Re: [Worship] spontaneous worship

[The Beatties <beattie@pipeline.com>]

At 02:25 PM 7/3/2000 -0400, you wrote:
><snip>
>So, I feel that the Holy Spirit works with us the way we are; and
>ministers to through the way that we learn best and function best;  so I
>beat on my drum and the Holy spirit comes and plays with me, teachin' me
>African rhythms and native American rhythmns I have never played before,
>and teachin' me to sing  Native American style and stuff that sounds
>African, asian, etc... ( I don't normally share this with other people,
>but I'm becoming a little more open here and I guess vulnerable, that's
>always the risk when you become more open.)
>
>what I am saying is that there are higher heights and deeper depths in
>worship, our desire should be to have intimacy with our best friend: the
>Holy Spirit.
>
>God bless,
>david
David,

In the words of my 12 year old son, way to go, Dude! The church is so full 
of people that are afraid of diversity, or afraid of someone that appears 
to worship differently, it's refreshing to find someone else willing to 
walk in uniqueness.

We had an uncomfortable situation just this last week with an intercession 
group at our church that pertains to this subject.  My daughter is gifted 
in dance, and God uses it to minister in different ways.  There are times 
it is prophetic, healing, and at times, just profound. As this gift has 
developed in her stronger and stronger over the last few months, it has 
become incorporated into all aspects of her relationship with God, 
especially her prayer life. During the opening minutes of the intercession 
group meetings, where everyone is crying out to God (some of them quite 
loudly, some in tongues, some in English, some pacing, etc.-it really looks 
quite chaotic if you happen to just walk in on it!), my daughter has taken 
to quietly stepping out of the circle and dancing. For her, it's like 
another prayer language. The leader of the group (self-appointed, by the 
way) took exception to this dancing.  The pacing, hollering, and what 
everyone else was doing was ok, I guess because she was used to it, but one 
person quietly dancing was not ok. We were told that she wasn't "entering 
in" like she was supposed to, and would have to pray like everyone else. 
After all, we must have order!

Now, I'm all for order, but in a situation where it's pretty much a 
free-for-all (it does eventually settle down into a more traditional type 
prayer meeting after the opening--this is just a time for everyone to focus 
themselves on God so as to be ready to pray what God lays on our hearts), 
but..... Isn't it sad that a young girl has to conform to the what everyone 
else is doing, thereby depriving the church of the unique gift God has put 
in their midst? Needless to say, we aren't able to be a part of that group 
any more...

On the subject of secular music:

As children's ministers, we are faced with this concern often, since many 
people, especially older saints, don't understand why we handle things like 
we do. Our worship services that we lead for kids and families may have 
puppets, clowns, costume characters, or who knows what, but worship is 
always at the center of it all.  We have seen the power of God fall on a 
group in POWERFUL ways as Egbert the Elephant sings "In the Jungle", a 
christianized version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" that we wrote a few 
years ago. (The words start out--Up in heaven, way up in heaven, Lord Jesus 
reigns tonight--instead of the "wimbowe" part we sing "worship him, worship 
him".) Unorthodox, yes; effective, double yes!!! God often uses the unusual 
and unique to get our attention; let's check out some of the Old Testament 
prophets and see what God called them to do, and realize that sometimes God 
tells people to do surprising things!

Keep a drummin', David!

Dorrie
=============================
Brian and Dorrie Beattie
Isaac Ministries
http://beattie.home.pipeline.com/home.html
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