Over the years, thousands of people have accepted Christ as a result of attending Calvary Theater Broadway-style productions. The outreach is supported by Calvary Christian Church in Lynnfield, in the North Shore region outside of Boston.
But these are not your typical church productions. rather listen?
How many volunteers does it take to put on these successful shows? "Oh, my goodness. Well, so I'd like to say it takes thousands in the sense of all the people we have praying and partnering with us and inviting others to come. But as far as our own kind of cast and crew, if we keep it at that, it's usually, well, I say usually now over the years, of course it's grown now we're just around 150 cast and crew. So ,that covers everybody from actors, singers, set builders, costume designers, backstage crew, and prop handlers, and what else? Anybody who cooks the food for us, we all have a meal together and just anybody who's involved in that sense, we have designers who help kind of imagine what the set can look like. And then we have builders who build the set. We have a team because we have over 40 kids under the age of 12 in this production. And so, that's a big job. So, we have a whole kid's team. And so altogether, and then we've got sound technicians, lighting operators, all of that."
Those words are from the smiling voice of Kendra Key, an associate pastor of the church, and in charge of the twice-yearly mega productions at Calvary Theater. And although offering such a professional stage show involves hard work, considerable satisfaction, and lots of fun, there's a much higher calling at work here.
"Well, honestly, for us, we really have a vision of bringing the Gospel to life and in our communities. Some people may know about Jesus, some people don't even really know truly who Jesus is. And so, we really want to use our ministry as a creative expression of grace of the Gospel. And so, really, it's a ministry in several different ways. One, of course, a ministry to our audience, those who come through our doors who experience our productions and we're able to present the gospel to them through the arts. And for lot of people that breaks down that wall. People may not come to a church service or want to listen to a sermon, but somebody may be interested in coming and seeing a musical or a Christmas show. It's very festive. And so, it's sort of a way that kind of brings people's walls down and allows them to experience it in a new way, maybe that they've never experienced it before."
In the image above, Kendra was well over 40 weeks into her pregnancy, but still dedicated to serving others. She shares, "My due date was the Tuesday before opening weekend, but baby girl was 9 days late, so I was working and hosting the shows the whole first weekend at over 40 weeks – crazy! But God knew!"
Every human soul matters to Jesus, who came to earth to offer the one-and-only route to eternal life in heaven. And God appointed Christian believers to play a critical role in telling others how to have that saving relationship with Jesus. Guided by the Holy Spirit, committed Christians find many ways to share faith - and those at Calvary Theater are deeply involved in pointing people to Christ.
All the performances over more than 25 years, like Scrooge and The Promise have been faith-based. And those in the audience (admission is free) are offered an opportunity at the end of the show to accept Christ as their Savior. "And so, for instance, this last Easter, we had almost 3,500 people come attend the show, and out of those 3,500, over 260, raise their hand to accept Christ. So, that's over the course of two weekends and six shows. And then for instance, last Christmas, we had, let's see, a thousand, yeah, 1,973 people and over 115 hands raised to accept Christ. So, it's amazing. So, I would say over the course of 25 years. I mean that would be, I don't know, 10,000 people potentially depending on the year or depending on each year."
When a person says yes to Jesus, every effort is made to disciple them and point them to a Bible-believing church, even if it's not Calvary Christian. "But that's really the heart of it. And even beyond that, when people accept Christ, what we do now is we give them a little bookmark almost. And that bookmark just says, for instance, today on this day, March 24th, 2005, I have decided to follow Jesus. And then they take that home as a reminder of what they experienced here. And then we even have a little QR code where we try to connect with them and help them get rooted and planted in a church if they don't already have a home church, because that's a big piece of this too, is not only do we want them to accept Christ, but we want them to have a place where they can grow and continue walking in this journey with Christ. And so whether that's at our church or at another church, we just want them to find a church home and be able to just be discipled. So, that's kind of how we go about it. But we do try to track to our best ability, how many people accept Christ, and then have a follow-up process to help get them, get them rooted."
In our complete interview podcast just below, Kendra continues to share her heart for others, her love of the arts, and also reveals the moment in her teen years, while in costume as Satan (yes!), in a missionary production in Guatemala, how God very clearly spoke to her about her calling and future - that has proven 100% accurate. You'll also learn of a bold adventure Kendra and husband, Sterling, have embarked on to share the Gospel in what can be a very dark place, Salem, Massachusetts. The city is historically linked to witchcraft.
