The Empty Chair, Too
by John Wayne Samples
©1996 JSam Communications
JohnW@jsam.com

Subjects:
Children • Ministry • Teachers • Childhood • Recruiting • Memories • Influence • Sunday School • Classroom

Synopsis: A return visit to a childhood Sunday School classroom brings about reflections of how the teacher influenced this person's formative years, and the rest of their life.

Purpose: To reinforce the importance of the children's education ministry. We used this during the second week of a teacher recruitment drive; it followed The Empty Chair.

Staging: A single folding-chair, adult size, faces the audience front-and-center. A child's-sized chair sits off to the side, near the character's entrance point.

1 Character, 2 Voices:
John should be about 35 to 40, well-dressed & professional looking.
Voice of Mrs. Hamilton should be typical, not stereotypical.
Voice of young Johnny should be that of a high-energy,
snotty-nosed, every-teachers'-challenge.

Props: A single Bible on the smaller chair.

Note: Requires off-stage actors doing the voices,
or some pretty slick synchronizing between the live actor and the actor's recorded voices.

[Lights up from black on single folding chair as voices begin.]

1. Mrs. Hamilton
2. Johnny, how many times do I have to tell you, don't stand in that chair. It will fold-up on you and hurt you.
3.  
4. Johnny
5. Oh gee, Mrs. Hamilton, you're no fun!
6.  
7. Mrs. H
8. I beg your pardon, young man?
9.  
10. Johnny
11. Uh, I said I think I heard the phone. I better go get it.
12.  

[John appears in the doorway, looking around with his memories.]

1. Mrs. H
2. Get back in here. You can get the fun, er, phone, later.
3.  
4. Now bring your chair over here by mine and let's try that memory verse again.
5.  

[John sees the smaller chair and moves it up next to the bigger chair.]

1. Johnny
2. Mrs. Hamilton, how come we have to memorize these verses. Why can't we just read 'em out of the Bible when we want to remember them, like the preacher does for his sermons.
3.  
4. Mrs. H
5. Well, for one thing, you won't always have your Bible with you when you need to remember what God has to say.
6. And it's also just a good habit to get into.
7.  
8. Johnny
9. A HABIT?! I thought habits are bad!

[As Mrs. H. is talking, John notices the Bible on the chair
and begins to thumb through it.]

1. Mrs. H
2. Not necessarily. Disciplining yourself to read your Bible and memorize God's word can create a very good habit that will live with you for the rest of your life.
3. In fact, discipline is the key to victorious living.
4.  
5. Johnny
6. That's the most dumbest, stupidest thing I ever heard.
7.  
8. Mrs. H
9. You may think so now, but you'll understand it someday, one way or the other. Now let's try today's verses one more time before the Sunday School bell rings.
10.  
11. Johnny
12. All right, Mrs. H. If I haveta.

[John is now lost in his memories as he sits in the
too-small chair and begins to lip-sync Johnny's voice. ]

1. First Corinthians 15, verses 33 & 34.
2. "Do not be misled:

[John now begins to recite the verse aloud,
more or less in sync with Johnny's voice.]

1. Bad company corrupts good character. Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God."
2.  
3. Mrs. H
4. Very Good, Johnny.
5.  
6. John

[Live now, with a warm-fuzzy smile or chuckle.]

1. Thank you Mrs. Hamilton. Can I have some cookies now?

[To the audience.]

1. She even gave me a star to put next to my name on the chart by the door.

[Walks over and puts his "star" on the "chart" by the "door".]

1. She sure was right about those verses coming back when we needed them.
2. That one about bad company... well, I hadn't thought of that verse in years. Then all of a sudden, during my second year in college, in the middle of a party that I probably shouldn't have been at, the thing pops into my head.
3. "BAD COMPANY CORRUPTS GOOD CHARACTER!"
4.  
5. I did not enjoy the rest of that party at all.
6. In fact, I didn't enjoy the next 3 parties because of that verse and some of the things Mrs. Hamilton used to tell us that I just couldn't get out of my head.
7.  
8. Like, "Discipline is the key to victorious living!"
9. I wasn't living very disciplined, at the time, nor very victorious.

[John pauses as he "remembers" ...]

1. Mrs. H
2. Johnny, you just have so much to offer. One of these days you're going to find a way to channel all that energy toward something positive, and God is going to use you for something great. Just don't get so down on yourself. You're a good kid.
3.  
4. John

[Always looking at the empty chair when he "reverts" back to Johnny.]

1. Whatever you say, Mrs. H.

[John should use his hands to help visualize the following events.]

1. She used to give me that speech at least once a month. Usually when I was sitting out in the hall for pulling Mary Sue's ponytail, or tripping Wesley Johnson and making him spill his fruit punch. SPLAT!

[Laughs as though the little boy still in him
really enjoyed that, then turns suddenly serious.]

1. She was the only one who ever said anything nice about how I was as a kid.
2.  
3. Well, my dad did say once that I fit-in well at church because I was such a HOLY terror.

[John puts one foot up on the empty chair as he speaks (timing is critical).]

1. Mrs. H
2. Johnny, keep your feet off the chairs!

[John removes his foot quickly, reacts with a smile, then goes on.]

1. But Mrs. H saw something in me that no one else did.
2. I think she must have prayed for me a lot. I know she prayed ABOUT me, but I think she prayed FOR me, too. And she always made me do those silly Bible verses.
3.  
4. Johnny
5. First Corinthians 9, verses 24 & 25.

[John again transitions between lip syncing and reciting.]

1. "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training."
2.  
3. John
4. I heard that passage in my head when I lost the 1500 meters during the conference track & field championships my senior year. The winner of that race went to the Olympic trials.
5. Even now, especially when I watch Team USA on TV, I catch myself wondering how good I could have been if I had just worked as hard in practice as most of the other guys did.
6.  
7. Mrs. H
8. One of these days you're going to recognize your potential if you'll just apply yourself. I hope it's not too late when you do.
9.  
10. John
11. Yeah, I lost that race, and it absolutely crushed me, but it wasn't too late. That was the day I really started running a better race.
12.  
13. You see, I'm a minister now.
14.  
15. A lot of things led me to the ministry, but I keep coming back to Mrs. H telling me I was going to be used by God, when everybody else didn't even give me much of a shot at ever seeing adulthood, much less ever seeing heaven.
16.  
17. Is this Sunday School teacher responsible for me being what I am today? I honestly don't know.
18.  
19. I think her minister said it best yesterday, when he told the five or six hundred people who came, that we can never know the whole impact that this woman had on the kingdom of God. But God knows.
20. [Pause]
21. I used to think my story about Mrs. Hamilton was pretty unique. But looking at the tears on the faces of all those people yesterday who came to tell her "good-bye", I bet there's another five or six hundred people, and probably many more, who are running a better race today because of the lady that sat in
22. this,
23. now empty,
24. chair.
25.  
26. I wonder if she knew that. I wonder if anybody every told her.

[John starts to leave, then turns back as buzzer sounds.]

1. Mrs. H
2. OK, kids. You are dismissed. Remember, no running in the halls. See you next Sunday... Don't forget your memory work...

[John smiles, turns and leaves as Mrs. H's voice fades away
as the lights fade to black.]

The End

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who do not charge to watch the performance,
and who include this URL in an appropriate credit.

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