Illumination – Magnify Church Fall Show 2019
In 2019 it was announced that the Fall Show at Magnify Church was cancelled after 20+ years of conducting this outreach event. This did not sit well with the worship arts community of the church, especially those that had been involved for most of those 15-20 years. While Kyle Warmington had only been there at Magnify a short time he highly valued this ministry and the impact of the shows. He immediately set a meeting with Vicki Modert and worked to understand the challenges, budget, process and the problems. He personally interviewed 15-20 different people heavily involved through the years in various areas and capacities of the worship arts area to understand as much about the history of it all and the importance of this ministry to these people.
The most consistent response he received from people through interviews was that this group of people were like their small group, their co-workers in Christ, “their people!” It was obvious that the most frustration was found in not being able to be around “their people” for the fall show process which spans over approximately a 6 week period of preparation and performances. The next most important piece that people hammered on was the importance of reaching their community with this opportunity to invite people to their church in such a unique and different way.
Kyle took this information along with budget data and compiled it into a proposal to help keep the fall show alive. He then hosted a large gathering of people at his house, inviting people from the worship arts community at Magnify to hear his proposal and gather any more data, thoughts or input about anything he was missing. In the meantime Vicki Modert came up with a way to do a variation of the fall show that trimmed the budget and kept the show simple. That show was called Illumination. It was during that show that Kyle met Eric Alderman, who had caught wind of what Kyle was doing and expressed quite passionately that he absolutely wanted to be involved and offered his help and specifically his skills in non-profit finance. That was very encouraging to Kyle to keep moving forward with what he was seeking to accomplish. Kyle also around that time sought the council, wisdom and experience of Doug Dietzman, one of the few actors that had been around most of the 20+ year history at Magnify Church. He met with the lead pastor to get some further insights and then set a date with the Magnify Lead Team to give the formal proposal for reviving Fall Show.
During that meeting with the Lead Team it became clear that the church did now allow staff members to fundraise and the budgeting process had changed and departments were not allowed to go over their budgets without consequences, which was causing some of the staff to reorganize their programs or reduce them due to budget concerns. During that meeting Doug Dietzman proposed the idea of us forming a seperate 501c3 organization to come alongside the worship arts team to specifically help with shows with the commitment we would not take away funds from the regular tithe or donorship of the church body. Magnify Lead Team was ok with that idea and shortly after that For His Glory Theater was formed by Kyle, Eric and Doug.
Tragically not long after that the COVID craziness blasted into the world and churches all over were suddenly empty week after week. The incredible social challenges that emerged from that whole ordeal made it look as though we might have no show again the following fall. However, God had a different plan! Over the summer of 2020 Vicki had learned that one of the broadway rental sets for THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME was sitting idle over at the Forest Hills Fine Arts Center in Grand Rapids, MI. She contacted the company that rented the script for that show and began to dialogue with them about the possibility of renting the show in the fall. They were of course desperate to rent scripts to anyone willing to do so because shows had disappeared all around the country and things were at a stand still in the theater industry. Magnify Church leadership was bolder than most during that time and gave Vicki approval to pursue the idea further as they were very interested in people returning to the church building for Sunday morning services that had shrunk so significantly.
Vicki immediately called a meeting with For His Glory Theater to share this amazing opportunity and asked if we could partner for our first show together. FHG agreed to raise $15,000 of additional funds to offset the costs of the show and Magnify’s worship arts budget and ticket sales would carry the rest. Vicki was able to negotiate an incredible rental and royalties deal as well as an amazing deal with the set rental company to have us transfer the entire set from Forest Hills Fine Arts center to Magnify Church. FHG partnered with local businesses to pull that process together. So in October of 2020 local churches and theaters were stunned that we were able to pull this project together with all the challenges that were being thrown at society during that time.
Over the next 4 years FHG Theater partnered with Magnify Church to bring Oliver (2021), Tale of Two Cities(2022), The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (2023) and Fiddler on the Roof (2024). In 2025 Magnify Church was facing so many leadership challenges they didn’t have the overall bandwidth to host a show.
FHG Theater started to build a relationship with Cornerstone University and H.I.S. Creative Academy with the ambition of trying to host a show. Those plans were not realized in 2025 and so they began to reach out to movie producers for the idea of taking Christian films and translating them to the stage. FHG began writing a draft stage script adapted from the movie THE ULTIMATE GIFT and hopes to bring that to the stage in 2026 or 2027. They are working on those arrangements now and hope to have an announcement soon once they have secured performance dates.
THE ULTIMATE GIFT
Coming Soon ….