NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–There’s a movement afoot to raise the level of the arts in the church, and Ed Kee, a veteran of the Christian music record and publishing industry for more than 20 years, wants to help raise the bar for musical productions there.
It seems like the secular world often one-ups the Christian world in quality, Kee told Baptist Press.
“Obviously there’s a lot of garbage out there, but when [those in the secular world] really do so something of substance they do it in such a significant way that even Christians sit up and take notice. It really should be the other way around. Christians should be leading the pack.”
Kee, of Franklin, Tenn., is among a loosely organized group of people with a common vision for Broadway-style musicals for the church — story-driven musicals, not simply choirs singing with a narrator. The musicals have character-driven inspirational songs written to the level of a real Broadway show with highly imaginative lyrics.
With that vision in mind, Kee established Church Musicals, Inc., in May 2001, bringing together a talented team of creative professional Christian writers to combine the excitement and sophistication of the Broadway stage with the redemptive message of the Gospel.
“My whole thrust was to complete a work that was highly entertaining but non-threatening to the non-believer, one that would convey a biblical truth that plants a seed and allows the church then to develop a relationship for the purpose of sharing the Gospel,” Kee said.
Far too many churches have a misconception that the music is going to get people saved, he said, when actually the music should be used to get the attention of the community and draw people in to a place where they can come to trust the church and receive the Gospel message.
“I think the music is more a means to the end,” Kee said. “It’s like a large funnel, and the music programs are the outer rim of the funnel to attract people. As we bring them down into the center, we get into one-on-one evangelism.”
Kee desires to create something wholesome with such high quality and high entertainment value that allows people to come into the church and be comfortable.
Because Church Musicals writes with the church in mind, a basic tenet of their mission includes avoiding major set changes. Most churches don’t have the space of a Broadway stage available, nor do they have the budgets to construct multiple elaborate sets. Other goals are to write on the level of a non-professional singer, write for small casts but leave room for expansion at larger churches, and keep the entire production to a maximum length of 60 minutes.
“We don’t want it to be intimidating,” Kee said. “We want people to try this.”
In order to help churches organize such productions, Church Musicals provides a resource book that includes suggestions for simple staging as well as a director’s guide for even the novice director.
In June, Church Musicals released its first musical, “The Gift — A Christmas Love Story,” based on O. Henry’s short-story classic “The Gift of the Magi.” Set in the early 1900s, it’s a story of sacrificial love at Christmastime, which can be used as a springboard to relate God’s sacrificial love in sending His Son, Jesus.
“The story itself doesn’t make that connection,” Kee said. “The connection is made in one of two ways. I’ve provided a written parallel (or parable) between the story and the Gospel that they can print in the program … or in about 90 seconds the pastor can wrap it up at the end of the production.”
“The Gift” follows a musical Kee helped write about three years ago called “One Bethlehem Night,” a humorous yet deeply poignant look at the humanity of the people who witnessed Christ’s birth.
Kee said the musicals produced by his company can be combined with another growing trend in church music: the dinner theater.
Along with Kee, Church Musicals employs Martha Bolton, John Cosper and Janet Preus. Bolton is an Emmy-nominated and Dove-nominated lyricist who has written comedy for Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller, Mark Lowry and others, and she currently writes The Cafeteria Lady column for Focus on the Family’s Brio magazine for young girls.
Cosper is an eight-year veteran of drama ministry and a published playwright. In 1997 he won the Dramatic Sketch Writing Contest held by Christians in Theatre Arts. Preus is an accomplished teacher of English, speech and theater as well as a theater director and producer.
Churches interested in becoming involved in presenting Broadway-style musicals may visit Church Musicals, Inc. at www.churchmusicals.com for audio samples, reviews and musical write-ups.
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(BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at https://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: THE GIFT.
