"We don't condemn dancing. We condemn LITURGICAL dancing, because during a worship service the Word is to be proclaimed, and dancing does not proclaim the Word."
As an addendum, once, when I read a very happy letter from a girl I liked, I danced for about fifteen minutes singing praises to God. I was that happy and thankful. But this was not done during a worship service. It was done on my own, in celebration of God's goodness. When I am in church, the point is to focus on the Word of God. To dance in church detracts from that. So I never dance in church, and would frown on anyone who did. And yet, like David and Miriam, I *have* danced before the Lord.
i have three daughters that are very good soccer players. we could set up goals between the first pew and the altar rail. Liturgical soccer next big thing. on a work trip i went to a church and after the sermon there was a few Liturgical dancers i walked out. Lets not create offences
So I guess that liturgical dance in pink chasubles is really out. What about flag wavers? Some churches have a flag waving ministry during the praise music.
What about we worship in humbleness, quietness, and gentleness like any other Christian in the first 1800 years of the Church and make the Divine Service more about Christ and less about entertainment?
The dances you mention were not done during a worship ceremony. There is a big difference between dancing for joy because of God's work, and dancing in the middle of an actual worship service. We are not Puritans (thank God). We don't condemn dancing. We condemn LITURGICAL dancing, because during a worship service the Word is to be proclaimed, and dancing does not proclaim the Word.
Look up Mother Angelica and her giving liturgical dance/ mime both barrels in the late 80 s after a World Youth Day had a dance troupe do a stations of the Cross using a female dancer in a leotard portray Christ.
Are you saying the only ones who can sing during liturgy are priests? Besides... remember the priesthood of all believers? I thought that was established in the Reformation. Nonetheless, David was headed to the house of God, which many Psalms take up the theme of ("I was glad when they said to me..." etc.). The gathering of believers is multipurpose, and not only to hear the word proclaimed but also to give thanksgiving. If there is reason to do so expression of joy (leaping for joy) would not be out of place in expression of thanksgiving. If such expression of joy is trivialized and expressed for things not having to do with joy or thanksgiving though there may be a problem.
Also, what was the Tabernacle without the presence of the Ark of God's Covenant? David's actions were performed in the presence of God's Ark just like a High Priest near the ark in the Holy of Holies, as priests actually carried the ark. Hard to argue it wasn't actually worship since it was in God's presence with sacrifices, even while the ark was on the move. And no Liturgy? Didn't a Psalm arise from the occasion: Psalm 132? That's your Liturgy, describing the occasion upon which David spontaneously praised God with dancing, and punished Michal for her resentment of it.
@@RomGabe rejoice means more than mental ascent. It's like all things, an action connected to the heart. A heart filled with joy, rejoicing in the Lord is singing and dancing.
Well, if it is a praise dance they could be dancing with them. Praise isn't supposed to be a spectator sport for a few to watch others do it. At least Pentecostals get that part right. :-p
Didn't Miriam and a whole bunch of women dance after the parting of the Red Sea, thus signifying an appropriate response to deliverance? Oh wait, the church service is not appropriate to celebrate deliverance, only preaching. Theology isn't supposed to be responsive, and if a thanksgiving perchance escapes your lips it must be with hands folded in one's lap restrainedly. Yeah, that's it. Maybe we should revise the concept of church service. If you like relegate the dancing to the foyer as the people are exiting the building, because then the "service" is over, right? I mean life exists outside the service does it not? Or is it our definition of service that needs to expand? I wonder what a chaplain would tell his soldiers though if they had service on base after a major military deliverance from great danger. I'd think they'd leap for joy while praising God, maybe even dance. It's seems like one can't "regularly schedule" responses to God's deliverance statically. Some praise is dynamic and spontaneous.
"Distracting" makes an assumption that some are doing something while others are not, which could distract those who are not. The real problem is that it should technically be everyone dancing in praise, not a few doing so and the others merely spectating. Out of the exhortations to praise and dance in the Old Testament it surely meant the entire congregation together. Miriam and all the women danced and sang for God's deliverance from Egypt. And where do believers meet to give God praise today? The church gathering.
Liturgical dancing on Easter Sunday at St. Lorenz Evangelical Lutheran Church, Frankenmuth, Michigan: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-u7IuXw8o2kU.html
