Have you ever been sitting in church listening to a really good sermon and thought to yourself, “Man, it just doesn’t get any better than this?” Of course you haven’t. Oh, sure, you might get the occasional mass that “rocks” harder than a Styx/REO Speedwagon reunion tour, but on the average, church services are a get-in-sit-down-get-preached-to-get-up-and-get-out affair.

This weekend’s run of “Mass Appeal” at Fisher Theater was just like being in a real church — only much less boring. The play tells the story of a young seminarian named Mark Dolson (David Byrd, senior in performing arts) whose passion for the pulpit cannot be denied. Unfortunately, his unflinching confrontational style sets him at odds with the church higher-ups, who are looking for an excuse to give him the ax.

It is the story of Father Farley (Pat Gouran, associate professor of performing arts), an old priest set in his ways who is fond of his popularity, his position and his wine. He is confronted in his own church by the seminarian during a dialogue sermon on women in the priesthood.

The two are soon bound together when the seminarian is made a deacon. Father Farley makes it his mission to teach Deacon Dolson some tact. Dolson resists after an initial attempt at bridge building, but when nerves get the better of him, he falls back on an old hellfire sermon in which he tells the congregation that God cares nothing for their material good and blue hair.

The learning process works both ways in this play as the young deacon forces the old priest to realize that there are some things worth fighting for. Such as when it is discovered that the young man had affairs with both women and men before deciding to begin down the road to priesthood.

Father Farley advises the boy to flat out lie if asked if he is gay. Dolson refuses on principle and calls on his teacher to make an appeal on his behalf at the next mass, hence the title. After failing to make the appeal at the critical mass, Dolson is kicked out, and Father Farley is faced with the decision to risk his safe position as a popular priest in a possibly vain attempt to save the bombastic young man or remain silent, safe and sound with the guilt of knowing he could have at least tried.

The acting in “Mass Appeal” was pretty engaging. Gouran and Byrd played well off each other as two men devoted to their faith in very different ways. Gouran was a perfect old priest in love with his popularity and Byrd’s passion came through particularly well as he defended his faith against the odds.

The sparse set was perfect for the two-man play. The set consisted only of Father Farley’s office and a pulpit on stage right that was highlighted during the sermons.

Even though there were only two characters in the play, it felt as though the production was full of them as Father Farley spoke to and about his secretary, Monsignor Burke or a slew of parishioners.

The audience itself became the congregation and near the beginning of the play when Gouran was standing behind his altar and told the audience to pray, not less than a dozen heads went down out of habit.

This play allowed dialogue to take center stage. It was not full of complicated sets, props, costumes or song and dance, but it got the audience’s attention.

The script itself could have used a little juice, but the actors did a good job with it.