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Audience Cue Cards are one of the simplest ways to present a Bible text with audience participation.

• Select a passage of scripture to read. It can be a story, a teaching, a psalm, or any other kind of passage.

• Look for places in the passage where an audience might be prompted to respond. For example, in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, when the priest passes by the victim who was robbed without helping, the audience might say: “Oh no!”

• Create signs or “cue cards” for the audience, prompting them to respond in the ways and the places you’ve selected.

• When the time comes to perform the story, a Reader faces the audience while a partner stands beside them with the stack of cue cards on a music stand or lectern. The Reader then informs the audience, “During the reading that follows, whenever my partner holds up a sign, just do or say whatever is written on it.” 

• Read the passage, with your partner lifting up the signs at the appropriate moment and leading the audience in responding.

This idea can actually be used as a form of Bible study. Once participants see how it works, divide them into teams and give each team a stack of blank signs, some colored markers, and a Bible passage. Each team then discusses their passage and decides where cue cards should come and what they should say. The cue cards can interpret the text, or they can simply be someone’s individual emotional response. For example, if someone says, “Oh I really love this verse.”—They might create a sign that says “Amen!” Or if they say, “I’ve just never understood this verse”—they might make a sign that says “Huh?” When all the teams have completed the task, come back together and share the results.

 Note: As a technique, cue cards have a slightly comic feel, so it doesn’t work well with serious passages of scripture. But with a little extra rehearsal and the right text, you can create presentations for worship. We’ve even used cue cards with children—even children too young to read. We write the words on the signs, they decorate them, and then—when the time comes to perform—the children stand in a line with their signs, and the adult reading the passage just walks behind them and taps them inconspicuously when it’s time for them to lift up their cue card.

  
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