From Second City to New Jerusalem: Improv, the Spirit, and Vineyard Ministry

[Anna Miller]

Abstract:

Our paper will fit into the Hospitality, Worship, and the Arts section, and is titled, “From Second City to New Jerusalem: Improv, the Spirit, and Vineyard Ministry.” We will reflect on ways improv training and performance has helped us to (1) understand what we are doing right in our respective ministry contexts (Bill – Vineyard small group leadership, preaching, and seminary classroom teaching; Anna – Vineyard prayer ministry leadership, preaching, and pastoring undergraduate students) and (2) further pursue those aspects of our ministries that we have come to value. Specifically, we have found that improv undermines pre-conceived agendas, highlights the difference between engaging with a person and bending them to a leader’s will, elevates personal particularities over program, and thereby coheres with a dynamic, Spirit-driven approach to ministry of the sort that the Vineyard values. Improv also promotes a general posture toward life that welcomes the unexpected, the uncomfortable, and the ambiguous, and can help followers of Jesus to engage the world with integrity, boldness, and creativity. We will interact with Samuel Wells' book, Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics (2004), and James K. A. Smith's 2011 SVS plenary presentation, "The Spirit of Knowledge: Outline of a Charismatic Epistemology."

The full paper is attached to this post.