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Along the Journey  |  

PUPPETRY AND THE PANDEMIC

This post was originally published on Hope4CE.net

 

I have learned many new technology skills during this time of physical isolation and virtual ministry.

I’m sure you have, too.

I’ve also discovered that I could reach back to skills that I haven’t exercised in a while that find new life in these challenging times.

 

One of those skills is the art of puppetry.

I’ve always been enamored with puppets, since my time growing up with the likes of Captain Kangaroo, Shari Lewis, and later Fred Rogers and the Muppets.

There is something magical that happens when you animate these pieces of fabric and stuffing into a living character with particular personality traits.

 

At the Presbyterian School of Christian Education back in 1990, I actually took a class in puppetry and spent many long hours at the sewing machine making as many of these fabric friends, as I could in the short three-week intensive class.

Puppet ministry was still in full swing in many churches. In my first ordained ministry at Spring Hill Presbyterian Church in Mobile, Alabama, I trained my middle school youth in the art of making puppets and producing puppet plays.

A church member built a stage and we performed throughout the community and on mission trips.

 

Fast forward to the present and puppet ministry has taken a back seat to more technology-friendly ways of getting across the biblical story and the formational aspects of a life Christian discipleship and service.

However as people in educational ministry search for an optimal way of presenting Biblical stories online, puppetry is once again making a come back.

 

Why?

  1. Visually puppets are attractive and eye-catching on the screen, as many of the people I listed above discovered with the advent of television.
  2. In a time when we’re physically distant and pastors and educators are talking to a screen, puppets give us a conversation partner with whom we can have a dialogue, often times embodying the voice of the missing child.
  3. Puppets bring humor and life to a difficult situation. I remember in doing these community shows back in the 1990s, often just the appearance of the puppet on the stage would bring laughter from the children. They didn’t even have to say anything.
  4. Puppets can ask the questions that children may have, but not be able to voice. They don’t have to be shy or embarrassed to make mistakes or can ask a question that a child might feel is too silly to be asked.

So, when my home church asked me to film two children’s moments while our pastor was on vacation, I brought out Zeb (short for Zerubbabel), who I had built back in 1990 and this 30-year-old puppet made his debut assisting me with telling two stories from the book of 1 Samuel, which our church is currently studying: Call of Samuel and Capture of the Ark of the Covenant.

You can view these two messages with the above links.

Let me know what you think about puppetry making a come back and any experiments that you are doing in this art form within your ministry by leaving a comment below.


Kathy L. Dawson, Benton Family Associate Professor of Christian Education, Columbia Theological Seminary, Hope4CE Steering Committee Member

 

Along the Journey