We need drama.

Drama helps us see ourselves. It makes space for the parts of life that are ambiguous, thrilling, painful, uncertain. It says things to us that we desperately need to hear, and it says them intuitively, by pointing rather than by explaining.

Drama helps us see God. The woman at the well comes to know God because she admits who she really is--and in the very next turn, she hears Jesus speak who he really is.

Drama speaks prophetically. Theater can ask hard questions by pointing to them on the stage, and we can say things in the context of theatrical dialogue that we would struggle to speak in any other context.

Drama shows in a world that tells. It makes big ideas concrete, helping us understand ideas like hypocrisy, forgiveness, sacrifice and love.

We need drama in our ministries, in our churches and on our college campuses. We need drama that helps us tell the story of Jesus so that people can hear and respond. In this "sketchbook" Alison Siewert offers twelve scripts of Gospel stories, from the nativity to the resurrection, that will help those who have ears to hear the Word of God.