| "Unto Us" was born from the search to provide high quality programming to churches that would connect with the spiritually diverse crowd attending a typical Christmas Eve service. Many people walking through church-doors during the Christmas season will not be back for another year... if at all. My desire was to create something that could speak to those people, while at the same time, could connect with regular members of the Body of Christ. Each year, when commissioned by churches to write, direct, or act in a Christmas project, I'd chase my tail trying to find the right balance - what would I not be ashamed to share with my friends from the professional theatre community, while at the same time, fulfill all the expectations that surround a Christmas service, and give regular church members something substantial to reflect on during the Christmas season? What would give people the Answer to "the meaning of Christmas", while at the same time capture the profound mysteries of the Incarnation? "That's too churchy" "That's not churchy enough!" "But we've never done that before!" "But we did that last year!" Finally, I decided to let the Word of God speak for Himself. The Bible. I could think of nothing more powerful, more dramatic, or more likely to change the human heart. How natural - to return to the roots of the Christmas Story! "In the beginning..." Before Cindy-Lou Who, before Scrooge, even before St. Nick; before department stores, tinsel, and figgy pudding; even before Jesus was placed in that feeding trough; I wanted to get back to the very beginning - to share a "God-Eye" view of Christmas - from beginning to end. Before the Magi saw the star in the East, before John the Baptist prepared the way - even before the holy prophets proclaimed the coming of Messiah; the Bible says that Jesus was "with God in the beginning." So that's where our story starts. "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." Among us... that's the recurring theme of this production. "God with us." The Christmas message is a personal one. One that proclaims that from the beginning - from Creation, all the way through the Prophets, the miraculous birth of the Baptizer, the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem; through his life, death and resurrection, and throughout the inspired letters of the Apostles; God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son... Unto us. |
| WELCOME, |
| Like so many other things, what started as a desire to bless others became a blessing for me. Not only have I been richly blessed to work with the talented team of professionals that stand behind the scenes of "Unto Us", but I continue to experience the blessing and power of the Word of God. God said in Deuteronomy 11, "Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds" and I've found that no performance of "Unto Us" is exactly the same. Unlike other plays I've done, I can't expect what speaking these words will do inside me. "The word of God is living and active." The words themselves are powerful, and that's made my job very easy. And if, when people leave a performance of "Unto Us", they find that they continue to "talk about them when (they) sit at home and when (they) walk along the road", then, perhaps, that's the richest blessing of all. |
| Sincerely, Peter Church |