My Wednesday Night Experience

This past Wednesday for our 7 o'clock classes I decided that we would break from our normal routine and all be together. Our various classes have been learning various ways to be with God, inevitably learning that God is in everything, and I have a secret passion for dance, so we all were going to take a break to dance. Now I am talking children from age 4-14 all in a open hallway with Miley Cyrus, John Lennon, Casting Crowns, and many others. I had a plan, which I will post below, but having had some experience in ministry knew that with or without a plan it was going to happen the way it was going to happen. We spent an hour dancing, running, breathing, playing, singing, giggling, and just having fun in the Holy Spirit. It was a great time! After we were done stretching and cooling down I asked the kids what they had learned from all of this. These were their answers: that our body tells us more things than I'm sleepy or I'm sick, that God is with us even when we are just being silly, that we need to watch out for other people so we don't hurt them, and that dancing with God is fun. It was a WONDERFUL experience. I got to share something I love with them and they got to teach me about how God uses our movements for God's love.

Liturgical Dance Lesson Plan

Coloring sheets

Talk about dancing: Our bodies have special knowledge that our heads don't have. Our bodies tell us when we are sick, or sleepy, or happy. We can use our bodies to feel God too. We have been learning how to worship God in new ways this fall. We’ve learned that we can be with God when we paint, sing, talk, color, make crowns, and make sculptures out of clay. Tonight we are going o learn how to be with God through dance. At church we call this type of dance liturgical dance. I am going to walk us through stretching and a warm up and then I am going to give you an example of what liturgical dance looks like. I want you to know that there is no right way to dance in liturgical dance. The goal here is to use movement to find God. 

There is a Bible verse I want us to learn: 

²Let Israel be glad in its Maker;

   let the children of Zion rejoice in their King. 
³Let them praise his name with dancing

Stretch: “Watching the wheels go round”

Warm up: “Party in the USA”

Example: “She Is Love”

Loosen up: “Fireflies”

Fast Liturgical Dance: “If We Are the Body”

Slow Free Moving Liturgical dance: “Everything”

Cool Down Dance: “Wonderful Life”

Stretch: “Send It On”

3 Extra Songs: “I Saw God Today”, “If Today Was Your Last Day”, “Imagine”