As a theological theatre ministry, someMimics aims at creative Christian
discipleship. This unique ministry specializes in liturgical drama and
participatory worship. Historically the product of personal participation in
various liturgies of worship, liturgical drama is theatre done in service of
worship; that is, corporate worship forms the context and informs the content
for all drama done. It is the form of any given liturgy that shapes how one
goes about incorporating the dynamic of theatre into the course of corporate
worship. The ministry of someMimics is intended to teach others various ways
to practice responsible acts that may be provoked by the prophetic reading of
scripture (I shall discuss prophetic
reading in
a later post).
As believers come together, they may join one another to imitate Christ.
Such co-imitation can be called symmimetic discipleship, a term based on
Phillipians 3:17. Symmimetic discipleship enables us to rehearse the
behavior of belief. The basic thesis underlying symmimetic discipleship is
that the imitation of Christ is implicitly a discipline of acting that is
empowered by the Holy Spirit. Since actors essentially are imitators
(mime/mimic is rooted in the Greek word mimesis), the dynamics of theatre are
useful for understanding what it means to "become imitators of God"
(Ephesians 5:1). In fellowship with others gathered to look into the Word of
God, we can become followers together of our Lord Jesus Christ as we act and
observe others act out an understanding of what scripture calls us to
do.
One may object to the term acting in describing discipleship. What I don't
mean, of course, is hypocrisy, another word rooted in a Greek word meaning
actor. I've presented two papers related to this at meetings of the Society
for Pentecostal Studies and continue to do further research. Discussion is
welcome as it helps to clarify the concept of symmimetic discipleship and to
conform it to orthodox Christian practice.
Cordially in Christ,
Craig Tavani
My Email Address: