Category: Advent and Christmas

Scripts for use during Advent and Christmas

Free Christmas Script!

Posted on by Patricia Souder

Gift wrapped in red and green paper

God’s free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ is the ultimate, indescribable gift that supersedes all materialistic must-buy gadgets and goodies that masquerade as essentials in the quest for significance.

So, how do we peel back the glitter, glitz, and propaganda that mask the truth so that people encounter the living Lord and experience His redemption?

What does that for you? What have you found that does that for others?

For me, I love to pair Christian drama and music together. I find they serve as powerful soul openers that touch and transform. Do they do that for you?

If so, please take a look at the Christmas monologues and two-voice drama sketches in the AlphaStar collection at www.AlphaStarDrama.com. Perhaps you’ll find one that speaks to you or that you can use in some special way this Christmas. If you do, use the code “CHRISTMAS14” at checkout, and it will be free. This gift is available once per customer between October 17 and December 25. Scripts included in this offer are “Missing the Messiah,” “Wise Men in King Herod’s Court,” “You Ever Met a Man Like Joseph?” and “Glory Night.”

If you have ideas about using drama and/or music effectively, please drop us a note or share a picture on the Comment Page or on Facebook. That would be a gift we’d cherish!

Missing What’s Most Important?

Posted on by Patricia Souder
Performance of "Missing the Messiah"
Performance of “Missing the Messiah”

It’s a new year. Christmas is over, and many people have packed Christmas in storage boxes for next year.

Not us, however. My husband likes to keep our tree up as long as possible. “January needs something to brighten it up,” he says, and who can argue with that? Or wants to?

We live in a hustle, bustle world where we rush from one season to another, from one activity to another, from one crisis to another.

But what if we’re missing what’s most important in life?

I recently reread the script for “Missing the Messiah” because a friend mentioned they had done it at her church on Christmas Eve. It made me ask myself a few questions:

  • Am I missing life’s important moments?
  • A breath-stopping sunrise?
  • A child’s need for affirmation?
  • An underlying plea for help masked by “Fine” because that friend thinks I’m too busy to listen?
  • Or worse yet: The Messiah Himself because I’m rushing to get my to-do lists done?

Oh yes, we’ll soon have to take down our tree and stash our decorations on shelves, but before we do, I want to make sure I don’t miss the Messiah by spending some quality time worshiping and adoring the One who came to redeem us.

Lord, You are the Joy-giver who makes life worthwhile. In this new year, help me treasure my time with You. Let me sense Your gentle nudges and notice Your tender fingerprints so I come to know and love You with all the ardor You’ve put within me.

Gratefully yours forever—

Amen.

 

CHRISTMAS EUCHARISTEO

Posted on by Patricia Souder

Eucharisteo? Does that sound like Greek to you? Well, no wonder. It is Greek! And it’s my favorite new word for the year, first encountered in Ann Voscamp’s One Thousand Gifts, an engaging and energetic invitation to find joy by embracing everyday life with gratitude for God’s gifts of grace.

I’m fascinated by the beauty of the word as well as its meaning. Eucharisteo is used 37 times in the New Testament and is translated “thank” or “giving thanks” in English. That alone makes it appropriate to connect with Christmas in a year when Thanksgiving and Christmas nearly bump into each other.

But eucharisteo encompasses so much more. It grows out of the root word, charis, which means grace, and leads to chara, a spinoff from charis which means joy. Gratitude, grace and joy? What rich gifts!

I adopted Ann’s challenge to watch for and write down God’s simple gifts of grace. I’m up to 727 journal entries of simple blessings like morning dewdrops, Nathaniel’s two-year-old sparkle, and a serendipitous rendezvous with a friend whose photography-loving niece moved to town just when I was looking for a photographer for my parents’ 70th anniversary party. What priceless gifts that require neither ribbons nor dusting!

Our increasingly materialist society, however, substitutes consumer spending as the bottom line by which to measure the success of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Work and family demands in our fast-paced, instant internet world also rush and stress us, leaving us devoid of eucharisteo.

Those who lived in Bethlehem two thousand years ago had none of the modern conveniences that both simplify and complicate our lives. We may think that eucharisteo was easier for them, but they also faced frustrations and complications. Especially during the census that required them to return to the town of their birth. No airplanes. No trains. No cars. No way to call ahead for reservations. No room for Mary and Joseph after their long journey even though Mary was about to give birth to the Son of God.

It’s easy to look back at that incredible night and Tsk! Tsk! the people who failed to recognize the miracle taking place in their midst. But what if we had been there? Would we have realized what was happening?

1 Corinthians 10:11 tells us that the events in Scripture serve as examples to help us live wisely. AlphaStar Drama offers drama sketches that invite you to get to know the characters of Christmas. To slip into their skins and see life as they did. To experience their fears and perplexities and to wake up to the ways God worked in their lives and wants to work in ours.

Awareness. Fresh insights. A new alertness to God. Are they not steps toward experiencing eucharisteo?

Enjoy the scripts. Share them with others. And let me know if they add eucharisteo–gratitude, grace, and joy– to your Christmas celebration. That would be an eucharisteo entry for me!

Christmas: God’s Great Drama. Surprising or Scandalous?

Posted on by Janelle

Scandalous! Is that a word you associate with Christmas?

I’m reading a series of Advent devotionals this year that uses the word repeatedly. To be sure, it catches my attention. That the Creator of the universe willingly chose to clothe Himself in helpless infant flesh shocks me. That He chose a young woman with no special pedigree, an honest but humble carpenter, and shepherds who were regarded as the lowest of the low to be the main characters in this greatest of all dramas stuns me.

But scandalous? The 136 synonyms in my thesaurus all have negative connotations. Would God ever do anything that is disgraceful, shameful, or dishonorable? Of course not. But would His methods be so unorthodox that people in power might view them as scandalous? Quite possibly.

Mary, Joseph, the angels, the shepherds, the townspeople, Herod, the Magi . . . who among them really understood what was happening?

God surprised them. He continues to surprise us. Drama sketches of Bible characters allow us to see the situation from their viewpoint. As we do, we discover truths that transcend the centuries. We also find  we’re faced with the same dilemma they faced: Will we trust the God who orchestrated this great drama of redemption, or will we judge Him as scandalous? Which is, if you think about it, quite scandalous!