Why Don’t We Have A Dance Team?
Why don’t we, as some churches do, have a team of dancers? If you’re unfamiliar with the practice, typically, these sorts of dance teams dress up in costumes and perform a song that might be tangentially related to the sermon topic.
One such example would be the Church by the Glades, which frequently uses dance teams as a part of the sermon illustration. Below is their recreation of We Don’t Talk About Bruno
Watch Church by the Glades - We Don’t Talk About Bruno
Why do we not let people dance for Jesus? Why can’t I express myself in worship? Why are you limiting my freedom? Why are you limiting my worship of God? These are good questions.
Let me ask a question in response. What would you think about a church asking its members to bow before a statue of Jesus on a Sunday morning? What if they were to have the congregation line up and kiss the feet of a statue of Jesus?
Do you think it would be wrong? Maybe you would say that practice would be a violation of the 2nd Commandment, creating a graven image. But what if it were instead a wooden cross or the word “Jesus” on a poster? Would it still be wrong for the pastors to ask the whole church to kiss the cross as an element of worship?
When we consider something like a dance team or kissing the feet of a statue, we have to build up our practices on foundational truths to understand how we are to worship.
First Principles
The normal process for determining our practices as churches and Christians is to start with the text of Scripture. From Scripture, we synthesize passages into theology. And then, from our theology, we develop a philosophy of ministry. And from there, finally, we think through issues of wisdom and practice.
The process:
1. Texts of Scripture
2. Theology
3. Philosophy of Ministry
4. Practice
So, for example, should we consider dimming the lights in our worship services? We have concluded, as a church, that we will not do that. Worshipping in the dark is not our practice.
Why? Because our philosophy is that worship is not about you having your private-time worship experience in the dark between just you and God, singing to an audience of one. But our corporate worship is also about singing to one another.
Why? Because our theology of worship is that it happens not only individually, but corporately. We believe that God has redeemed a people to sing His praises, to know one another, and to sing, using our words to encourage each other.
Why? Because we read texts of Scripture such as Ephesians 5:19, “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.”
To faithfully fulfill Scripture as New Testament Christians, we should be able to address one another in song. Therefore worship as a people involves being conscious of each other as a gathered assembly. Therefore we worship together, and not in the dark. See how it works?
So what about dancing? Is it a valid element of worship?
What the Bible says about worship is so broad that it would take a long time to go through this process the organic way—from texts, to theology, to philosophy, to practice.
To quickly get a handle on what we’re talking about, it would be good to go the opposite direction—to begin with the conclusions and philosophy that many people throughout church history have arrived at, and then to examine theology, and then to look at texts of Scripture in forthcoming articles.
We begin first with terms. We need to understand the boundaries of the conversation and get a grasp of what is at stake.
The Regulative Principle.
Most broadly, this term is related to the doctrine of the church, the government of the church, and the worship of the church.
What is the regulative principle?
Whatever is commanded, is required.
Whatever is not commanded, is forbidden.
Principally this is related to what may or may not be included in our corporate worship on the Lord’s Day. If God commanded His church to do something, then they must do it. If God is silent on something, then we do not have the authority to force Christians to participate in that as a part of their God-honoring obedience at the Lord’s Day assembly.
One author said this:
“God commands churches to conduct public services of worship using certain distinct elements affirmatively found in Scripture, and conversely, that God prohibits any and all other practices in public worship.”
“The regulative principle addresses what the church may do when it assembles. Churches are not free to do whatever they want to do; they must do what Scripture instructs and requires them to do. When the church gathers to worship, its worship is to be ‘according to Scripture.’”
John Girardeu wrote in 1888, “A divine warrant is necessary for every element of doctrine, government, and worship in the church; that is, whatsoever in these spheres is not commanded in the Scriptures, either expressly or by good and necessary consequence from their statements, is forbidden.”
Ligon Duncan wrote in 2003, “The regulative principle, in short, states that worship in its content, motivation, and aim is to be determined by God alone. He teaches us how to think about him and how to approach him. The further we get away, then, from his directions, the less we actually worship.”
What Has God Commanded?
What, then, are we supposed to do on a Sunday morning? God tells us in the New Testament that as we gather together as local churches to preach the word, read the word, pray the word, sing the word, and see the word in baptism and Lord’s Supper. These are the elements of worship that are commanded. Therefore all else is forbidden.
There is nothing about dancing in the New Testament. Therefore, we should not do it as an element of corporate worship. A divine warrant is necessary for every element of a church’s worship.
But what about a microphone? The Bible doesn’t say anything about using microphones, so should we use them? This touches on the second important part of the regulative principle: things of good and necessary consequence. Preaching the word is commanded. Using a podium or a microphone is not commanded—but they are things of good and necessary consequence to promote the preaching of the word.
Dancing is not a necessary consequence of any of the above elements. It is not a part of preaching the word, reading the word, praying the word, singing the word, or seeing the word in the two ordinances.
Dancing is not a good and necessary consequence of singing. Although dancing is often attached to music, we should note that nowhere are we commanded to use musical instruments in the New Testament. We are commanded to sing, and a good and necessary consequence of singing is the use of musical instruments. But we cannot say that dancing is a good and necessary consequence of singing.
Dancing does not communicate the word. Therefore, we don’t have a biblical warrant to force a congregation of believers to witness a dance team’s routine as an element of worship, as part of our obedience to God on a Sunday morning worship service.