Many of us have to learn to say, “No,” to turn down something good in order to focus on what we are truly called to. We need to learn that just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. We need to make sure we don’t just say “Yes” to please people or to avoid guilt. We need to make sure we don’t commit to something we aren’t able to follow through on. There is a time to say, “No.”
But there is also a time to say, “Yes,”to give our wholehearted assent and to venture into something new and risky, be it a large risk or a small one. Saying “Yes” is what I want to talk about today, because saying “Yes,” can lead to open doors and can expand us in ways we can’t even anticipate when we let that word slide out of our mouths.Continue reading “Doors Open when we say “Yes””
Thanks to all of you who prayed for the Devotions in Motion Workshop this past Sunday. We had a wonderful time. God brought a beautiful group of women who had a heart for worship. It was a small group – perhaps because it was a Sunday, perhaps for other reasons. But it enabled an intimacy that was beautiful and also allowed us to learn an entire group dance.
Here are some testimonials:
Thank you so much for a beautiful, spirit-filled afternoon. The video was lovely. Pretty amazing for a 3 hour workshop. Thanks again. God bless you for your inspiration and teaching. – Nancy
I really loved the dance. I like the way you gave choreography but helped us choreograph too. I liked the help on choreography on terms. This will help me!!! – Christie
(I appreciated) experiencing the ministry of the spirit through the dance and dancing it together, seeing how God brings a dance together in its beauty. – Tracy
I have a 6 minute video which teaches motions to the Lord’s Prayer along with a really memorable way to teach them. I’ve used this over and over with both children and adults. It’s great for opening a workshop or ending a class.
I would like help getting the word out to people outside of my circle of influence about several things:
1. The Devotions in Motion Videos
2. The Devotions in Motion workshop in Pasadena on June 14
3. The Children’s Praise Dance Camp in Pasadena from June 29-July 3
If you share on Facebook about any one of these and tag Worship Dance Ministries, I’ll give you The Lord’s Prayer in Motion video and enter your name into a raffle to win any product of mine (The only exceptions are Lynn Hayden’s products, which are not mine to give, and that I cannot ship a hard copy of “And a Child Shall Lead Them” outside of the U.S.)
Here’s what you need to do:
Copy one of the links below into a post on your page or a facebook group of which you are a part. (This will both reference the product and tag me, so I know you shared it)
Share why you think it might benefit the people with whom you are sharing it.Try to share it with those for whom it might be relevant. (If you live on the East Coast, sharing about the Children’s Dance Camp in Pasadena might not be relevant to your friends, unless you have friends who live in Southern California. But Devotions in Motion is available to anyone anywhere.)
Here are the links (I’ve included the tag. If the tag doesn’t work, you can tag my personal Facebook page or just email me):
1. Devotions in Motion: https://worshipdanceministries.com/devotions-in-motion/ Worship Dance Ministries
2. Devotions in Motion Workshop in Pasadena: https://worshipdanceministries.com/worship-workshop-pasadena/ Worship Dance Ministries
3. Children’s Praise Dance Camp in Pasadena: https://worshipdanceministries.com/pasadena-praise-dance-camp/ Dance Ministries Please post by this Friday, June 12.
I’ll draw the raffle on Monday, June 15. If you share and you don’t receive the Lord’s Prayer in Motion from me within 24 hours, email me, as sometimes the sharing on Facebook doesn’t notify me. Thanks!
Last week I asked you to share what team related issues you are facing. I got some great questions, many of them expressed by multiple people, showing that they are common challenges for team leaders.
Over the next week, I’m going to respond to five questions. I’ve sought to guide with biblical principles as well as to share from my own experience.
This first question was the most common question I received, so I’ll start with it?
1. How do you get children to attend praise dance practice regularly?
The biblical principle here is faithfulness. It’s calling each other to let your “‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No,’” as Jesus instructed us in Matthew 5:37. Having both parents and children sign a written covenant before joining the team and/or before beginning rehearsals for a special occasion really helps with attendance. Faithfulness is important for children and parents. As God is faithful, His children need to grow in faithfulness. This means keeping the commitments we make to each other.
Having a covenant with our dancers calls them to faithfulness and helps them to know clearly what that looks like.
In our dancer’s covenant, I detail how many of the rehearsals a dancer must attend to be take part in a dance. (For example, they must attend 8 out of 10 or 9 out of 12 in order to participate. I leave room for them to miss a couple, understanding that life sometimes necessitates that.) I ask them to prayerfully consider the commitment before agreeing to dance. I also sign this covenant.
I make other commitments to them as well. I commit to pray for them, to prepare for our rehearsals and to teach biblically. So, they understand that we are committing to each other.
I also communicate with parents about my heart on this matter. I emphasize to the parents that I want the children to know the dance well enough to be free to truly worship. If there is a child who misses rehearsals early on, I’ll make a point to check in with them, seeing if anything is wrong.
In addition, I try to think practically, making sure my rehearsal times are family friendly times. When it’s possible to piggy back rehearsal time to a time when adults are at church too, that helps. This shows respect for the family schedule and the parents’ time and is what I appreciate as a parent “And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.” Luke 6:31
I’d love to hear from you. Please share in the comments section (at the beginning of the post).
If your team has a dancer’s covenant, how has that helped with team attendance?
What other strategies/approaches would you suggest to a leader to help with attendance?
Watch for these upcoming posts:
Thursday: Holding together Technique Training, Choreography and Spirit-Led Worship
Friday: Helping the Child who Loves Performing More than Worshiping
I had the complete joy recently to teach a six week dance class to students at Ecclesia Classes in Pasadena. We danced at Ecclesia’s Christmas party to Psalm 150, produced and sung by the Harrow Family on their album, A New Commandment.
We also had the privilege of inviting the community to worship with us through movement after we danced. After all, this Psalm is a call to worship.
So, I taught the audience gestures to the song, “I Love You Lord,” and invited them to worship to the song with us. It was really moving to watch whole families moving in worship.
Enjoy this dance and let it draw you to praise our Jesus, our creator, redeemer and shepherd.
Please share in the comments about any dances you were able to share during the Christmas season and how they impacted those to whom you ministered.
Do you want to make your dances more worshipful and emotive?
If so, the Modern Dance I DVD, by Dancing for Him, is a fantastic tool for you. Watch this short tutorial, teaching how to do the hip joint opener and read my review below. This exercise is based on the Modern Dance I DVD by Lynn Hayden of Dancing for Him, You can purchase that DVD, in my store.
The Modern Dance I DVD gives you an introductory modern dance class for the dancer with a heart to minister through dance. It was designed to give dancers a movement vocabulary, using the fundamentals of modern dance. Beginning with floor work, moving to stretching and abdominal exercises, and finishing with across the floor work, Pastor Lynn first teaches each exercise, carefully instructing on proper form and technique, and then invites the dancer to practice the exercises with along with her and a team of worship dancers. I have used this DVD over and over in the two years that I have owned it. It has inspired my worship dance choreography. I love modern because the movements are emotive (using contractions) and earthy (using flexed feet and parallel position in addition to pointed feet and a turned out position) and fun. Because the DVD provides an introduction to modern dance, I find it provides a great model for the technique portions of my worship dance classes with children. Modern dance seems more accessible to the new dancer and to children than ballet. The parallel feet positions are easier for most children to imitate than the turned out position (and from there, I teach the turned out position.) It seems easier for children to learn to turn out after they have learned the parallel position. In addition, my older students are drawn to modern dance’s emotive and fun movements. For the worship dancer who wants to express his or her heart to the Lord and to tell stories of God’s work in their lives, and for the emerging dance teacher, this DVD is a powerful and effective tool. Click the image below for more information or buy now to order immediately You will love this DVD and gain great benefit from it.
As praise dancers, we can learn from the excellence with which these dancers present. As dancers who know Jesus, we have an important message to speak to them. As dance ministry leaders, if we want to reach youth and keep them dancing for Jesus (instead of giving their gifts and their selves away to the world), here are five things we need to heed:
Young people want to dance. There were 250 students in this performance. Clearly there is a need and a desire for dance leaders and teachers. If you have ever wondered if you are called to reach the youth at your church, take time to pray and listen for that call. There are young people out there who want to dance and are looking for an avenue to develop their gift. Will you help them?
We need to invest in our own training. There are skilled young dancers out there. If we want a voice in their lives, we need to take the art of dance seriously and invest in our own training. This does not mean we can not speak to them until we can outperform them with our technique. But we need to be growing, learning, and gaining skill. It is our anointing that ultimately will enable us to have an impact on their lives, but having skill gives us credibility as well as something to offer them.
What you are doing matters. These kids are going to use dance for good or for evil. If we have the chance to plant seeds for righteous dancing, it could change the trajectory of their lives as well as all the lives they will impact through dance.
Get boys into the act. Women bring beauty, passion, gentleness and refined strength to dance. Men bring strength, humor, power. We are, together, made in the image of God. Dance is more complete, more impactful when you have both men and women dancing. I’m speaking to myself before I’m speaking to anyone else. I’m in my comfort zone with women and young girls. They think like I do, and they dance like I do. It’s comfortable for me to reach them. But this year I’m going to make it my goal to learn to dance with men, to learn from them with the intent that I can bring boys into dance.
Give your dancers something awesome to wear. The kids I saw dancing must have had a ball changing from costume to costume. Their costumes were fun, beautiful, playful, sassy, exciting, and sometimes provocative, depending on the dance. Now, our standards are not the world’s standards, and we are going to teach our dancers to cover up. I said more about this in my earlier post. Even so, these kids, especially girls, want to look beautiful and feel special. In my children’s dance curriculum, I have a whole lesson on teaching kids the difference between empty (vain) dancing and full (worshipful) dancing. So I’m not talking about catering to their vanity. I’m talking about meeting their God-given desire to be lovely (for girls). You can choose modest garments that are also fun and flattering. Don’t ask them to dress in something that looks like a potato sack. Lucie Poirier says, in her book Dancing for the Endtime Harvest that we are to dance for “beauty and for glory.” For an excellent resource on praise dance garments, I highly recommend Jocelyn Richard’s e-book Garments of Glory.
Sometimes you have to get out of the way to see what another person/other people can do. I’ve been leading the dance ministry team at my home church for the past 11 years. Today my husband and I had our last Sunday at this church he/we planted 11 years ago and the church gave us a “farewell” reception. It was incredible – more than I expected, certainly more than I deserved. One friend shared a poem she wrote for us, another a funny and meaningful song about our family and ministry, another prepared a slide show, others shared stories and words of encouragement. Each one was moving, precious, inspiring. What floored me, though, was what the dance team shared. Continue reading “Sometimes You Have to Get Out of the Way”
Many of us have to learn to say, “No,” to turn down something good in order to focus on what we are truly called to. We need to learn that just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. We need to make sure we don’t just say “Yes” to please people or to avoid guilt. We need to make sure we don’t commit to something we aren’t able to follow through on. There is a time to say, “No.”
We just finished a fabulous week of Praise Dance Camp in Pasadena. I’m so grateful for the week, for your prayers, and for how the Lord worked.
Price: $26