What a Life-Giving Night
Well, at least it was for me. We had our second women’s ministry gathering–I’ve been calling it “The Alabaster Jar: Women Apprenticing in Worship”. Tonight’s mentor was Rebecca Houck, who shared with us a beginning lesson in movement. Boy, did God bless it. Here we were, oh, I don’t know, eight women or so, none of us dancers (I don’t think! sorry if I insult any of you!), and by the end of the night, she had us rolling around and jumping in worship to God. OK, some of us rolled more than others. Let me just say, I’m glad that by the end of the night the lights were off. :^)
Anyway, I figured I’d just recap a little of what she taught, and then open it up to comments. I especially would like to hear from the women who were there. Some of you shared very special things from the Lord. I also keep thinking of Yvonne’s word to us in the worship service yesterday, about touch. Touch can be so healing–I was a recipient of that in worship yesterday and God did a deep healing in me just by someone (Thank you, whomever that was!) lightly rubbing my back for the longest time. I think movement has the same potential for deep healing, for expressing God’s move in us, and for the sense of freedom it brings.
The first thing Rebecca taught us was about the concept of the kinesphere. The diagram above shows the outer kinesphere. It’s the space around us, basically. She spoke of the outer kinesphere, which we touch with arms and legs when we reach out. The middle kinesphere is with bent arms and legs. The inner kinesphere is when we are actually touching our own bodies. The kinesphere moves with us when we move out in space.
She then spoke about levels–high (when we are erect, maybe standing on our toes), middle, and low (on the ground). Then about speed of movement, and another concept–I can’t remember the name she gave it, but something about what kind of pedestrian movement we’re using, whether skipping, crawling, etc.
Rebecca had us just try each concept for a few minutes to see what our bodies felt like doing each, and what different movements felt like emotionally–for instance, leaping and keeping the movement in the outer kinesphere, as opposed to lying down in the inner kinesphere, and endless variations based on combinations of those basic concepts.
She then put on some worship music and turned off the rest of the lights, and we just danced (or didn’t) and worshiped. I personally can’t describe the freedom I felt in this. I have been feeling like a dance has been welling up in me for years, but that I lack the tools to express it. I have some I can now try. (Nobody look at me next Sunday.)
When the music was over, several women shared very precious things that the Lord showed them during the dancing. We then laid hands on Rebecca and prayed for her vision of her dancing. She is in the process of forming a dance company called “Truth Dance”. Let’s lift her up in prayer–she has a specific vision of outreach through the company that is perhaps not what we are used to seeing in the church. I’d love if she’d share it on Esther’s blog sometime.
And I’d love if you’d leave your impressions. Let’s put on some music (for me, it’d probably be Edgar Meyer’s Bach Cello Suites on double bass) and worship God with the tools we’ve received!
November 6th, 2007 at 9:30 am
COMMENTS FROM A NON-DANCER:
Despite my love for the stage, I am not a dancer. I tried. It was disastrous. This is why I steer clear of musicals. I can appreciate it them – just can’t be in them.
So, I was wary of a night of “MOVEMENT IN WORSHIP”. I thought, “It just ain’t my thing, sister.” Yet, I went anyways. I love Rebecca and knew she was a professional dancer. It would be worth watching her in her element.
Before the evening began, the Lord gave me a very specific verse…out of nowhere:
“Then Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dance.” (Exodus 15:20)
This verse comes immediately after the “Song of Moses”, which is response to the CROSSING THE RED SEA. I meditated on this verse and this is what I wrote in my journal last night and shared with the women who were gathered there:
“What a sight to have seen the waters parted!…those feet carefully shuffle on the dry ground. In saftey and peace, the Lord has made a way! Through waters of great impossibility, He has made a way! Although the enemy was hard in pursuit, the Lord held back the waters so we could find the other side to the NEW LIFE. As we reached our destination, we looked back to the death following us and the waters came crashing down upon it. It is lost in the sea. No more chains. No more labor as slaves. We are saved! We are FREE! Free to live this life He has for us. Free to move forward! Free to dance! No one can take away what He has given to us. No one can take away, what He has promised to us.”
Miriam led the women in dancing because they had just seen the Lord gloriously triumph over their enemy and bring them to the other side to their new life…through nothing less then miracle. As I look at my own life – I see that, indeed, the Lord has triumphed gloriously over my enemy and that He has brought me out of bondage and into a new life…just as miraculous as parting the waters of a body of water. I have a reason to dance! If I am not dancing out in the open (cause remember, it ain’t my thing), I should be dancing in my heart – REJOICING and CELEBRATING this incredible freedom. I am not a slave. I am a child of God! That’s reason enough to shake my booty.
November 6th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
i know how to pogo!!!
November 13th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
This is a really interesting post for me. I have always felt that dancing is a necessary part of worship for me. We did a lot of interpretive dancing in Catholic grammar school, and it was literally my favorite thing. (I can remember all the ‘moves’ to O Come O Come, Emmanuel.) Ironically, I attended a Christian college that didn’t allow dancing (what was I thinking?) Only recently have I begun to understand how much that environment stifled me spiritually. I don’t belong to a church where I live. But I do go dancing regularly. I have said numerous times (only half joking) that it’s like church for me. I am sorry if that sounds a little “out there,” but it’s true, I feel closer to God when I am dancing than when I go to most churches. I would love to go dancing in the dark (minus the Bruce Springsteen reference) with God.
November 15th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
cant start a fire without a spark !!!