Holy Humor - A Sunday, a weekday, a festival, a way of life

By Paul Lintern, Editor, the Joyful Noiseletter

April Fools For Christ!

The legacy of the Joyful Noiseletter during these 40 years has no doubt been its reintroduction and promotion of Holy Humor days following Easter, a time in which the church historically celebrated the joke God played by resurrecting Jesus.

Yes, it is a real church holy day, set on the day after Easter. The idea is to gather after a wonderful festival worship and spend the day telling jokes, and to laugh as much as possible, to put the devil in his place.

Over the years, the JN published accounts of worship services, parades, parties, practical jokes and costumes. Individuals, small groups and congregations were offered ideas and reports of other FMC activities.

A “Playshop” book was published in 1996 to offer ideas for Holy Humor participants.

The JN promoted April as Holy Humor month, April 1 as Fool’s for Christ Day, the day after Easter as Holy Humor Monday, and the Sunday after Easter as Holy Humor Sunday.

It seemed the format was not nearly as important as the funmat.

Looking for ideas to make Holy Humor a special part of your April church life?

•  At a Sunday service, hand out a different one-liner to everyone who comes in and invite them to read theirs aloud at whichever times work for you.
•  Do the same with joy scriptures, or put them on the screen to be read together.
•  Offer a “litany” of thanks for many embarrassing, silly and outlandish things we find ourselves doing (be specific if you can) in which the response is “Christians can afford to laugh; we know how it turns out.”
•  Enlist a member to present a brief stand-up comedy routine, imitate a famous Christian comedian, tell jokes, ask riddles, or team up with another to “interview” each other.
•  Collect the funniest memes you can and post them throughout the service on-screen.
•  Create a clown troupe to lead portions of worship, to dance to songs, make balloon figures, even present the sermon. Be as elaborate or simple as participants want.
•  Sing Easter Carols — Christmas tunes with Easter lyrics.
•  Make a number of fun and colorful posters for members to sign and give to shut-ins in the congregation.
•  Find every hymn you know that has “Alleluia“ in it and make a medley for the congregation to sing, or play each alleluia and get the people to guess (and sing) which hymn it is.
•  Make the bulletins in a square for that day, and have someone (who knows how!) lead everyone in making an origami dove or frog or cross. Display them up front.
•  Hand out kazoos for accompanying songs.
•  Use texting throughout the service; at specific times or random, send selfies to people who are not there or text scripture to people who are. Pick a time for everyone to turn on their ringers and have a contest for the most unusual ringtone. Arrange with another participating congregation a joke exchange via text or FaceTime.
•  Have a fun, unique fellowship meal and surround it with jokes, tunes, decorations and laughter.
•  Create a “Man on the Street” video of people answering Bible questions, or telling jokes or singing.
•  Write a skit that tells the church history in one minute, or a rap or limericks, and get a team to present it.
•  Hold a parade after church, spilling into the neighborhood; even better, team up with the church next door and meet at a specific time during the service, and circle each other’s properties.
•  Invite members to draw bulletin covers or cartoons for display during the service.

Editor’s note: Copies of the editor’s 21 “Easter carols”, as well as a list of joyful scriptures from the playshop books, are yours for the asking, at paul@joyfulnoiseletter.com.

In addition, please e-mail ideas and reports from your Holy Humor adventures!

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