Our son Thomas has been performing in a school play over this last week. Highbury put on a wonderful show – Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows – full of music and lots of local South African humour.
What really struck me was the effort that had been made to ensure that all the grade 6 and 7 boys got to participate – everybody had something to do. I’m sure it would have been tempting for the teaching staff involved to reduce the size of the cast (managing 150 energetic boys must be like herding cats!), but involving everyone was clearly a priority. Even the lead roles were shared – there were two teams of boys who performed the lead roles on alternate nights of the play. If the aim was to produce a perfect play, you would simply cast the ideal lead actors, but here again the key value embodied was involving more boys in the production. Brilliant!
A similar dynamic plays out in the church – we value widespread participation in all that we do. St Paul’s familiar image of the church as a body (1 Cor 12) is helpful – there is a part for everyone to play in the life of our worshipping community. If you feel like you’re watching from the wings, please consider joining one of our service teams or contact the office for more details.
What really struck me was the effort that had been made to ensure that all the grade 6 and 7 boys got to participate – everybody had something to do. I’m sure it would have been tempting for the teaching staff involved to reduce the size of the cast (managing 150 energetic boys must be like herding cats!), but involving everyone was clearly a priority. Even the lead roles were shared – there were two teams of boys who performed the lead roles on alternate nights of the play. If the aim was to produce a perfect play, you would simply cast the ideal lead actors, but here again the key value embodied was involving more boys in the production. Brilliant!
A similar dynamic plays out in the church – we value widespread participation in all that we do. St Paul’s familiar image of the church as a body (1 Cor 12) is helpful – there is a part for everyone to play in the life of our worshipping community. If you feel like you’re watching from the wings, please consider joining one of our service teams or contact the office for more details.