God So Loved A Performance Art Project by Morgan Garrett and the Staff of CFNI’s Obed- Edom (Based on Actual Events)

The Place A specific corner in Downtown Dallas: represented by “A”

The Set Up The team/company is made up of six people. 3 of them are in the age group of 20-25, Two in the age group of and the last is over sixty. One of the young men will video tape. We will be on or around this corner at precisely 8am in the morning and will stay until 9:15am. 1.Young Man 23 – Cross Dresser 2.Young Woman 21 – Young Mother with fake baby 3.Young Man 20 –Video Camera 4.Woman 40 - Hooker 5.Man 35 - AIDS 6.Man 64 - Homeless

Player #1 The oldest man will be dressed as an old, stereotypical homeless man and will lay on the south west side of the corner with a sign reading: “Please help, Vietnam Vet, disabled.” He would be bearded and otherwise completely unrecognizable by anyone who may know him.

Player #2 This will be my forty year old man who will be also disguised and homeless on the opposite corner with a sign reading, “Homeless, have AIDS. Etc” He will be active and approach people to take note of the physical reaction.

Player #3 This young woman will be dressed with a wig and very heavy make- up, will also interact. Dressed very obviously as a hooker, loud and improving but also making sure to say, “Just looking for the right person to love me!”

Player #4 Single Mother with baby (probably fake)

Player #5 Cross Dresser- on opposite corner, very loud. Walks back and forth as if it was the first time walking by each time. Interacting with people all around.

The Plot The building on the corner I have chosen is the First Baptist Church. We get in touch with the pastor as a team to give his worship team a rest, or a “Sunday Off.” We lead normally and realized what kind of people they are. Very judgmental and legalistic. Seeing as my team is fairly young and our mission is breaking those mindsets, we keep coming back, only to find the church more dead than before, judging us for using a drum set! So I come up with this plan which I don’t realize at the time is “performance art.” We set up to sing again for the church, this being our 5 th time, and put the plan into motion, the team costumed up-(Me being the hooker), and set out for the corner before the first people start arriving. The pastor is also in on the plan and plays the first homeless man. He sits five feet from the front steps, pretending to sleep, at first he is ignored and then “shooed” away by his own deacon. All of us are ignored, judged, looked down on and ridiculed. The doors close at 9:00am sharp.

The Big Bang We wait til 9:10am and then open the front doors in costume and resume our positions at our instruments as the pastor steps up to the pulpit and the video of everone’s reactions is played back on the “worship words” screen. The Pastor then delivers a brilliant speech on the love of Christ and how not one person approached him, or asked anyone into the church.