Very interesting dream, Sweetly Broken, about the Church as
"Vaudeville."  You wonder why God used this term.
He could have said "drama," or "theater", but using the term Vaudeville
emhasizes the broad, crowd-pleasing nature of some elements of today's
Church.  Vaudeville was broad (exaggerated, not subtle)--such as the
makeup of the pastor, which made him look not so much as a man but as a
puppet, and gaudily painted.  He even looks like a "stock comic"
figure.

Vaudeville appealed to the lowest common denominator in the theatrical
crowd, although many of the performers were very skilled.  George Burns
and Gracie Allen, if you remember them, came out of a tradition akin to
Vaudeville.
They were skilled comedians, but they invited our laughter at their
faux pas and, in Gracie's case, apparent stupidity.  Gracie, of course,
was really far from stupid, but the character she played was a
stereotype of the little wife who knows nothing.

Today's Vaudeville may be the Saturday Night Live crowd such as Stephen
Colbert.  Colbert is far from stupid, too, but he plays a man deluded
by the illusion of his own importance.

  In your Vaudeville dream, God is saying, at least in part, that the
pastors in some of today's churches are charmingly stupid, elegantly
deluded, and "made up" to appeal to the crowd.   But the teenagers in
the hall of the church have left the big auditorium and are seeking
Holiness, and are visited by the Holy Spirit.  The speaker from Africa
is also in the hall, denied access to the congregation by the
Vaudevillian pastor; her message is denied to the congregation, who are
kept in the dark about what she could tell them, which could be
important.  The congregation is kept in the dark and away from the Holy
Spirit.

In my one rapture dream, I was led out of a theater (leaving behind the
pretend world) before I was taken up.

Come, Lord Jesus!  Take us out of delusion into your reality.
 
 

Mariel