Dear Baptists, Methodists, etc.,
I rewrote this first sentence 14 times because I didn’t know how to break the news to you. So I’m just going to come right out with it.
We are missing out.
For years, decades, maybe even centuries, we’ve been getting the short end of the stick. How do I know?
Because I went to a festival at a Greek Orthodox Church, and they have … dancing.
Were you aware of this? How long have you known? Why didn’t you tell me?
I’m not talking about just regular dancing either. I’m not talking about the slow motion choir side-step that we’re OK with. You know the one: “robe to the right, robe to the left.” This wasn’t boring dancing.
This was raucous, reckless abandon, God-is-big-and-bright-and-beautiful dancing.
There were skirts that had coins tied to them that spun around and made noise. There was clapping and laughing and that color of blue you see on Greek diner coffee cups. And when the sun went down, there was fire.
Not a small circle of fire people stepped into like Johnny Cash, there was a huge ring of fire that people danced inside. They had fire! They literally danced in fire and kicked their legs and did all the fun things Footloose tried to tells us were awesome all those years ago.
I didn’t get to have a first dance at my wedding because the church we were married in didn’t allow dancing. No father-daughter dance. No uncle embarrassing himself to Fergie’s “Fergilicious” dance.
OK, that last one was a pretty good thing to avoid, but don’t make me quote the verse where David dances in the OT to get this thing in motion.
I don’t know if you’re reading this blog or if you ever listen to my pleas. But if you do, if you’re still out there, can we take a vote? At the next convention, in addition to talking about how every church should buy the Stuff Christians Like
And then we’ll hold festivals too and get Hillsong United Greece to play at them. This idea has legs, and those legs are ready to spin around in a ring of dance fire.
Sincerely yours,
Jon
Question:
Are you with me on this?
