Declaring what we believe in the words of a creed is an important part of many worship services. It helps us express our theology and ties us to believers around the world and across the ages. When we recite something often enough, though, the words simply roll off our tongues and we don’t think about what we’re saying.
So when we were given the opportunity to plan part of a worship service, we decided to try to express the Apostles’ Creed in a new way. We wanted the people in our church to hear it with fresh ears in a way that would help all of us think about what we were saying.
Because we wanted to use the members of our youth group to present the creed, we wrote a dramatic reading for eight people. You could easily reduce the number of readers by reassigning lines.
We wanted to add words of explanation to the creed, but rather than making them up we decided to draw them from reliable sources—after all, we’re still in high school and we wanted to get it right. So most of the words that are not directly from the Apostles’ Creed are adapted from the Belgic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism.
Reader 4: I believe
Reader 1: I believe
Reader 5: I believe
Reader 6: I believe in God
Reader 7: the Father Almighty
Reader 2: Almighty
Reader 8: Creator
Reader 3: Maker
Reader 4: of all things
Reader 7: visible and invisible.
Reader 1: I believe in God the Father Almighty
Reader 8: Creator of heaven and earth.
Reader 6: I believe
Reader 5: in Jesus Christ
Reader 3: his Son
Reader 5: his only Son
Reader 8: our Lord
Reader 6: who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
Reader 7: and was born of the virgin Mary.
Reader 2: He came into the world
Reader 1: from heaven
Reader 6: he lived with us
Reader 4: he taught us
Reader 2: he suffered under Pontius Pilate.
Reader 3: He was crucified
Reader 5: crucified
All: died
Reader 7: for us.
Reader 8: He descended into hell
Reader 1: so that we don’t have to.
Reader 4: The third day
All: he rose
Readers 1, 4, 5, 2, say “he rose” overlapping each-other, until finally
Reader 6: he rose from the dead.
Reader 3: and ascended into heaven
Reader 7: and is seated with God
Reader 2: the Father Almighty.
Reader 5: From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
Reader 1: I believe
Reader 4: in the Holy Spirit
Reader 3: living among us
Reader 8: and in us.
Readers 1, 6: I believe
Reader 7: in the holy catholic church,
Reader 2: the church
Reader 6: universal.
Readers 1, 6, 8: I believe
Reader 3: in the communion of saints.
Reader 4: All of us
Reader 5: share in Christ
Reader 2: as members of the body.
Readers 1, 4, 6, 8: I believe
Reader 7: in the forgiveness of sins.
Reader 5: Grace
Reader 8: God’s grace
Reader 3: God’s grace for us.
Readers 1, 2, 4, 6, 8: I believe
Reader 6: in the resurrection of the body.
Reader 2: My body will be raised from the dead
Reader 7: just as Christ was raised.
All: I believe
Reader 8: in the life everlasting.
Reader 3: I will have
Reader 4: what no eye has seen
Reader 5: no ear has heard
Reader 6: no human heart has ever imagined.
Reader 7: I will praise God eternally.
All: I believe!
Reader 5: Amen.