Church Should Be Like a Dance Club

Lets think of a dance Club. Lets think of an EPIC dance club. 

When you walked in the front door, there are palm trees overhead, sand under your feet, and waterfalls to give you the idea that you were really in Jamaica.- complete with tiki torches. The band is playing island music while people dance and If you walked further, you can walk out onto a pier and sit in little rafts in the ocean while talking to other people.

Oooah. Impressive dance club eh? haha.

As you continued down a hallway, there are several bars and tables where you could sit and talk. In the main room is the dance hall. The first thing you noticed when you walked into the room are, of course, the lights and the loud music. In the center of the room is an amazing bar with 10 large TV screens. In front of the room was a large stage with a movie screen above it.

Wow. This is getting more and more unbelievable by the minute. Oh well.

The night starts with a DJ who plays dance music and a band who played cover songs. They continued to switch back and forth. There are large balloons floating around the room that people were hitting when they came close to the ground.

It was experiential, because the setting was sensory-rich. I feels like I am truly experiencing Jamaica through the music and images; you could even smell, touch, and taste aspects of Jamaica at the club.

Smell, touch, taste the aspects of Christ and his love?

It was participatory, because of what you can do. There are people dancing, and you could sing along with the music played by the DJ or cover band.

Can you participate in whats going on, observe and interact with your surroundings?

It was image rich/driven, because of the sights of the bay and pier and video screens around the room with images of the band.

 Along with smell, touch, taste, and participation- can I SEE transformation with my own eyes!

It was connected, because there were opportunities to sit and talk with other people and build community. You also felt connected to the people shown dancing on the screen. There was even a feeling of connection when everyone was singing as loud as we could with the band and the DJ.

Always back with the relationships and community- connection and being one with each other, sharing in interests!
Experiential says “We’ve talked enough. Stop talking and just do it.” Its interactive,  and taking people to a place they’ve never been.” I believe People need to feel something different when they walk into our gatherings and when they walk out.

Participatory says, “Count me in. I want to do this.”

Image-rich says “You have to draw the picture for me. Let me see it for myself.”

I think we get our ideas across better by using images, whether they’re paintings, PowerPoint slides, transparencies, photos, videos, or anything else that doesn’t require reading. We live in an image-rich culture, so we need to have image-rich worship gatherings. 

Connected says “That resonates with me. I want to belong- let me be in a relationship with YOU!”

That, in a nutshell, is what EPIC means. 

Do you think the Church/ Your Church is EPIC??