The Music Exchange

Now here’s a subject that I’m totally out of my depth on — dancing. I’m only tackling this subject because I was given a questionnaire by a dance student who was doing a dissertation on dancing in worship.

The questions were about ‘the appropriateness of dancing within the church and whether it is a suitable form of corporate worship’. Dancing in the Bible is nearly always linked with music, which is why I thought it appropriate to include it in this column. Once I’d taken my head out of the sand and bravely filled in my questionnaire, I was grateful to the student for coaxing me out of my comfort zone.

The student said in her email: ‘I understand that you may not have any experience in dance…’ Actually, I have had a lot of experience in dance, though those who know me will have enjoyed my experience more than me: at a wedding barn dance I got up for the second set, having made a complete fool of myself in the first. The caller looked at my partner with pity and said: ‘Couldn’t you find anyone else?’ My partner had to explain that she was my wife and had promised to stick with me for better or worse.

Old time religion?

A lot of the thinking behind dancing in congregational worship comes, as you’d expect, from the Old Testament. The New Testament gives no specific wisdom on the subject. Dancing does, indeed, seem to be a feature of the gathering of the Old Testament people of God, though, like music, sometimes it is used for evil rather than good. For instance, Miriam dances with joy in response to God’s miraculous rescue from Egypt, but only 17 chapters later, in Exodus, she is presumably included in the idolatrous dancing revelries that take place in worship of the golden calf, along with Aaron and the rest of God’s people.

Dancing is encouraged most famously in Psalms 149 and 150 — ‘Let them praise his name with dancing’ (Psalm 149.3, ESV), though this is not necessarily referring to the congregational meeting (verse 5 encourages Israel to sing for joy on their beds!). Wherever dancing is mentioned though, it’s clear that physical movement is meant to be responsive to what has been revealed about God, rather than being choreographed in a pre-meditated way. However, physical movement as a response to the goodness of God and the joy that he finds in us is a good way of praising his name.

The edification principle

It’s safe to say that the congregation I serve is of the more reserved variety, but I’m glad that some feel able to respond freely in a physical way without seeking to draw attention to themselves. I’m sure that there are some who think we should be more physically demonstrative in our response, but if we’re expected to edify each other, and if anyone’s seen me dance, edification wouldn’t be the first word that came to mind. I would also question the motives of the person who sits on the front row with streamers and a leotard. This would seem more intentional than waiting on the Word of God, which may require lament and repentance.

I was asked in the questionnaire whether my church would ever pay a professional dance company to perform in a church meeting. I said that we probably wouldn’t (though I don’t make those sorts of decisions!), because this would seem to take away the responsibility of the individual members of the congregation to respond in whatever way they felt was appropriate. One might say the same about music, but singing is definitely something that the New Testament commands as a way of helping us to respond to God and to encourage other believers in holding on to the truth. Sadly, many of the comments that accompany ‘dance ministry’ clips on YouTube say or imply that actions speak louder than words. We know that this is not true. There is nothing more powerful than the sword of the Spirit — the Word of God, whether spoken or sung — so dance can never have as much impact as proclaiming that Word.

Inwards tops outward

To conclude, it’s difficult to discern how appropriate dance is in the Christian meeting, as it is used both to worship God and to worship idols in the Bible. The same could be said about music, except when it is driven by singing that proclaims the truths about God. Because of this, dancing in corporate worship should never be seen as a necessary element in the same way as singing, which helps the Word of God dwell in us richly (Colossians 3.16). Also, as with any response to the Word, outward and physical response is never a match for inward and spiritual repentance and obedience to Jesus, so can never be the benchmark for genuine engagement with God. Genuine engagement with God in worship is seen in a life transformed in daily sacrificial living for Jesus — ‘this is your spiritual worship’ (Romans 12.1,2).

Strictly no dancing?

Old time religion?

The edification principle

Inwards tops outward

Richard Simpkin

Main Articles

Other articles