1. We are surrounded by drama all the time
2. Worship is essentially dramatic.

Let's start with the first of these. Just before Christmas I went into my local post office where an elderly gentleman was trying to exchange some pictorial Christmas stamps he'd bought the previous day for some ordinary second class stamps. He'd decided that he didn't like the African picture of Mary and Jesus that was on the stamp and wanted a different one ­ he also wanted to register his dissatisfaction to the rather bemused member of staff who was dealing with his request. Whether he felt she had some say in Royal Mail stamp design I do not know.

That was an essentially dramatic encounter full of possibilities. The man's deep sense of what Jesus should look like, the response of the counter staff and the fact that unbeknown to him he had a Methodist minister standing behind him wondering whether this was the time to make a theological point! We are surrounded by drama everyday. It's on television, it's on the radio, it's there when we go to work, or down to the shops, or ride on the bus, or sit round a meal table with family or friends or go to a Church coffee morning. Some of the drama is large and imposing, some of it is tiny and about small moments or glances or words shared ­ but it is there.

The second statement is just as true. Worship is essentially dramatic. Methodists in the past have perhaps shied away from this idea ­ but it is just as true. Communion is essentially a series of dramatic acts, the delivery of a fine sermon, the well told Bible story, the quiet stillness of a group at prayer ­ these are all moments of drama. Much of the teaching of Jesus involved the dramatic telling of stories. You can imagine a crowd of listeners hanging on every word. Why? Because there was a sense of drama about the moment when a father who has been longing for his son to return home and has been sitting, watching and waiting, suddenly spies a figure in the distance and races down the path to fling his arms round the boy's neck to welcome him home. Or when a rich man who has ignored the needs of the poor suddenly finds himself paying for his lack of interest and longs for help. Or when a person who has built a house on sand suddenly realises they've made a very foolish mistake. I could go on, but you get the idea.

What we need to do, I believe, is admit to ourselves the truth of these two statements and to work with that. In the course of writing dialogues for worship in two books now I've tried to use a variety of methods. Drama is not just about comic sketches ­ though they have their place and I'm still amazed by the number of Churches that have witnessed very little drama of that sort in worship. As the days of the TV comedy sketch show do not seem to have disappeared (unlike the situation comedy series) ­ so sketches in worship have their place.

There is a great deal more that can be done though. This is where the work comes in and I know that in hard pressed lives the involvement of others takes time and effort ­ but I believe it is worth doing.

As an introduction to the sermon why not take a suitable story from the news that week and turn it into a dialogue? As I write this article Celebrity Big Brother is moving towards its tawdry climax and there's been a big debate about the presence of George Galloway in the house. What about a short dialogue that raises some of the issues ­ about our thirst after fame and notoriety rather than quiet and humble service of the people who need to be served? Or perhaps something about a society that thirsts after celebrity so much that a group of people who aren't actually famous can be placed into this situation. What does it say about them that they submit themselves to this level of humiliation, and what does it say about us that we watch it? There's lots of scope in most news stories for doing a brief dialogue as an introduction to issues that you're going to raise in the sermon. For example:

One:

In the news ­ in the Celebrity Big Brother House this week two contestants admitted that they'd never heard of each other.

Two:

Yes that's right. In a desperate grab to bolster fading careers it was becoming clear that two of the residents in the house actually weren't famous at all.

One:

Geoffrey Stanton a postman from Crewe and Elizabeth Holmes a classroom assistant from Daventry had both been in the house for a week before anybody realised that they weren't celebrities at all.

Two:

One member of the public said ­ 'Well, I'd never heard of any of the other contestants either so what's the problem?'

One:

The programme continues to pit fading celebrities against each other in a desperate attempt to re-kindle their fame.

Two:

In a strange turn of events ­ whilst the list of celebrities has never been more dismal and the humiliations more unpleasant, the viewing ratings for the show have reached new peaks.

One:

It seems that our hunger for celebrity has never been greater.

If it's a small chapel and there really aren't people there who you think could take or would take part ­ why not write it as a reporter on the phone and tape the other half of the conversation before going to the service, or write it as a monologue. There's plenty of very good monologue material around.

Drama can be used in all kinds of ways. The use of a number of different voices in prayers and from different positions within the Church can work well. Calls to worship, prayers of praise, readings from the Bible ­ all have potential for drama. What about getting all the congregation involved in the sense of drama in the service? You might use readings from the psalms where there is a regular refrain which the whole congregation can say. Don't let people say the words as though it's a wet Tuesday in February. Encourage them to express the truth of the words. Why not experiment with readings from the Bible which can involve everyone through dramatic actions or sounds cued by certain words.

The type of drama used will obviously depend on the sort of congregation and the form of worship being prepared for but there is almost always something that can be done. Why not experiment with some of the ideas here or with your own? If the two statements that we started with are true then the members of our congregations will respond very well indeed to the use of drama in ever more imaginative and creative ways in our worship.