Scene 1

(Greg is in his office jamming to the Audio Adrenaline. Richard enters. Greg turns down the music.)

GREG- Hey, Richard, what's going on?

RICHARD- Doing fine. How about you, Greg?

GREG- Doing fine. Have a seat.

RICHARD- Thanks.

(Both sit.)

GREG- So what brings you down here?

RICHARD- Well, remember we were talking about doing some sort of youth musical

thing?

GREG- Oh yeah.

RICHARD- Well, I have an idea for you.

GREG- Awesome. Let's see it.

RICHARD- I have to warn you, it's a bit unorthodox. Probably nothing like any youth

ministry has done.

GREG- Well, Richard, you know me. I'm always looking for something new and

unorthodox. Something original, something fresh. Something that will strike the

kids in a new and exciting way.

RICHARD- Well it certainly has that potential.

GREG- Cool, man, well let's take a look.

(Richard hands the scripts to Greg.)

RICHARD- It's kind of got a variety show style feel, with short sketches and songs. But

it's the songs that make it so unusual.

GREG- (suddenly alarmed) What are you crazy? Are you trying to get me fired? Get me

killed?

RICHARD- What's the matter?

GREG- I can't take this to the kids.

RICHARD- Why not?

GREG- Why not? Look at the songs in here. There's no DC Talk, no Audio Adrenaline,

no Rebecca St. James. There's nothing in here but…old songs.

RICHARD- They're called hymns, Greg.

GREG- You can't be serious! Kids singing hymns? It's crazy!

RICHARD- I know it is!

GREG- Churches rarely use hymns any more, much less the kids.

RICHARD- And what a great way to reintroduce them to our kids and to the church.

GREG- They're not going to want to sing this old stuff.

RICHARD- But to them it's not old stuff. I’ll bet the majority of your kids have never

heard most of these songs.

GREG- I haven't heard most of these songs.

RICHARD- And it's high time they had a renaissance, a rebirth in the church.

GREG- Richard, not that it's not a fabulous idea, but one thing I've learned in my years of

youth ministry is you can't dictate what's cool. Even if you spiced these songs up

musically, that's no guarantee they're going to take to them.

RICHARD- It's not about making them cool. It's making them relevant. Showing them

the purpose and meaning behind the songs. Each one of them tells a story. Some

of triumph, some of heartache. And each one was born out of the pursuit of God.

GREG- They'll never go for it. They'll lynch us both before they even read through the

script.

RICHARD- I hate to tell you how to do your job, but I think you're selling your kids

short. Yes, these songs are old, some of them centuries old. And yes we rarely use

them at all. But I've got a hunch that when your kids are given a chance, they

might just surprise you.

Scene 2

(Katie, Laura, Neil, and Steve are cleaning up the church sanctuary. Steve picks up a hymnal off the back of a pew.)

STEVE- What…is it?

NEIL- I don't know. I've never seen anything like it.

(Steve blows the dust off the hymnal, causing a large dust cloud to fly up.)

KATIE- It doesn't look as if it's been used in years.

(Katie takes the book and opens it.)

KATIE- It looks like…a song book.

NEIL- It's a hymnal?

LAURA- A what?

NEIL- A hymnal. It's an ancient song book. It's what our parents used for worship songs

before they invented praise choruses.

LAURA- Amazing. I've never seen songs like this.

KATIE- Neither have I.

STEVE- Ha. Look at the titles. "Bringing in the Sheaves"?

KATIE- What the heck is that all about?

LAURA- "Come Ye Disconsolate"?

KATIE- "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing"? That's a mental image, huh?

STEVE- Ha. This one was written by a woman named Fanny.

NEIL- (laughs) Imagine that.

KATIE- Martin Luther? Is that the Martin Luther?

LAURA- It must be. Look when it was written.

KATIE- Look. This one was written by Bill Gaither.

NEIL- What? That's impossible.

KATIE- Why?

NEIL- Because you have to be dead to get your songs in a hymnal. My parents were

watching him on TV the other night.

STEVE- It could have been a rerun.

NEIL- I hadn't thought of that.

LAURA- I wonder why people don't sing these songs any more. Some of them don't look

too bad.

STEVE- I don't know.

(All except Katie go back to their work. Katie flips some pages.)

KATIE- Oh my gosh. I know this song. I remember my grandmother singing this when

            she was in the nursing home.

LAURA- Do you remember how it goes?

(Katie begins to sing PASS IT ON. She sings the first verse a capella. During second verse, Laura begins playing tambourine, Neil the guitar, and Steve bongos. Song ends, lights go out.)

Scene 3

(School hallway. Gena walks past a few people. Freddy, a bully, knocks her books out of her arms. As she bends down to pick them up, the music for I NEED THEE EVERY HOUR plays. Gena sings the first two verses.

There is a brief instrumental interlude as Robby enters with Dr. Jones. Dr. Jones is preparing to give Robby a shot. Robby sings verse 3.

As Robby finishes verse 3, Erica enters in her band uniform. She plays the 4^th verse on her flute. Then, Erica sings verse 5. Robby and Gena sing the chorus with her. After the song, blackout.)