Baptist Boogie...
This didn't seem to be getting much play where it was, so I copied it and brought it over here to the highway which is my blog...if you are a Southern Baptist, I just wondered what you thought of it (the concept or any part of the article). It's from the website of James Hunt .:-)
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An Ex-Fundamentalist Goes Dancing
Well, I finally did it! The first time ever in my ministry that I promoted a dance.
I know, I know, I'm a little old fashioned...a little behind the times. Even during the 10 plus years of youth ministry I never had a dance.
I used to preach specifically against dancing! It was, after all, the first step toward pre-marital sex, or so I thought. How could a godly person be pure and holy if they were shaking their thing?
This past Saturday night our singles went to a "Christian Single's Dance" at a local community center. I promoted it...I went...I danced.
No bumping and grinding...no lewdness or impropriety was found. Instead, I saw people dancing and laughing together. It looked like a fellowship of people having a good time.
Now, I'm going to go over the top. We're going to host a Christ-centered Single's Dance at our new facility. We hope to put up the multi-colored globe light and get down and boogy...in a conservative fashion that would make momma proud, of course!
I kind of like my new-found freedom! In the words of Chuck Swindoll there's been a "Grace Awakening" in my life. I love it!
Interestingly, I'm finding that the farther I get away from the Pharisee that I used to be...the more at rest in Jesus I'm becoming. Again, I like it!
It's refreshing to finally be on the side of grace. It's a thing of abundant life to finally be free to dance! Thanks, King David, for paving the way. Thanks Jesus, for coming in the spirit of the flute and the dance. I'm finally appreciating your party!
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PS...(angela speaking)...The put-a-sheet-over-her-she-has-her-dress-up-over-her-head-police have arrived (Mike and Sherri:-)) to inform me that apparently we (people from our church) have been participating in these dances since before the paradigm shift. So, no yea or nay from them, just info. So it may be "new to you (and me)" but it is not "new"...
**********************************************************
An Ex-Fundamentalist Goes Dancing
Well, I finally did it! The first time ever in my ministry that I promoted a dance.
I know, I know, I'm a little old fashioned...a little behind the times. Even during the 10 plus years of youth ministry I never had a dance.
I used to preach specifically against dancing! It was, after all, the first step toward pre-marital sex, or so I thought. How could a godly person be pure and holy if they were shaking their thing?
This past Saturday night our singles went to a "Christian Single's Dance" at a local community center. I promoted it...I went...I danced.
No bumping and grinding...no lewdness or impropriety was found. Instead, I saw people dancing and laughing together. It looked like a fellowship of people having a good time.
Now, I'm going to go over the top. We're going to host a Christ-centered Single's Dance at our new facility. We hope to put up the multi-colored globe light and get down and boogy...in a conservative fashion that would make momma proud, of course!
I kind of like my new-found freedom! In the words of Chuck Swindoll there's been a "Grace Awakening" in my life. I love it!
Interestingly, I'm finding that the farther I get away from the Pharisee that I used to be...the more at rest in Jesus I'm becoming. Again, I like it!
It's refreshing to finally be on the side of grace. It's a thing of abundant life to finally be free to dance! Thanks, King David, for paving the way. Thanks Jesus, for coming in the spirit of the flute and the dance. I'm finally appreciating your party!
*****************************************
PS...(angela speaking)...The put-a-sheet-over-her-she-has-her-dress-up-over-her-head-police have arrived (Mike and Sherri:-)) to inform me that apparently we (people from our church) have been participating in these dances since before the paradigm shift. So, no yea or nay from them, just info. So it may be "new to you (and me)" but it is not "new"...
posted by angela at 5:26 AM
6 Comments:
I would be interested in hearing the definition of a "christ centered singles dance". Are they line dancing to the tunes of gospel music? :) Christ centered would mean that it is ABOUT or POINTS to Christ I would think??
I'm also curious if announcing in the first service that our new facility is being used to host dances would help pay it off quicker..... or if it would slow down that process. Maybe that isn't a factor.
The third thing I thought was if this was maybe the sequel to the video that is on the pastor's blog.... the one about mega churches.
Then I thought... man I'm glad I don't have a job where I have to redefine my religious beliefs that I have been raised with, and decide that it was wrong all that time.
Then I thought... WOW... this is like the time the youth group was going to take all the Seniors to an offsite place to learn line dance lessons. And when I questioned the rational, I was told it was so that when they were old enough to go to bars, they'd have something to do there other than drink.
Then I thought it gets really old hearing people call us pharisees. And it makes me wonder if they even understand what the pharisees laws were specifically.
Then I remembered that at one time our singles ministry had it's meetings in a bar/dance hall once a week. Maybe we can sell christ centered mixed drinks at the cube and provide designated drivers to help pay the note off?????
Then I thought I'd probably said to much.
I am young. I have never been dancing, and it doesn't bother me. It is WAY out of my comfort zone to dance. I grew up southern baptist (my dad was independant baptist, and mom was missionary baptist, both WAY more strict and conservative than southern baptist)
I don't think dancing is appropriate. My reasons? 1)I don't care if there is no "grinding" etc, a man's mind works in ways we females do not understand and if you are dancing sensual at all,not even meaning too....well you get the picture. 2) Most of the time the only places to dance are in bars. So why do it? The only time I dance is being stupid at home.
Ken James, I agree with you 100% Am I being closed minded? I don't believe so. In fact our Bible Fellowship class had dancing (a married class) at our Valentines banquet. Now, while I think there is nothing wrong with dancing between married couples I was VERY uncomfortable. It was almost just as uncomfortable to sit there and not dance with the others, as it would have been to get up and dance.
Angela,
I tagged you with "I".
You can read mine at My "I" Post.
Copy/Paste below --- and then put it in your post. I can't wait to hear your answers.
-----------------------------
I...
I want...
I wish...
I hate...
I am...
I miss...
I hear...
I wonder...
I can't imagine...
I regret...
I am not...
I sing...
I dance...
I cry...
I am not always...
I do have...
I would...
I make...
I write...
I confuse...
I know...
I should...
I start...
I guess that is what I am thinking...really two things...
First of all, when we built the CUBE, it was for basketball and exercise (as an outreach to the community) to have kind of a gathering place (tables, food available) for people in the community and our church members, a place for wedding receptions, etc...that's what I remember when we first talked about doing it/funding it. Oh...and an auditorium for the youth...and whoever else, I guess, but I remember thinking it was a youth auditorium. So I have kind of an issue with that (expanding the usage to something that some who have helped to pay it off might disagree with)...
My second thought is about the atmosphere/music selection. If it is all Christian (and I think there are groups out there to suit just about every musical preference) that might be one thing, but unless the non-Christian portion is going to be something like "Everything's Up to Date in Kansas City" (from the musical Oklahoma), it would seem to me that the focus might be boy girl love song type songs...and even if they are totally clean to start(there must be a couple like that:-), is there going to be some kind of committee that decides what (non Christian genre) songs would be OK?
I know that sounds kind of too-church-committee, but I think it's a slippery slope.
I think if a church is going to sponsor anything, it needs to be godly and Christ-centered in every way. But again, as I said on James' blog, our staff is very smart and creative and I don't think that they would put anything out there that was questionable or compromising...after all, he says "Momma would be proud", right? So if the Capstone people came to the dance, they would immediately see the value of it...
Thanks for posting, Kenny and Kristina
Ken,
Let me see if I can clarify some things:
Whether, therefore, you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it to the glory of God; i.e., the definition of Christ-centered.
Yes, we were and will be Christ-centered at our Single's dances. It's called fellowship among believers.
Yes, we line danced and other types of danced to both Christian music and other types of music that were Christ-honoring.
It was announced in the first service to be consistent with the announcements of the second. Incidentally, there were people in the first service that attended the last dance.
Shouldn't we be Christ-centered, Christ-honoring whatever we're doing?
Growing up in an independant Baptist church I heard a lot of specific prohibitions...things to not do. Let me list some of the things they taught were sinful and my current belief concerning each prohibition:
Prohibition #1.
Listening to any style or type of music that wasn't rooted in the hymnal or the book of Psalms.
a. Interestingly, they were teaching that a style of music that wasn't in the genre of ancient hymnology that it couldn't be pleasing to God. I disagree. For instance, Southern Gospel music. Sure, it's taken out of the pagan Country music scene and its style adapted for Christian lyrics...but I think it's glorifying to God. Or, look at another genre: Folkish in tone. Or, take another: Rock (soft, hard and pop). These are also examples of musical genres birthed out of pagan culture and turned into something that exalts Christ and edifies the body of Christ.
b. Classical music. It always amazed me that they thought acceptable music that was essentially "secular", yet, because it was done by the Musical Masters of yesteryear...it was acceptable...even though some were perverted pagan composers...not all, but some.
Prohibition #2 Style - women shouldn't wear pants, men shouldn't wear ear rings, people shouldn't get tattooed, men should have hair short enough that it wouldn't touch their ears.
My View: Women should be modest in dress and be distinctively female in appearance, men - get an ear ring if you want, enjoy your tattoos, but look like a man.
Prohibition #3 Don't Dance.
My View: Don't dance in a way that is suggestive or lewd. I personally dance before the Lord out of joy for His fulness and His grace. I also dance in front of others (if you really want to call it dancing). I tried to line dance, swing dance, etc.
Let me specifically address CRBC's single's dance.
There is a scriptural principal in play:
"To the pure, all things are pure."
A man or a woman can make many things pure or impure including dancing.
Now then, the type of dancing that is done is not that which is suggestive. It is not that which includes in any way people hanging all over each other. There was a great measure of mutual, Christ-honoring respect given between men and women at the Christian Single's dance I attended. I can assure you that the same will be true of the upcoming dance at Council Road.
Other items of interest:
1. Church buildings and culture.
Why is it that one thing is considered an okay activity outside of a particular building...but not inside? Is God contained in our man-made structures?
Is a building we built a holier place than His true temples...our bodies?
Should we not apply the same standard for our body temples as that which we want to place on that which is not His dwelling place, i.e., brick and mortar?
2. We are not charging for the Cube Single's dance...so, no, it's not to help pay off the Cube. Some of our members are actually donating their professional talents to D.J. and to provide their Christ-honoring musical line up.
3. Who do you know that has a job that makes that individual redefine religious beliefs?
4. The pharisees laws? Too many to count. What they did was take the timeless law of God and apply additional restrictions to it. The Pharisees began as a group of people that were trying to protect the Jewish people from God's judgment. God's people had been severely punished because of their insistence on living in disobedience to God's laws.
Enter the Pharisees. They began a process of adding to the law another set of man-made interpretations and laws that would serve as a cushion to the true law of God.
The thinking was: If a Jew broke the Pharisees extra-biblical law...well, at least they didn't break God's.
Jesus publically castigated them time and again for their man-made grid of interpretations and man-made laws they'd added to His holy law.
We need to be careful that we're not following extra-biblical traditions of men as we condemn others.
I've been guilty of doing this in my life. Each time I've done it...I've acted like a Pharisee, one that Jesus railed on.
In His Grace.
James
I don't think James is understanding what I am saying. If you read my most recent comment on his site I am talking about how I don't care what type of music you as a person listen to, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that. But a church, sponsoring something, supporting certain types of music and activities. Angela, do you see a difference? I don't think he understands my point.
I would like to email you more on this. Mine is paulsfamily@cox.net
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