Reformation Party

Ok, so i'm gonna go back in time for a bit. My dad's church hosted a reformation party last fall, just before Thanksgiving. It was a smashing success, and a lot of fun! The singles/teens planned, decorated, hosted, entertained, and cleaned up from the party. It was a lot of work, but totally worth it. So what is a reformation party? Its a party celebrating the reformation, honoring the leaders of the movement, and learning about what changed Christianity into a multi-denominational religion, instead of just Catholic. If you research it, a lot of denominations can trace their roots to the Reformation, like the Lutherans, the Baptist, and others (there really are others, i just can't remember them). My dad's church is very big into Reformed theology. Me, not so much, but that's another story. Anyway, i could go into depth about all the reformation movements, and prominent people, but i want this to be fun so i'm just gonna talk about the party =)

The first interesting part is that we pulled it all off in two weeks of work. We were presented with the idea, and told that we could host the party in two weeks (so it would be a week before thanksgiving) or wait till January. We chose two weeks. Now that may sound like enough time, but think about what we had to do: plan the schedule, come up with ideas for entertainment and rehearse them, set up the building, decorate, make our costumes, make all the decorations, and make a million calls to people to tell them about it and ask them to come. The two weeks were crazy, stressful, super busy, and a lot of fun. We all got to work together, and see each other a lot more than usual (sometimes more than we wanted) but it all went ok. The night of the party we were still rehearsing, setting up, and generally freaking out, but it all came together really well!! Everyone thought it was really great.



The night opened with Jeremy's welcome, i wish i could remember all of it,it was really funny. The we all had dinner, which was impressive in its self. There were trays of cold cuts, huge wedges of cheese, fresh baked bread, and Friar Tuck's Homebrewed Ale (really, ginger ale). Then the entertainment started. There were several skits, two speeches, a medieval dance, a short sermon, and a choir performance.

The first skit was of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the church door. Danny played Luther, and most of the rest of us were townspeople. Joe played a monk selling indulgences and Danny/Luther called him out on it, and made a speech on how wrong the church was for promoting such practices.

The next skit was a comedy of Katherina von Bora's escape from a convent. Lauren (blond) played a ditzy girl that kept ramblig in the middle of trying to tell the other girls the escape plan. It was mostly improv, and completely hilarious! It ended with all of us sneaking out of the convent in fish barrels (really, cardboard cutouts) and one of them was accidentally upside down!!

Then Ricky gave a speech on William Tyndale's life and work, and i gave a speech on Katherina von Bora's life.

The dance was next. It was so beautiful, and elegant. The girls practiced for hours to get it all timed right. i think watching the dance was my favorite part of the evening.

 

The best part of the evening was Jake. He played Pope Leo X and would randomly walk around blessing people. He also had one of those holy water things that they walk around swinging... Anyway it was hilarious cause Jake is such a country boy, but he got the pat of the Pope perfect! The best part tho was his hat. It was about two feet tall, and so over the top! It just completed the whole performance so well!

The next part was prolly the most emotional. We all stood around a 'burning' cross and sang a song about living for Christ no matter what happens. It was very moving.

That was the end of the entertainment, but hardly the end of the evening! Most everyone stayed for another hour or so talking, looking at all the decorations, and just hanging out =) Then we had to clean up, but that's pretty boring so i'll skip that part lol

The whole project was pretty spectacular, i'm still impressed that we pulled it off so well =) i hope to be involved i something like it again someday!