The King's Connection Magazine Volume 23 Number 2//Fall 2012 | Page 11

Campus Ministry
enlivens worship
with drama

featured article

W

orship is an essential part of the King’s experience.
It offers students an opportunity to grow their faith
along with their academic development. Campus ministers
Julianne Gilchrist and Tim Wood, together with their
campus worship team, work to explore every opportunity to
connect the King’s community in worship.
Campus Ministry will be inspiring worship with the assistance
of a worship renewal grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian
Worship. The $14,000 grant will be used throughout the 20122013 academic year to examine the use of drama in worship.
The project includes a one-day conference with playwright
Jeff Barker to explore basic skills in creative presentations of
scripture. Also, a group of student and campus ministers will
travel to the 2013 Calvin Symposium on Worship in January.
Throughout the year, drama and worship will be explored and
reflected in weekly chapel services.
“Our enthusiastic drama team and the nurturing, creative
environment at King’s, made this project a natural fit,” says Tim
Wood. “The project allows the community to participate in the
renewal and reconciliation of the dramatic arts in worship. It also
provides opportunity for worship to be a place of inspiration
to see who God is and what God might be doing in the world
around us. ”
King’s strong community embraces diverse denominational
backgrounds striving to connect all of life with our Christian
faith. This project asks people from different backgrounds to
engage drama in worship in new ways with the hope that the
community will be strengthened, says Wood. The focus on
strengthening community is not only for the benefit of the King’s
community, but also for the greater church community. Through
the public one-day workshop, and through students bringing
what they have learned back to the community, the aim is to
have more than just the King’s community see the value of using
dramatic arts in worship.
“We hope that the worshiping community at King’s comes to
encounter God and each other in new ways in worship, that
we would hear and see the Gospel in ways that breathe new
life into us as individuals and as a community,” says Julianne
Gilchrist. “We hope that we will be challenged and that we
would be surprised at how God might speak to us.” ?

“I’m grateful to Tim, Julianne and
the campus ministry team for
tackling this project in order to
enrich King’s spiritual formation
and grow our collective identity
in Christ. I’m also grateful to
the Calvin Institute of Christian
Worship and Lilly Endowment
Inc. for their valuable support of
this project.”
– Dr. Eric McIntosh, Vice President for Student Development

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