Through Students’ Eyes: Faithful Improvisation at Placement 

If you have spent any time around Act Five, you know we like the phrase, “Faithful Improvisation.” One of our students, Daniel, reflects on what he has learned about faithful improvisation while at Act Five, and how he sees it play out in his placement. 

Daniel – Church on the Rock 

Improvisation, from my perspective, is being ok with not knowing the unknown, with letting the future be unknown. It’s doing what you can with what you have. It’s also being present and having fun. Improvisation first came up this year while in our Six Acts class, as we learned that we are currently living in what can be called “Act Five” of the biblical narrative. This is the time in which the Church, the body of Christ, is called to faithfully improvise using what we have learned from the church before us and what we know of the Story.

Being here at Act Five, for me, has been learning to let go of control – learning to let go of my need for an answer, learning to just let go. My placement has been an example of this, beginning even before placement started. Sometimes you have an idea or a vision, and you have to launch it out there, act upon it, and then wait and see what comes from it. And then you improvise on whatever comes back to you. That’s what happened with getting a placement for me. I had a vision of getting into the film production world and reached out to various companies and people, and waited. The response I often got back was unfortunately not what I expected or had hoped for. But then Jana, my resident leader, came and threw out another idea, that I ended up running with, and now I am doing my placement at Church on the Rock. 

My placement hours are on Thursdays and Sundays. On Thursdays, we have a staff meeting and we talk about the challenges and good things that are happening in our lives and in the ministry of the church. We problem solve together, encourage each other and pray together for the life of the church. Then I sit down and work on graphics for the Sunday announcements, a title page for the sermon, or on video stories for the church. On Sundays, I go back and take pictures during the service for the church’s website and social media. 

My placement itself has been about learning faithful improvisation. Pastor Dave shares with me an idea and I make a title slide for it, and often, my end result is not what my original vision was. It changes along the way. Sometimes I expect to be sure of what I am doing before I do it, but I’ve learned that you often need to start where you are, and then see what happens. At our Thursday staff meetings, we sit at a table and we talk about our vision of how we want the church to grow, how we want people to experience Jesus and be transformed. So we offer that idea with hope, and then problems come. And then we improvise again with what we have and the responses we receive. And through that, we learn a new perspective. 

While at placement, I’ve learned a few main things. Like how to make graphics that look good, portray a message well and represent the church well. I’ve also learned how to use my time better through this placement. I’ve been learning how to let things go, or finish something without it being perfect, and move on to the next task. Mostly, I’ve been learning how to improvise by being simple, using what I have and being ok with getting it wrong sometimes and letting that direct my next steps.