BARONS, AB—In an effort to more effectively promote an awareness of its ministries, the Canadian branch of Wycliffe Bible Translators (WBT) is finding the dramatic arts to be an effective marketing tool.

“Several years ago Wycliffe Canada’s leadership concluded that some of the organization’s standard methods of communication were no longer achieving the results they once had,” says Barret Hileman, artistic director of Spread the Word Theatre, a division of Wycliffe.

“The leaders committed [themselves] to identifying new ways to tell the story of how God has used Wycliffe over the years as well as how He’s using the ministry today. Essentially, they agreed that something was broken and needed to be fixed.

“Decreasing interest in missions spurred them to consider new ways to speak to a new generation,” Hileman adds. “They wisely perceived that to speak the language of most Americans, they needed to inject an element of entertainment into their presentations. Dramatic theatre is a mode of communication that is not only popular with today’s young people, but capable of enabling all ages to grasp a message.”

Wycliffe Canada hired Hileman, a theatre arts graduate of Muskingun College in his home state of Ohio, shortly after the mission’s first dinner-theatre tour was launched in 1997. Having recently completed conservatory acting training in New York City, the young artist was looking for an opportunity in Christian service that combined theatre with ministry.

A seasoned actor, Hileman recently played the lead role in a full-length drama on the life of German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer performed in the Calgary Centre for the Performing Arts last November.

“I was initially based in Toronto after joining Wycliffe before coming to the Calgary area where our Canadian headquarters is located,” says Hileman. “Wycliffe had secured property outside of Claresholm (an hour south of Calgary) where it planned to construct a ministry centre for the theatre arts.”

But God had alternate plans.

The Alberta government was in the process of closing a number of schools in the area including a distinguished three-story sandstone structure at Barons, a hamlet 30 kilometres east of Claresholm. The imposing facility had been the site of several scenes filmed for the first Superman movie.

“It is exactly what we needed in terms of a suitable facility for training teams of young people to perform in the dramatic arts, so the Claresholm property was sold,” says Hileman.

Advertising via Christian newspapers and radio stations, Wycliffe solicits young people to devote three to six months of their lives to intensely further their interest and training in drama by joining Wycliffe’s theatre ministry. Given WBT’s remarkable history, there is no shortage of excellent stories suitable for portrayal in dramatic form as a means of informing Canadians of Wycliffe’s translation ministries.

“At present,” Hileman points out, “a cast is preparing a performance we call LANGUAGE: the theatre of life. It’s a number of missionary sketches we’ll be performing at the various MissionFest conferences across Canada this winter. Most of our presentations can be adapted for use in churches, Bible colleges and Christian universities.”

Hileman says the primary objective of Wycliffe’s venture into the dramatic arts is to increase name recognition for the organization.

“We want to effectively communicate how the great need for young people to get involved in missions,” he says. “Our efforts are intentionally designed to put the great commission into terms that today’s visually-oriented youth are attracted to and can comprehend.”

For further information on Spread the Word Theatre, contact Wycliffe at spreadtheword@wycliffe.ca