No Budget, Low Budget: Programs for Special Services

Programs for churches with limited resources. - Only one director needed - No memorization required - No rehearsals necessary - No expensive music to purchase Most church special program resources were written for churches with huge congregations with all kinds of money and artistic personnel. But small churches are important too! This book provides five scripts for five special days, specifically with the small church in mind.

Bruce Hoeker holds a degree in business management, which makes him wholly unsuited for the creative arts! But in spite of his left-brained career choice, Mr. Hoeker enjoys playing the piano, directing and acting in drama productions, and writing scripts for special services - distinctly right-brained activities. As the Director of Worship & Music for a small church in Muskegon, Michigan, he’s written and directed numerous programs and special services. Fortunately for him, the congregation at Beacon Light Community Church (formerly Grace Bible Church Ministries), have been open-minded and lenient, even patiently sitting through some of his early scripts that were maybe slightly less than awesome. Mr. Hoeker has had the privilege of working with an awesome and energetic team, often conspiring with equally (or maybe, even more so) creative talent like Anita Davison and Sheryl Nelson, both of whom have also written and directed programs for small congregations. He’s also had the privilege of working with Master Arts Theatre, a local Christian community theater under the direction of Priscilla McDonald, truly the most creative and artistically intelligent person in the theater world. Necessity is to blame for the creation of these programs. For a small church with a limited budget and a small team of actors and musicians, there simply was never anything available at the Christian bookstore that would work for Beacon Light Community Church. So Mr. Hoeker began writing his own. It wasn’t until more than 25 years later that it dawned on him that, just maybe, other small churches might want access to these types of resources, at which point he submitted his work to - and was published by - Lillenas Publishing Company. While grateful for the privilege to work with such an amazing company, Mr. Hoeker felt there was so much more material he could provide to the small curch community, and working within the constrains of a publishing house, while truly an honor, really slowed down the works. And then the world of digital downloads opened up an entirely new distribution possibility - and here we are!