Dance Ministry

 

   

 

 

 

 

          Mighty King David danced before the Lord as the arc of the covenant processed down the streets of Jerusalem. (2 Samuel 6:14)

 

          As well as King David, Miriam danced in joyous thanksgiving after God divided the Red Sea allowing the nation of Israel to escape the oppression of Egypt. (Exodus 15:20) 

 

 

The arts have long been used as a way to communicate to others. An artist spends many hours painting an image that speaks to its viewers. Sometimes we “hear” what the artist is saying and other times we “hear” another message that the artist may not have originally intended, but it speaks nonetheless.

 

Dance is much the same in that it paints an image through movement that speaks to its viewer – whether that “viewer” is a congregation or God himself. You see, dance communicates in two ways:

 

1^st) It speaks the heart of the worshiper to the God he or she serves.

 

2^nd) It speaks the heart of God to His people.

The arts have the power of bypassing the mind and going directly to the heart. God uses His dancers to speak His heart, so that His people are able to see and hear the truth of His desperate love towards them.

 

“There are times when my words fail me, where my words fall short of the worship I long to express to my God. When I dance, it moves beyond my words to my spirit. As I dance, my spirit begins to pray through movements, and the movements become the ‘groans that words cannot express’ (Romans 8:26). For me, when I run out of words, my movements become my prayer, and I know the Father sees and hears.”                                                                             - Jody Thomae, Creative Arts Director

 

 

     ¹Hallelujah!

    praise him under the open skies;

    ²Praise him for his acts of power,

    praise him for his magnificent greatness;

    ³Praise with a blast on the trumpet,

    praise by strumming soft strings;

    ⁴Praise him with [tambourine] and dance,

    praise him with banjo and flute;

    ⁵Praise him with cymbals and a big drum,

    praise him with fiddles and mandolin.

    ⁶Let every living, breathing creature praise GOD! Hallelujah!

 

We have a tendency to limit our worship to the singing we do on a Sunday morning. However, there are many ways to worship the Lord, and dance is just one of them. Just as some people may worship the Lord through solitude, silence, music, nature, art, writing, so the person called to dance will worship through movement.

 

There have been many people who have tried to banish the arts and dance from church. However, God calls his people to worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23). Preventing people from dancing in church is preventing them from worshiping God the way He has designed them as individuals to worship Him, in spirit and truth.

 

It is vitally important to understand that the dance is not a performance. In fact, as this quote from the book Restoring the Dance by Ann Stevenson demonstrates, it is an act of humility and abandon on the part of the worshiper:

 

“Dancing before the Lord is a humbling experience; one totally abandons himself to the act of expressing his love and joy to the Lord. It is intimate and personal, and it is not expressed for the sake of the observer.”

 

 

“The Lord is my banner.” Ex. 17:15

“His banner over me is love. “ Song of Songs 2:4

 

Throughout scripture, God calls His people to raise a banner (standard, flag, ensign) in His name. He does this for several reasons:

Flags rally: “Lift up a banner against the walls of Babylon [the enemy]! Reinforce the guard, station the watchman, prepare an ambush! The Lord will carry out his purpose.” Jer. 51:12

Flags proclaim victory: “We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.” Ps. 20:5

Flags declare truth: “But for those who fear you, you have raised a banner to be unfurled against the bow [that it may be displayed because of the truth].” Ps. 60:4

 

The waving of flags is also symbolic of the wave offerings that were given to the Lord in the Old Testament (Leviticus) and the palms that were waved before Christ in the New Testament. The colors themselves are also symbolic of many things (see list below), just as the rainbow of colors is a symbol of God’s promise to Noah. As we wave different colors before the Lord, we are standing in the promises and proclaiming them over our lives and over the body of believers.

 

 

There are many other scriptures related to banners in the Bible. For further study, see: Numbers 1:52; chpt. 2 & 10; Psalms 74:4; Song of Songs 6:4, 10; Isaiah 5:26; 11:10-12; 13:2; 18:3; 30:17; 31:9; 49:22; 59:19; 62:10; Jeremiah 4:6, 21; 50:2; 51:12, 27; Zechariah 9:16.

 

 

In “Why We Dance – Part I” we discussed King David dancing before the Ark of the Covenant in II Samuel 6 and Miriam leading the women in dance after crossing the Red Sea in Exodus 15, but there are many other references to dance in scripture. In fact, there are over 50 Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek (New Testament) words in the Bible that relate to dance and/or movement.

 

These are just four examples:

 

 

Hebrew word: Gywl: to spin around under influence of emotion

As we see in this scripture, the Lord actually dances over us with singing!!

 

Hebrew word: Yadah: to praise the Lord with extended hand and graceful gestures

 

 

Hebrew word: Todah: extending your hand; however, there’s a plurality in its meaning. It signifies many extended hands praising and worshiping God through movements.

 

 

Hebrew word: Halal: (the root word for Hallelujah) to shine, to boast, to celebrate, to spin around, to act clamorously foolish before God. It implies action and visual praise.

 

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