{"id":547,"date":"2011-05-24T16:06:28","date_gmt":"2011-05-24T20:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fearofwhales\/?p=547"},"modified":"2011-05-28T19:19:19","modified_gmt":"2011-05-28T23:19:19","slug":"liturgical-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2011\/05\/liturgical-dance.html","title":{"rendered":"Liturgical Dance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>There is a cult down in Vista California called the Twelve Tribes that I went and visited some time ago.<\/p>\n

You should know I don’t use that term lightly. When I say “cult” I don’t mean “people who believe differently from me”, or “people who appear christian but aren’t”. What I mean is that they actually live on a compound separated from the outside world and invite you to join them in exchange for you selling everything you own and laying the money at their feet.<\/p>\n

With that said, I actually had a very good time with them. They live a reasonably simple communal agrarian lifestyle, and celebrate together every morning and evening with “Menha” which involved a faux Israeli style party\/worship service centered around dancing merrily in a circle. And it’s awesome.<\/p>\n

I saw a similar thing at my cousin’s wedding to his Turkish bride, and another variant at a seminar on multiethnicity for the United Methodist Church. Dancing together engenders community, participation, learning and fun. Unlike the ambiguous waving and shifting common to our protestant worship services that resemble a Pearl Jam Concert. The organized choreographed movements of these communities hearken to mind old Irish line dances and Shaker Ceremonies of early America.<\/p>\n

Every time I see a group social dancing all together I think “Yes! That, we need to do more stuff like that!”<\/p>\n

I saw it again at camp<\/a> the other night when, in the middle of praise a group of our inner city kids spontaneously broke out in a line dance that appeared to me to be the Cupid Shuffle. It was stinking awesome.<\/p>\n

My old girlfriend and I used to Swing Dance to worship songs back at RockHarbor Church, (most of the songs are in 3:4, the rest are Salsas) but without the community element it was a me and her thing, not something everybody was going to get in on. Still I feel like the\u00a0precedent\u00a0is there. If you’re a worship leader reading this, this is your opportunity. I claim no ownership over this idea and put it in the public domain. I strongly suggest you try it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a cult down in Vista California called the Twelve Tribes that I went and visited some time ago. You should know I don’t use that term lightly. When I say “cult” I don’t mean “people who believe differently from me”, or “people who appear christian but aren’t”. 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