To Dance or Not To Dance: Exploring Considerations to Determine How Dance Can Belong in the Church as a Welcome Worship Practice

Abstract

Dance can become a respectable and godly practice in churches when understood and approached with the right considerations. This thesis seeks to expand churches’ perspectives about dance in two major ways. First, to recognize that dance is an art from God to be used to his glory and not disregarded. Second, to be able to determine their ability or inability to embrace dance as a worship practice. In order to assist churches in this determination and not disregard this art from God, this thesis is divided into three parts: (1) What does biblical worship mean for dance? (2) How do history, culture, and Scripture set the stage for dance? (3) What are the blessings and challenges of adoration through dance? These three parts will reveal the necessity for churches to reclaim this art from its secular uses for its sacred uses for worship and ministry, as well as to reevaluate the value of dance in certain communities and cultures. This thesis aims to start the conversation that dance does belong in the church once it has been claimed by the church to be utilized for the glory of God and the building up of the church.