Crafting Holy Space

Last week, the Rev. Landon Whitsitt, vice-moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA) titled a post on his blog "10 ways being a Theatre Major prepared me for ministry."  In the post he outlines how his undergraduate studies in theatre at a liberal arts college gave him many tools and skills that have helped him in parish ministry.  As a fellow Presbyterian pastor who majored in theatre at a liberal arts college, I resonate with many of Whitsitt's comments, but I'd also like to add something to the conversation.  Many of Whitsitt's reflections deal with very practical areas of theatre: organization, budgetary thinking, hard work, being willing to do what needs to be done. 

I agree with these, but I believe the greatest gift for ministry I received from being a theatre major was the recognition that theatre (and Christian faith) cultivate holy spaces that allow for transformation.  When I refelct on this, I can't help but remember Jerzy Grotowski, theatre theorist and director, who talks about the essentials of theatre in his 1964 work Theatre's New Testament.  In this work, Grotowski seeks to define what is "essential" to theatre.  First, he outlines the many different interpretations made by various people involved with theatre- academics see it as a written text, common audiences as entertainment, “culture seekers” desire to experience certain emotions to give them self-satisfaction. And then, of course, there are actors who think of theatre as all about them, designers who think it is about them, directors who think they are the most important, and producers who, because they provide the money, believe they are the essential element to theatre.

Ultimately, however, Grotowski strips off many of these elements, lights and sets and money and even a written script, and he states, “But can theatre exist without actors? I know of no example of this… Can the theatre exist without an audience? At least one spectator is needed to make it a performance. So we are left with the actor and the spectator. We can thus define the theatre as ‘what takes place between the spectator and actor.’”

It is not the actor nor the spectator individually that are essential to theatre, but it is the undefined "what" that happens between them, the shared experience, the level of communication, that makes theatre.  In that interaction there is a space of truth, exploration, vulnerability, and a potential for change if each party is willing to give in.

I find that in ministry, it's the undefined "what" the occurs between people and God in worship and study and service that is really the heart of our life together.  Many of the elements of our common life are merely ways in which we create space for those holy moments, be they the moment of complete stillness after a moving choir anthem, the energy that builds in a particularly exciting Bible study, the shared moment of vulnerability and brokenness in the middle of a mission trip. 

My theatre background, then, is a calling to strive to create these holy spaces, wherein the Holy Spirit can take what we offer and turn us again toward the Gospel.  It takes a certain humility (sometimes which I'm not quite willing to admit) that acknowledges that most of my work is extraneous so the essential task of creating space for transformation, and it takes a unique focus to worry lesss about the bottom line, the names on the sign-up sheet, the announcements for the bulletin, the lesson plan for Sunday school, and instead to see what is essential, a community for honesty and sharing, where people can learn to let go and trust in a goodness greater than themselves.

It isn't about the preacher or particular worshippers, or the work of the session, instead is "what takes place between people and God" that makes Christian faith, and it has been my experience in the theatre that taught me the importance of creating opportunities for transformation to occur.