Real people in real encounters with the Living God-the Bible abounds with them. But how do they relate to us? What can we learn from them? They seem so remote-ancient tales from a far away land. In some ways, they can seem as unreal as King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table.
Skits, scripts, and monologues based on biblical accounts can help your students get into the skins of the individuals who walked the Earth and made history thousands of years ago, and find, perhaps, unexpected life and truth, and deal with issues they hadn't considered.
This book began as a combination of two courses on biblical and historical script writing that I wrote for my classes at a Christian school in the 1980s.
The first section focuses on what I call "reversal scripts," where the people involved make different choices from what we know they did in reality. Your students get to contemplate and then explore the answer to this question, "But what if?" But what if Saul chose to go fight Goliath instead of sending David, a teenager, to do what he had no courage to do himself? How would their lives have been different?
I also included a script of an historical account because sometimes it's easier for students to see alternatives to the outcomes by giving them a chance to identify the moral and ethical issues from a fresh point of view.
The second part of this book is on writing biblical monologues, which offers opportunities to investigate the internal workings of the beliefs and reasonings that led to the character's actions. Lot's wife is an example. Why did she look back?
I want to equip you to guide your students in ways that help them gain insight, not only into the lives of the people whose actions were reported in biblical and historical accounts, but also into their own in the twenty-first century.
In the following pages, you will find skits, scripts, monologues, examples from my students, and many suggestions of subject matter available in the Bible.
Your students might not be old enough to write scripts, but they can make them up and talk about them. Or you could write some, collaborate with your students, or read them the ones in this book. A little music (taped or live) at an appropriate moment can add drama and impact.
Whether you are using these exercises as a course for writing or using the ideas for discussions, devotions, or impromptu skits, I hope you find excitement as you delight in teaching the children these things, for there is no greater privilege than to reveal the Truth of God to them in ways which He, Himself, will open to you as you seek to make Him better known.
