God, the Master Choreographer, is a mover. And so are His people. In Genesis 1:2, God initiated the dance and soloed as its first dancer. His Spirit “was hovering over the waters.” In Acts 17:28, He revealed that “for in him we live and move and have our being.” We have our being and our bodies in Him—living water. In the Old Testament, Scripture says the body God designed for His creatures is good (Genesis 1:31). In the New Testament, this good body becomes the Temple of the Holy Spirit: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). That means the goal of dancing believers is to glorify Christ by living with movement that transforms. Second Corinthians 3:18 says, “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
The use of the body, in a profound way, is pivotal to the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God formed humans out of the dust to create a physical body. God sent His Son Jesus, as the Word-in-Flesh, to be incarnated in a body. God gave all believers in the New Testament the gift of the indwelt Spirit inside the temple of the body. In Scripture, heaven is described as a place that will be filled with believers having resurrection bodies. Finally, God designed the body as an intentional holy vehicle for the worship of Him: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1). In God’s eyes, a body giving glory to Him is a powerful, purposeful instrument. But there’s more. God’s chosen vehicle for worship has another major function. The body speaks in a universal language. Everyone has a body and everyone uses that body to communicate with others. In M. Adams’ article “Every Move You Make,” the author states, “Non-verbal communication is our first language. Babies make themselves understood without words.” God formed the body to talk using movement patterns that words alone stumble to access. Jesus spoke with His actions just as much as He spoke with His words. “Hence it is appropriate that we use movement to enrich our personal knowledge of Christ whom we approach by faith with our whole selves, not only our intellect” said Sara Savage in the written piece “Through Dance, Fully Human.” Of course, this awareness does not discount the usefulness and the power of the spoken/written word. It simply identifies a fact about non-verbal communication that we often fail to acknowledge.
Let’s consider the power of non verbal communication in the church. It is a gospel tool that is over-looked in lifestyle obedience as well as church worship. I pray that all of us give glory to God as we worship Him with our whole selves. To Him be the praise and the glory.