed it.  We’ve seen a number of people make decisions for Christ and I believe that almost everyone who either attended or participated in the play would tell you that they experienced the power and the presence of God.

 

But it was hard.  This was the 10th Passion Play that I’ve directed.  They have all been difficult at times, but this one was by far the hardest.  The weather was bad and forced us to cancel and shorten some practices.  Sickness was rampant and we had people out for practice all the time.  Plus, our church members are some of the busiest people on the planet.  So, needless to say, having everyone together for rehearsals was difficult and nearly impossible.  But we also have some of the most talented and dedicated people that a church could ever have.  And so, eventually we got it all worked out.

And as soon as it was done (I mean that very night after the last performance) I started getting the “are we going to do it again” question.  Well, here is my answer:  NO

…well maybe…I don’t know.

 

I can tell you that we will not be doing the play next Easter.  I believe that having last year off from the play really made people appreciate the play that much more this year.  Sometimes you don’t really know how important something is until it’s gone.  And so if we are going to do the play again I believe it needs to be on an every other year basis.  That will keep us from getting burned out and possibly keep me sane (maybe).  I hope that it will also keep people coming back.  After doing the play for 7 straight years, some people had stopped attending because they had “already seen it” or had come the year before. So, hopefully doing it every other year will keep it feeling fresh and new.  Plus, it will give us the opportunity to do/try some other things.  We've got a new worship album in the works (Praise Team/Band/Worship Choir) and I want the Drama Team to do a big Christmas Play next year.  Those things are hard to do with a Passion Play dominating your practice and planning time.

I hope everyone will be okay with this.  I completely understand how important the play is to the church.  Our church members take a great deal of pride in the play (not in a bad way).  And they should, because it is really, really good.  It is a wonderful outreach and a great way to reach people for Christ.  But it is also absolutely exhausting.  The church as a whole is still recovering from the amount of effort it took to put the play on.  I believe we are all dragging a little bit.  A year off will do us some good.  

So, in the words of Jesus-"It is finished!"  And no one is more grateful than me:)

Worship Big!

Brad