Apart from eating with people, one of the largest parts of Jesus' ways of ministering to people was through story - but not reading straight from a book. Here is a man who got to grips with the culture He was surrounded by, and having understanding, would challenge using story which would be told in a context relevant to the people He was talking with. The reason Jesus would talk about agricultural themes so often, is due to a large part of the life in that area being farming, etc. There were no supermarkets like we have today, so people relied a lot more on their own produce for feeding their families and selling to make money for other necessary supliments. Basically, Jesus connected with people, because He came from a common understanding, not an alien context. Story enables people to interact across a border between reality of a theme and actuality of their own life.

Drama and mime are no more than story, but told in a different way. It enables onlookers to be able to picture more clearly what happens, and it also enables the artist to be able to say many things which they would not get away with saying in person as a sermon style communication. By this I mean that if I were to stand up and say in an assembly, "Guys your attitudes stink. You are really horrible people and you don't deserve to get away with the way you treat others", the chances are that not only would I get at least a verbal warning from the vice-principle, but the young people would no longer feel that they want to relate to me in any way, shape, or form. Whereas if I stand up as another person (character), and use mime, or a sketch to portray different sides of a situation relating to the issue that needs to be dealt with, it becomes an internal conviction for the onlookers as they see the various affects of their actions, as opposed to a full-on condemnation of individuals. It also means if issues were stirred up in the young people, that they would automatically feel feelings towards the characters portrayed rather than the person portraying them.

Mime can be used, to, very easily amongst the Deaf community. Because there are generally no words (by this I mean that sometimes a mime can be done to a backing track with narration, which may better be described as 'physical theatre'), the actions and facial expressions must portray everything. A good mime, even if it has a backing narration, will be understood by any Deaf people watching.

Drama workshops are also very good for building up a team, and figuring out how team dynamics work. Recently I was asked to run a drama workshop for the young people at a friend's church. I agreed willingly, then added something along the lines of, "But what's the point? If I come and do the workshop, the young people have a good, fun day, but what does the church get out of it? Let me come and run a workshop for the adults who work with young people first, to discuss drama, and the point of using it in church, and how to run workshops, which will include some basic do's and dont's. Then I can come back a few weeks later and run a drama workshop for the adults and young people together. That way, not only have the young people had a good time, but the adults will have been able to experience both sides of the workshop, and then when I go you can all carry it on, and allow it to grow." - Just a few hours will make a huge difference between something being just fun and it being benificial for future growth.

To come up with a basic idea for a drama sketch isn't too difficult, to get it perfected takes time - God doesn't ask for perfection, but He does require that we do the best that we can do for His glory. There are very easy principles to grasp which will help. One of which is - buy books! People such as Dave Hopwood, have written many sketch books for use in churches, open air, etc - and many of these authors will allow sketches to be used and photocopied for people to learn, so long as it isn't used for personal financial gain for either a person or church. Please always check, as different authors will say different things about this. Workshops on writing sketches, adapting Bible passages, making things more relevant, etc. are easy to do to fit in with a particular church, organisation, etc.