Covenant Prayer by John Wesley

I am no longer my own, but thine,
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt,
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
Exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing,
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.

I gotta tell you, I LOVE my job!

First of all, I am so bless to be able to do it!  I am married to a wonderfully funny, smart, talented woman who is very successful at her job, so I can devote my time and energy to this without having to work nights at Walmart.  Not that there’s anything wrong with working at Walmart– but if I’m working there, I’m not writing plays or sending rehearsal materials to Houston or Trinidad.

Secondly, I get to live my life in my imagination.  When I was a kid in elementary school.  I was constantly drifting off during class into my imagination.  I was often saving the rest of the class from Pirates or foreign armies.  I remember a couple times I fantasized about being a First Aid Responder for injuries on the playground (I even collected an assortment of band aids and strips of cloth for bandages to bring to school).  Now I get paid to let others imagine along side of me.  That is very cool!

Thirdly, I get to hang around with and get to know people who care enough about others to want to provide them with entertainment.  Think of it– how many people do you meet in a day who gives a rat’s behind if other people are enjoying themselves and having a good time?  The people who contact me or KMR Scripts are doing so for the sole purpose of looking for shows to entertain their audiences.  They’re trying to make people happy!

During this time of the year (Lent), churches are getting ready for Holy Week observances.  Our “Beneath the Upper Room” is becoming a popular part of Maundy Thursday worship services all over the country.  In the six years since I first wrote it, it’s been presented by over 140 churches in just about every state of the Union.  I’ve been in contact with pastors and worship leaders from Kansas, Florida, Washington, Delaware– and all the states in-between.  They’re often a bit nervous about presenting a drama, so I get to visit with them and ease their minds about trying something new at their church for Maundy Thursday.

Occasionally, I’ll have someone call who is a bit frustrated with our website (we’re constantly updating, trying to find the best design for our customers to navigate) or is confused as to why we insist on making churches pay in advance.  Usually by the end of the phone call, we are both happy that we got the chance to visit with each other.  I try to set them at ease that they are getting a quality play and LOTS of experienced help should they find themselves in need of some tips or other help.

When I get up in the morning and head to my office, I have no idea who or what is in store for me that day.  Each day is an adventure– not unlike my imagination.  I’m just along for the ride!

See my children’s sermon:  Quenching Our Thirst For God

I grew up in a church in northern Indiana, Hillcrest United Methodist Church.  It was not a particularly demonstrative congregation– or denomination as a whole.  But we loved God, we loved to pray, we loved to have our pot-luck dinners, and we loved to help our neighbors whether they went to our church or not.  I thrived in that church.  It did what I think every good church needs to do:  prepares its congregants for LIFE– whether it be Life in the future, or just the day-to-day Life.

Fast-forward to my forties.  I’ve attended Methodist churches all my life and now my wife and kids attend Methodist churches with me.  Between the two of us, we’ve been on just about every church committee there is over the years.  We enjoy supporting our churches with our tithes and our service.  As “good” Methodists, that’s what we do.

Around that time, I began attending Promise Keepers conventions.  I think I went to 3 or four (I stopped when the speakers began repeating themselves from year to year…  geez) around the late 1990s and early 2000s.  My two brothers and I would get a hotel room and attend the conventions together.  Good food, good beers, and some good theology.

One of the things that stopped me in my tracks was when the speakers or the MC would make comments about some of our attendees’ lack of demonstrative worship.  “Raise your Hands to God, men!”  I have never done that in my life.  I’ve heard of it, but I have never been asked or instructed to do that.  I didn’t understand the purpose of it.  Now I have someone standing in front of a crowd of 15,000 men not just encouraging– but literally chastising and belittling us for not worshiping the way they are accustomed to.  “What’s the matter?  Don’t your love GOD?  Raise your hands!  Say ‘Amen!’  Let me hear you!”  That’s when I left to go check out the souvenir displays.

The speakers needed that feedback– not God.  The speakers needed a visible sign that we were “getting” what they were saying.  Applause wasn’t enough.  “Yeah!” wasn’t enough.  It was like in a locker room, they had to know that we were all on the same team, pumped up for the game.

It reminds me of my high school days.  There was a group of my classmates that attended a very charismatic church (we used to call them “Holy Rollers” but I doubt that they actually rolled around on the ground).  I was in a class with one of the girls and she was asking why I didn’t attend their church.  I said “it seems a little fanatical to me.”  She had her reply ready (surprise, surprise):  “You know what a fanatic is?  It’s someone who loves Jesus more than I do.”  Hmmm….

I love God.  But I don’t worship that way.  Never have– never will.  And unfortunately, not everyone is comfortable with that.  I’m not sure if it has to do with other people’s anxiety that they’re not passionate enough in their zeal to worship God, and need encouragement from other’s passion to get them going– or that they’re not charismatic enough to draw the passion for God out of others.  All I know is that God is perfectly fine with how I worship Him.

Yeah, yeah, the Bible has lots of verses talking about dancing for God and raising hands to God….  It also says we shouldn’t wear tattoos or garments made out of two different materials.  What’s with the picking and choosing? 

I often have people ask me what it is like to have something I have written be performed all over the world.  To have a script that I created (adapted, or from scratch), be picked from all the available scripts out there– to be presented before an audience.  Let me tell you:  it’s awesome!

When I write a new script, I usually get to attend the rehearsals and performances.  I’ve only NOT attended the premiere once, for Boo Castle.  To be honest, I’m so busy analyzing the actors’ performance and the audience reaction that I don’t really get to just sit back and enjoy the performance.  Are the funny parts funny enough?  Is the audience’s attention where it is supposed to be on the stage?  Are the songs memorable?

I’ve used this analogy many times before:  My plays are like my children.  I created it and I molded it.  Then when a theatre (or church) wants to produce it for their audience, I send it off, as if to summer camp, to let them have it for a while.  When I hear that the play went well, I feel a pride not unlike that of a father.  — but don’t get me wrong, I’m much more proud of my real kids than I am of any play!

When I was just starting out, I would attend all the performances of my shows that I could.  I drove 800 miles one weekend to watch my Beauty & the Beast in Minnesota.  One year, we took a detour on the way back from our family vacation to Florida to attend a performance of my Princess & the Pea in Georgia.  Another year, I met my Dad and my brother and his family in Indiana to see my Three Little Kittens.  Good times.  But I don’t do that much any more.  I see about half of the shows that are performed just down the road in Wichita every year. 

It’s not that I don’t like the shows or that I’m bored with them.  I just have other things to do now.  Kids.  Kids’ activities.  My real kids need me more.  I’ve done all I can for my scripts, it’s time they took off on their own and made me proud!

We don’t spam.

Wikipedia defines SPAM as “the use of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.”

We don’t send in bulk, and we’re not indiscriminate.  We DO send unsolicited emails– but we only send them to a very select, targeted list of email addresses.  We don’t use webbots and we don’t buy (or sell) lists.  We compile our e-mailing list in our office by visiting each and every church website in person.  If you recieved an email ad from us advertising Beneath the Upper Room, you can rest assured that we got your email address directly from a public page on your church’s website.  See our page on our website for more info.

Sometimes we have to get a bit clever in finding email addresses.  I guess that’s the blessing (and curse) in having a self-described computer nerd in charge of the project.  He doesn’t give up easily.  He looks through the pages of a website, reads newsletters and Pastor’s Notes– sometimes even going through the html coding of the site.  BTW, he’s kept a list of what makes a remarkable website (both good and not-so-good) and put some suggestions on our website. He also gives some suggestions about how a church can hide email addresses from SPAMMERS and webbots.

Compiling email addresses has been a project we’ve been working on for over two years.  We almost have all the churches in the United Methodist Church in our list.  We do have churches from a few other denominations in our lists, usually churches in towns that are special to BTUR’s playwright, Kevin M Reese, but we haven’t yet completed the denomination-wide list.

BTW – We don’t buy, sell, rent, lease, lend or borrow the email addresses in our contact lists.  And if we get a request to remove a particular email address from our lists, we do so immediately and permanently.

We’ve finally begun the process of getting our Performance Packets ready for next year’s productions.  We have begun to get orders in for next Maundy Thursday!  We need a few more days to get our files ready, then we’ll start mailing out CDs and sending out the download links.  If you’re waiting to receive your materials– thank you for your patience, they should arrive soon!

What takes so long?  We have to process the script files through a special security algorithm.  If we just sent the scripts out without some sort of password protection, we would lose all control over who possesses our scripts.  Remember, I only make money from script sales and performance royalty.  If people could download free copies of the script or present the show in their churches without paying the fees, I may have to get a job at Walmart instead of writing plays.  The security measures we apply to the scripts helps keep control of who has access to the scripts. 

Want to order?  Go Here!

I have no doubt that Jesus had a WONDERFUL sense of humor. 

I am confident that Jesus could be silly, that he and the disciples had inside jokes, that he loved to tickle and be tickled, and that he got down on his bottom to play with kids.  In order for Jesus to be that well put-together, his Mom, Mary, had to be a very special lady.  Though we don’t know much about Joseph, I imagine he was pretty awesome, too.  The acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree….

I’ve been playing around (that’s what I call my early work on a new play, before it ever actually takes the form of a “play.”) with a new companion piece to “Beneath the Upper Room” (I’ll call it “The Upper Room” ?) that extends the story to the events taking place upstairs with Jesus and his disciples.  I’ve been trying to show the comradery of the group so that when all the events of the Passion take over, we see ordinary people acting extra-ordinarily.

My plan is to have the two plays performed together as a Maundy Thursday Worship Service.  The show will begin with a greeting from the Pastor, then have the scenes with the Disciples, then have the scenes with the women, communion, then have the Pastor dismiss the congregation.  They could also be performed seperately as a One Act.

My problem has been, when I show friends what I’ve written, it’s very hard to accept that Jesus and the disciples were breaking bread and cracking jokes.  It just doesn’t work.  If I used the Sermon on the Mount as the setting, that would work better– but the Last Supper?  No.

I’ve finally figured out another avenue to persue that I think will fix everything.  I’ll have the group get all their “lighter moments” out of the way while they’re waiting for the Seder to begin, then it will be serious (please don’t steal my idea.  I can’t copyright an idea).  We’ll see….

Anyway, the whole reason for the new show is to highlight Jesus’ sense of humor.  I touch upon it a little in BTUR when I had the little girl, Rachel, talking about how silly Jesus can be and when Solome describes Jesus laughing when he washed Peter’s feet.  Too often we get a little too serious about all this Christianity stuff.

I’ve been asked to write a blog for Beneath the Upper Room.  I’ll write about stuff that pertains to the writing of the play, various productions of it, and just about whatever else my mind wanders upon.