Several years ago I went to a writer's conference sponsored by Image magazine. During the conference I had the pleasure of taking a screen writing seminar with Ron Hansen. The seminar was made up primarily of people who were accomplished or would-be screenwriters. During the week we were to spend an hour with Ron individually talking about our project. While most of the people in the seminar had a play they were hoping to shop, I was simply intrigued to delve into this discipline. When I went to see Ron he was puzzled about my participation in the class. Jokingly I responded that as a minister I write, produce, direct and even act in a weekly worship service, which is something akin to an hour variety show. I went on to say that we're on 52 weeks a year with no commercials and no reruns. We both laughed, but I went on to talk with him about how the task of the preacher is to take thoughts/concepts and turn them into an oral (and even sometimes a visual) event. Ever since that week I have been intrigued by how much these two disciplines have in common. Jana Childers' imaginative book on homiletics, Performing the Word: Preaching as Theater, simply fueled this interest. I would like to take the summer to examine the commonalities between the two disciplines even further by participating in the USC summer screenwriting seminar, attending Sarah Lawrence College's International Film Institute, going to plays in the New York area, and celebrating in the many different worship forms of New York City.