Presenting Leaps and Bounds in the context of worship will enable the whole congregation to share this compelling experience and may reinvigorate the discernment  process of the community. The performance changes slightly to fit the worship setting- portions are removed to integrate a call to worship, some congregational responses, hymns, and other worship elements such as communion and offering. We will work with the minister or worship committee in the month leading up to the service, to make sure that the particular needs of the church are met. We will provide information for the bulletin at least one week before the service. Expect the service to last one hour and 15 minutes.

Pastor Max Lynn can be a reference for any church community considering this option. His church, St John’s Presbyterian in Berkeley, CA was the brave community that first elected to have Leaps and Bounds be their worship experience. You can see his message below.

_____________________________________________________________

To Whom it may concern,

It is my privilege to recommend Leaps and Bounds by Tevyn East.  Tevyn has put a tremendous amount of work and practice into this production.  The show is professional quality, captivating, informative and powerful.  Mind and heart are engaged as Tevyn unrolls a biblical understanding of Sabbath Economics.

We had Tevyn present Leaps and Bounds during worship.  This spiced up worship and assured the greatest number of our members would have the privilege of experiencing the show.  Tevyn and I worked together to add a Call to Worship and a couple of hymns to evoke the participatory nature of worship.  The shear volume and impact of the program is a bit overwhelming and unusual for the standard 10 AM worship on Sunday morning.  But who says the prophetic Word is supposed to be hum drum and usual.  Our congregation, for one, can use a shake up every once in a while.  For those well aware of global environmental issues, you understand the weight of allowing it all in can be quite heavy, but Tevyn sets this view well within the hopeful realm of Divine providence and the grace of Jesus Christ.

For those congregations whose worship style is too sacred to mess with, or who are not well informed on environmental issues, or who have a contingency who would dismiss current scientific understanding, I would not recommend this program for a worship setting.  On the other hand, if you want a spark of beauty and creativity, combined with solid teaching of biblical and scientific knowledge, go for it.  I was slightly worried about pulling off this “strange” event in worship, but afterward I heard “Wow!”  “She must have put an amazing amount of time into that.”  And, “Beautiful and powerful!”

Pastor Max Lynn

St. John’s Presbyterian Church

Berkeley, CA

pastormax@stjohnsberkeley.org