June 2000
Page 1 - Shall We Dance? By Paul Anderson
- Page 2 - Testing Prophetic Words By Dan Siemens
Page 3 - Receiving A Prophetic Word By Artis Bruneau
Page 4 - What Others Are Saying About the Called to Lead Leadership Conferences
Page 5 - Director's Note By Paul Anderson
Shall We Dance?
By Paul AndersonShall we dance? Maybe on Saturday night but not on Sunday morning. Most mainline churches have not even entertained the idea of dancing as a part of worship, except perhaps as spectators in a liturgical dance. But to invite worshipers to dance seems out of place. Does dance belong with Sunday's celebration? Consider the following truths:
Dancing can be godly. I said "can be" because we have examples in the Bible where it clearly is not, such as when the children of Israel danced around their newly constructed golden calf or when Salome danced before Herod. Some of us grew up believing that dancing was worldly, and some of it is. But if the Bible exhorts worshipers to dance, then it can be godly. And if it is godly-it must also be like God to dance. If we are commanded to dance, it must first find expression in the heart of our Maker. Does God dance? Apparently so. Scripture portrays Him as a God who is exuberantly happy with Himself, who delights in who He is and in what He does. He rejoices over His children as a father finding joy in an infant, and He does so with singing, (the context and the Hebrew suggest that it includes dancing as well--Zephaniah 3:17).
Dancing is a Biblical expression of worship. The Hebrews were far more expressive in their worship than we are today. They did not divide their being into body, soul, and spirit compartments like the Greeks did. The command to worship was a call to their whole self to praise God, and they did so with all their strength, as the Great Commandment urged upon them.
The exhortation is clear: "Let them praise his name with dancing…" (Psalm 149:3a). The next verse tells us why: "For the Lord takes pleasure in his people" (v.4). We take pleasure in God because He takes pleasure in us, and we dance because He dances. Dance echoes the playful heart of God and is one way for the body to express pleasure in its Maker.
The Hebrews would wonder what is wrong with us and would probably ask us why we are not impressed with our God. And that is what the world often asks. We are seldom criticized for being too happy; Christians have a reputation among the worldly as serious and aloof, anything but fun loving. The Son of Man had just the opposite reputation.Dancing is appropriate during times of special celebration. When God brought victory to Israel after they had crossed the Red Sea, Miriam led all the women in a dance (Exodus 15:20). Such a great victory called for shouting; it called for music-but it called for something more---it also called for dancing. When David returned from victories at war, the women rejoiced with singing and dancing (I Samuel 18:6).
Now, could you imagine this scenario? The pastor of a local church announces that a family, for whom the congregation has been praying for a year has come to the Lord the night before and are together this morning in church. The people respond with clapping-and with dancing. Is that out of place? On the contrary, it echoes the jubilation around the throne.The absence of dancing in the Biblical culture suggested the absence of joy.
Spiritual revival was accompanied by the return of dancing. David writes, "Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing; thou has loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, that my soul may praise thee and not be silent" (Psalm 30:11). The parallel construction equates dancing with gladness. Silence is obviously not the most effective way for expressing joy. People in mourning are clearly more passive than those who are rejoicing: "The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning" (Lamentations 5:15). Could this be one of the reasons why the world considers Christians to be glum and serious rather than as happy people?
To experience joy in its fullness requires giving expression to it. To see a beautiful sunrise and to say nothing about it is to stifle the potential for the release of joy. C. S. Lewis once wrote in his Reflections on the Psalms: "I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation" (p. 95). Expressing an emotion prolongs the emotion. Love expressed prolongs love, and the same goes for joy. We have been stifling our joy in worship for centuries. It is time to let the joy out as Scripture commands us throughout its pages.Dancing is an illustration of grace. Jeremiah spoke of a new day, when God would demonstrate His everlasting love and prove His faithfulness. He prophesied that in that day "you shall adorn yourself with timbrels, and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers" (Jeremiah 31:4b). "Then shall the maidens rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy…" (v.13). The new day would be marked with joy-and with dancing-and that new day came with Jesus. He said that His coming brought in the year of Jubilee, a time of freedom and celebration (Luke 4:21) The Bridegroom had arrived, and feasting was more appropriate than fasting. New wine called for new wineskins, and dancing is a proper wineskin of the New Covenant.
Dancing should be restored to the worship life of Christians. For Hebrews, dancing was a form of celebration, whether at a wedding, at a religious festival, or after a great victory. So dancing was either religious or social in nature, but most references in the Bible have a religious context. Today, dancing is more social than religious. It is time to restore dancing to the people of God, and there is some indication that this is happening. Where it is, heaven is applauding!
Isn't it strange
…that dancing seems more natural in a secular rather than a Christian environment;
…that those free enough to dance to the Lord are considered fringy;
…that the Church relinquished so beautiful an act of worship and that the world picked it up;
…that restoring dance to its rightful place won't come without a struggle?
Personal application: Worship is ultimately a matter of the heart. A paralytic can praise the Lord with the same intensity as a person with two good legs. Nevertheless, we are faced with the Scriptures that speak to us by exhortation and by example about dancing. If I were to ask God, "How can I love you more?" and He were to say to me, "Let us dance together," would I accept His offer? Is God calling me to a greater demonstration of passion in my worship? Could dancing be one way to be more childlike and to please my Father?
Nevertheless, for most of us, expressive worship of any kind is no easy assignment. Dancing in church seems completely out of reach. I asked a few people who sometimes dance when they worship, and all of them felt the same way at one time, as I too did. Yet God dealt with their hearts in such a way that they wanted to give expression to the love they were experiencing, and they discovered that the joy of being loved overcame their fear, self-consciousness, and the feeling of being just plain silly. It became an issue of passion more than grit. And so with me, when I fell in love with Karen, I found myself doing things I had never done before-like spending money. Because love is a many splendored thing, people in love look for ways to "say it with love"-and one Biblical way is dancing. Maybe it could be for you!
Testimonies of People Who Dance"Why dance? The Bible is clear that dance is an expression of our extravagant love for Him. We dance because He has given us victory over our enemies, we dance because He is worthy of our praise, we dance because it shows forth the glory of God, who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, and we reverently dance (bow, kneel) because it is evidence of the way we show our King honor and adoration...and because there is a time to dance!"
AnneRichard Foster wrote in his book on Prayer, "It is high time we restore a Christian incarnational understanding of the body. God's grace is mediated to us through our bodies. We worship God with our bodies. We pray with our bodies. The Bible is full of what could be called body prayer…Sacred dance is another form of body prayer once again being utilized in Christian celebration…For a thousand years, Christians did a dance called the tripudium, to many of their hymns. As worshipers sang, they would lock arms and take three steps forward, one-step back, three steps forward, and one step back. In doing this they were actually proclaiming a theology with their feet. They were declaring Christ's victory in an evil world, a victory that moves us forward, but not without setbacks. Sacred dance can be done either as part of private prayer and worship or in corporate settings" (p. 116,117).
From a pastor: "When I start dancing, which is mainly jumping up and down (some have called it the charismatic hop), it helps me get physically involved in worship. I participate in something the Holy Spirit has initiated which is a call to worship. I stop being passive and my whole body gets involved in worship. I experiencing God's presence sometimes when I dance just as when I do other physical actions of worship like raising my hands or shouting or kneeling."
Joe Johnson"Why do I dance? Because it's a form of expressing worship, as there are many. It is very freeing. Also, as a way to draw others into worship. It is also very Biblical."
Nancy Bohannon"I was apprehensive at first about being involved in a dance ministry at our church, but the Lord has blessed me and my family through it. It provided me with a new form of worship that I know honors Him, as when David danced before the Lord…I believe there is more God wants to do, especially through men, godly men who are willing to push aside the stereotype mentality and the selfish fear and come before the Lord to dance with all their might! My prayer and challenge is for God to move the hearts of men (and their feet) so we can truly praise Him, not only with our mouths but also with our bodies. "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!"
Ruan Hill"I know that God called us to dance to be a visible expression of worship. In contemporary worship the phrase "to enter in" is used repeatedly. It is a physical expression of walking into the tabernacle, into God's presence. While singing allows us to do this with our mind and heart, dancing allows us to do it with our bodies. Not everyone is physically capable of the movement, so they can move vicariously through us. Freeing our bodies frees our hearts in a new way, which can be very childlike on occasion."
Marg Geiger
"I love to dance as part of my preparation for preaching. It brings freedom. Dancing is an experience of the cross, making my body a "living sacrifice" of Jesus. The results are often an inner brokeness, a softening of my heart and a greater dependence on God. Nothing brings me into the perceptible presence of God more quickly than dancing."
Mark Anderson
"I dance because I have the freedom to do so. I do not take advantage of this freedom as often as I could, but when I do, I feel a new life inside of me, a bursting joy. When I dance for the Lord, I'm opening myself up to the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to do what He wants in my heart. Besides, once you get started, it's just fun!"
Anna Anderson
Free Gift With Donation of $15 or More!
If you send us a donation of $15 or more, post-marked between June 15th and July 15th, we will send you a complimentary copy of the book, Charismatic Renewal Among Lutherans. You don't need to fill out any form; you will automatically receive this book if we receive a donation from you. (Pass it on if you already own a copy!) This book is not only for those who have a Lutheran heritage, but it is for all who desire to walk in the fullness of the Spirit.Read what the author, Rev. Larry Christenson, has to say:
"Have you ever noticed that, after Pentecost, Jesus' apostles never hankered for 'the good old days' in Galilee, when Jesus walked and talked with them? The good old days would have been a step backward. They were living in the good NEW days. The Lord was closer to them than ever before. The good new days are for us just as certainly as they were for the apostles. Charismatic Renewal Among Lutherans addresses the basic question: How can we experience the empowering presence of God in everyday life?"
From Paul: "As one who knows Larry, and his writing as well, I'd certainly say that this is one of Larry's finest books-if not the finest. The reason is simple: it puts it out straight and clear what Lutherans (and the whole body of Christ) desperately need-the Father's gift of the Spirit. Read it-then pass it on to someone who hungers for more!"