Send in the clowns

Driving through the wilds of Lincoln to the Alpha Henson Women’s Center, I began to think of the possibilities of how a “clown ministry” is practiced. I imagined that seltzer bottles, cream pies and lisped speech would be on par with baptism, the Book of John and communion.

How wrong I was. Rather than prodding children with sheer sensation, the Sacramento Valley Teen Challenge, a resource and counselling center for youth, uses its clown ministry to spread its Christian message of divine wisdom and joy by giving a helping hand to its audiences. For over 20 years, students from the women’s program have dressed as clowns to teach and entertain youth, in both religious and secular settings, about how to overcome life’s adversities, as the girls themselves are recovering from substance and emotional abuse. Teen Challenge publicist, Rev. Rhonda Perryman, describes the success of “clowning” for God.

Who came up with the idea of a clown ministry?

There was a young man who had his own clown ministry, named Jeff Jones, and he heard about Teen Challenge and introduced the ministry to us in the early ‘80s. He had been doing it for several years at different events (church and citywide), and got together with our previous executive director and talked about the possibility of using clowns to reach out to the children of our community.

How do the clowns reach out to the community?

They do skits, they sing, and they do children’s face-painting, and also give support to other programs and local churches like participating in their games and outdoor activities, and encouraging the children to interact, especially those who are uncomfortable with participating with other children.

Do the clowns’ skits teach Christian messages?

Yes. One [skit] might be about how to deal with disappointments with life and learning to forgive. For one of our skits, we talk about the various disappointments in life in different forms, from parents, friends and teachers, and we teach them how not to let those disappointments, wrongs and hurts cause them to make the wrong choices. Our emphasis in our clown ministry is making the right choices, because we do skits that say no to drugs and alcohol.

Is there an advantage with dressing in clown costumes to get the message across?

The clown costumes break down the barrier between adults and children. A large population of whom we work with is abused children. A lot of times, these children have learned to distrust adults, so the clowns break that down. We’ve had a number of opportunities to work with the social services, as far as meeting youth who never disclosed to any adult that they’ve been sexually abused, yet tell about their past to the clowns. So we’ve been able to do intervention with the legal, social services and foster care services.

When the clowns appear, do they burst into the scene like in the circus?

Their approach is more subtle and low-key, not loud and abrasive. It’s not so much the dramatics as it is the message and the relationship they’re trying to develop with the children. We work with so many groups of children that have come from battered backgrounds that we try to be really sensitive to not do anything that would shock and startle, because we don’t want to contribute to their fears. We make the clowns really accessible to children—they don’t just entertain onstage and then go—we really emphasize talking to the children, letting them ask questions and giving them feedback.

Among skits and songs, your group’s Web site also listed “testimonials” from the clowns.

Because we’re a recovery program, what we often do is have our students give testimonials of how their lives have changed since they’ve been in the program and have a personal relationship with the Lord. For most of the women and men in our program, this is pretty much the last stop for them. By the time they get to Teen Challenge, they’ve pretty much exhausted all of their resources. And so, they’re a desperate group of people who really want to help and have pretty dramatic stories. Most of them have been in and out of prison, institutions, psych hospitals and so this is their last stop.

Has your clown ministry had any critics?

None that I’ve heard of. The only true criticism was that once in a while, we get a child or an adult who had a negative experience with a clown or the [clown] masks. We’re very careful with working with the age groups, because we recognize that the younger children are fearful. People just have a natural draw to the clowns, because it takes them back to their childhoods.

Do the clowns sometimes read out of the Bible?

They do use biblical references that usually regard God’s love, forgiveness and healing, and how He values mankind. That’s the thrust of this [Teen Challenge] program, it’s bringing people back to the point where they believe they have value, and have a purpose with their Creator.

Are there biblical passages where humor is used to express God’s message?

Yes, there are many scriptures that refer to laughter and how God wanted to restore His joy to His people. "Laughter is a merry medicine"—I think that is a proverb.