The Fools for Christ Drama Group started in 1993 as a Sunday School project at St. Stephen Lutheran Church. A group of 12 men were recruited to portray the 12 disciples in a skit for a Sunday in Lent, performing for the Sunday School program. The skit went so “well” that the current Pastor requested we reprise the skit at the Maundy Thursday worship service, which we did…and everything started from there.
We went from there into presenting our first dinner theater “Bible Nite Live” that fall. The first dinner theater was ambitious, with 5 mini dramas presented all over the church building, and a dinner hall as well. Then that winter we created St. Stephen’s now annual Living Nativity, which includes an outdoor living nativity with live animals, and an indoor open house with live music and refreshments.
Over the first 15 years of our ministry, we continued and expanded our traditions at St. Stephen. We annually presented Maundy Thursday worship services, and began to present Good Friday worship as well. The Living Nativity grew every year and began to become a truly community event. We presented dinner theaters every 2-3 years and participated further in the life of the church in many ways including performing for the Sunday School, participating in worship, and leading drama at VBS, among other endeavors. We had an ever changing core group of “Fools”, but had many challenges in these years with limited resources, and also trying to find out who we were and what our mission as a group was to be. St. Stephen continues to be our partner and we treasure the history and relationships we have in that amazing community.
In the last 6 years our mission has found a focus and a purpose as we began to push the boundaries of what we could accomplish and started to reach out into our community. We adopted our tagline “Ordinary People spreading an Extraordinary Message”, speaking to who we are and what our mission is…not only to spread the message of Jesus Christ, but also to spread the power of Christian drama to other faith communities.
Through our Drama Share Outreach we have worked with many churches in our community, including in Stillwater, Oakdale, White Bear Lake, and Maplewood. We hope to show what an effective form of worship, fellowship, & entertainment Christian Drama can be. We have been honored to work with these churches and that work continues.
As a part of this Outreach ministry we have added a new permanent congregational partner and have found another home in Christ the King Lutheran Church. We are honored to be active in ministry at both St. Stephen and Christ the King, and have members of both congregations count themselves as “Fools” for Christ.
We have also recently greatly expanded our own presentations, including our now annual Winter and Fall Dinner Theater shows, our traditional worship during Holy Week at St. Stephen, and our presence in worship, children’s ministry, and other events at both our partner congregations. We have also presented four full length musicals…”Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” in 2012, “Scrooge the Musical” in 2014, “Shrek the Musical” in 2016, and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” in 2018. This tradition continues in 2020 with our production of “Annie”.
The Outdoor Annual Living Nativity we created at St. Stephen that first year has grown into one of the largest and most successful such events in the Twin Cities. This amazing community outreach event is on the 2 Saturdays before Christmas and has become a part of the holiday fabric of White Bear Lake, and is indeed the thing St. Stephen is known for to many in our community.
Anyone and everyone can be a “Fool” for Christ. We are proud that our group is multi-generational and inclusive and indeed many families participate together. If you want to be involved in one of our events you will be, and you are always welcome here.
Please stay connected with us on social media, linked on the homepage. Thanks for visiting our site! Please contact us if you wish to learn more about the Fools for Christ, our events, or our ministry. God Bless.