Preparation: Pick a song that you know well and/or your children knows well and that you can dance to. Some ideas: Lord of the Dance, Dance with Me, Canticle of the Turning, Marching in the Light of God–do the dancing verse!
You will also need two willing dance partners to start.
Gather the children up front with you. Say, “Have you ever played the game framer in the dell?” Explain the game. It’s a game with a song that goes “the farmer in the dell, farmer in the dell, heigh ho the merry-oh the farmer in the dell” and all the kids stand in a circle and dance and sing the song. During the verses, one kid at time they are pulled out of the circle until there is only one person left.
Well I have another dance for you today. Invite your partners to stand up with you and hold hand sin a circle. Start singing your song and dancing in a circle together. Sing one or two lines and then take the hands of a few more kids. Sing some more and then invite them all to join you. You may need to drop hands at this point and just dance together. Now invite the congregation to join you by standing and dancing.
(For example, if you use Marching in the Light of God you can sing half the first verse, get a few kids and finish. Then get them to all stand up and say we are singing in the light of God and then invite the congregation to do the dance verse. You can modify for time or size of congregation. You can also pick a shorter song, like Alleluia-Praise ye the Lord or Love , Love, Love, that’s what it’s all about. )
OR go up front with your dance partners before you invite the children up. Start singing your song and dancing with the other two (so there are three total, cause.. trinity 🙂 Then get some other kids to join you. Then invite the whole group up front to join the song. Then invite the congregation to dance and sing with you.
When the song is over have everyone sit down. Say, “God’s dance is different than the farmer in the dell dance, isn’t it? How is it different?” Take answers and then say, “Yes, see, we talk today about one way we can think about how we see God, as a trinity, a three in one. There are many ways God shows us where God is and who God is and there are three that we talk in the trinity–God the father or creator, God the son in Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit. That is why I started with 3 people dancing. And God does not stop there, because the Holy Spirit wants to bring everyone in to know Jesus, to know God’s love, to know that God is everywhere they go, so it’s kind of like a dance where all are invited to participate with God and that is what sends God’s love out to the world. Just like we added people, the Holy Spirit’s love keeps getting added.
God of the dance, thank you for showing yourself to us. Help us to dance with you and bring in more and more people to your love. Amen
May you know and do God’s dance of love in your heart.
Dance of God Footprint Wreath: Have cutouts of a footprint or have people trace their feet and have some done and glue or taped onto a cut out circle or an actual wreath. You will be making a wreath out of the feet. Instructions say: Write a way you can join in God’s dance on the foot and then put your foot on the wreath as you say a prayer to join in God’s dance.
