My relationship with dancing is shaky at best. I took tap dancing in high school. Got dumped in a coat closet at a dance once and was not allowed to dance at my wedding. All in all, I would say we've had a love/hate relationship for most of my life. But something I will forever love is the idea of "leaving room for the holy spirit."This is the phrase that I heard at any Christian event that involved dancing. Now the first thing you'll want to say is "You had it lucky, we weren't allowed to even dance." And that's true, this post is not a complaint. It's more of a celebration of a classicly Christian phrase.
And you'd only really hear it when you were slow dancing to songs like "The Lady in Red." (Which by the way is an awesome awful song.) A youth leader would come over, pull you and your partner away from each other by the shoulders and say, "leave some room for the holy spirit you two."
I always used to wonder if the holy spirit was cool with that. I mean, maybe when he heard that his first thought was, "Ugh, that kid is sweaty and covered with acne. That girl is nervous and applied her makeup with a firehose. Really? You're leaving room for me between two hormone drunk seventh graders? No thanks. I'm all set."
40 comments:
haha, it was when you saw someone you would leave "room for the holy spirit" other thand that you would stand in the middle of the room with everyone around until an adult had to pull you apart. This was always a big joke at church camp/retreats. Very well represented.
I am contiunally amazed by the stuff you come up with - so many of them I can completely relate to - but just couldn't have thought of for the idea. (Could be because I stay home with a 4 year old and 2 year old and am preggo) Anyway - that is ABSOLUTELY a phrase I know. We also did - "no purple" Blue and pink together make purple - so no boys in girls rooms and vice versa at retreats.
We never really danced much either. My parents always said dancing led to "other" stuff. Now as an adult I really don't know what I'm doing out there on the dance floor either. Oh well.
he he he. funny! Here's one for you for the future. Applies to Christian schools - Banquets instead of dances, cuz dancing is a sign of devil you know. *S* We had "banquets" for everything, valentines day, sports awards ceremonies, homecoming. Even "Prom" was turned into the "Jr/Sr Banquet". Cuz dancing was evil, and music with a rockin' beat was devil worship, ya'll. Yea. It was that bad.
So true... heard this all the time.
I once asked whether 2 of our youth (who were cuddling in very close fashion) had left room for the Holy Spirit and the girl replied, "Oh, don't worry, the Holy Spirit went on the South Beach Diet."
jon -
i'm a youth pastor and it'd be helpful if you just made a good "holy spirit sensitive" playlist... music that repells the desire to dance. maybe featuring such classics as early steven curtis chapman, twila paris, and carmen... i figure with music like that i'll have my youth house bursting at the seams with holy spirit space...
- noah
How about "Hand Check?" We had these all time when on bus rides. IF we sat by a member of the opposite sex, the youth leader would occasionally hollar out "HAND CHECK!" and we'd all have to raise our hands to ensure that no inappropriate touching was taking place.
Concerning the renaming a prom, my wife's Christian school had a MORP, which was "prom backwards". From talking to her about her school experiences, that wasn't the only thing backwards there, but I was a true-blue "heathern" back then.
I suppose they were also trying to keep down the "eye babies" over there.
Wow. That's hilarious. I can never relate to your posts about dancing. I grew up in a Christian community where there was no such things as "Christian" dancing together. If it wasn't the praise dancers doing a routine, it didn't happen in our church. And I'm still trying to learn that some dancing is ok. You should see me trying to dance to Hillsong's "Break Free." I look like I'm scared the pastor of my youth is going to come and jack me up for moving too much.
Funny somewhat-related bit, my wife used to choreograph praise dances and never picked mid-tempo or fast songs because she didn't think the girls had any godly fast dance moves in their repertoire.
You know why Baptists don't believe in premarital sex, don't you? It could lead to dancing.
(this Baptist is ducking while I scurry out of the room)
I visited a certain Methodist college in Kentucky my junior year of high school. When I found out that the girl I was shadowing for the 2-day visit was written up by a professor for having been seen "dancing" at a concert, I decided that school wasn't for me. I mean, demerits for dancing at a concert? Legalism, what?
In my youth group, we called it "3 inches for Jesus."
Oh, when I read this blog I feel SO DANG OLD! :) Or maybe I was just raised by really uptight old people.
I graduated from a Baptist high school...not the kind of Baptists who have worship teams and dancing, let me tell you. These were BJU Baptists. We had an annual "Sweetheart Banquet" instead of a prom, but there was no dancing or any of that evil stuff happening. :)
I remember our PE teacher (coed PE? Surely you jest...that could lead to mixed bathing!) telling us girls to remember when sitting next to a boy we should always leave enough room for a Bible in between us. It went with saying that she meant a big honking KJV giant-print reference Bible, and the Bible would be in a horizontal position.
I heard a youth minister say, "leave room for Jesus, and not the sweet baby Jesus, the man Jesus. And his beard."
I dated a mormon girl in high school and anytime we would hug in the halls (back when that was still allowed at public high school) her older brother would magically appear and do the same thing. We always argued that the Holy "Ghost" as they called him was a spirit, so he didn't need much room.
This led to her brother coming up with a new tactic: four Bible widths between us. Our couter-strategy was to tell him that Bibles come on CD nowadays.
So if the Holy Spirit dwells inside me, what does this mean then? I always found this phrase confusing.
One of the many schools that I attended was a Christian school during my senior year. Like many Christian Schools around the country we didn't have proms or dances; we had banquets. My principals reasoning for this was that "dancing was a vertical display of a horizontal desire."
None of us were interested in that, we just wanted the opportunity to do the electric slide and dance to cotton-eyed Joe like every other high schooler in America.
Mormons are the undisputed champions of youth dances. Granted, it's a thinly veiled lead-in to wonky theology as they tried to convert you, but when you're dancing with friends, it's all good. Elders would walk around the room with a Book of Mormon and make sure they could fit it between you. That was the Holy Spirit space. So my buddy Tyler, a Mormon himself, got a digital copy of the Book of Mormon off the Internet and had it printed in a travel size, kind of like thinline Bibles. The elders were not happy about that.
texasinafrica--
That is hilarious.
Autumn, I visited a Methodist college in Kentucky as well, was planning to go there at one point. They had a very strict no-dance policy except for "choreographed moving" in school events like talent shows, in which case it seemed like it was anything goes. To secular music. Go figure. Anyway, it was a big joke with the students. I would not be surprised if this is the same school where the girl was written up.
Hmm, anyway, what I have heard is "Bible width" for keeping apart boys and girls in various situations. Never heard the "room for the holy spirit" thing, but that's pretty funny.
That is great. As a teacher in a Christian school I just want to say, “brilliant.” This had me rolling. Our school does not allow dances and I have asked why; still with no real answer except, “we just don’t want to go there…” (I partly agree…)
I just want to tell you thank you for blessing the missionaries abroad. Keep up the good work.
Fred
Okinawa Christian School International.
Ocsi.org
I went to a super conservative Christian school (a lot of Bob Jones influence). We had the "12 inch rule" and one year a popular "couple" had their picture in the yearbook holding a ruler between them. I was in middle school at the time, and I thought I would get pimples if I stood too close to a girl!
Somehow I believe this subject of sexual morality/immorality is much more serious than many of the comments to #187 would lead me to believe. I am 55 so I have many similar stories that I could relate from the 60's.
The truth is, sexual immorality is rampant among believers. Pornography is no laughing matter in the eyes of God and neither is any sexual this, that or the other outside of marriage.
God desires we be holy even as he is holy. We sin away and expect God's grace to cover us. It does when we repent. It does not if we just continue in sin. God will not be mocked.
I am all for ha ha and he he, but not when dealing with sin.
Could it be we need to "wake up"?
this is amazing. like reliving my childhood. I went to an extremely strict Christian school. Friday afternoons (if we were lucky) were spent doing "Sword Drills" aka the teacher would yell out a reference and the first person to find the Bible passage won. We also celebrated Reformation Day instead of halloween. No joke, we would nail the "95 theses" to the gym door and dress up in monk robes. Creepy?! yes. Christians LOOOVE to take secular holidays and change them into Jesus Days...
notice that EVERY pastor or writer or whatever who considers themselves to be "relevent" sports those Rob Bell thick glasses?
yeah. that should be your next post.
When I was a bible school this phrase was used frequently. However, being the smart bible school students that we were, we would always answer, "but we thought the holy spirit lived within us." The phrase was eventually replaced with the less confusing, "leave room for a large print bible."
I remember mocking our youth leaders when I was a kid by screaming "hands check" at uncomfortable times, like when were all in McDonalds. One time, our youth leader was holding hands with his girlfriend during the service, so I sent him a note that said "hands check", which I believe almost led to me getting the finger in the middle of a service. I strongly suspect that Christ will be having a little chat with me about that incident immediately upon my ascension.
On the plus side, we never got hands checked again on bus rides, so that was nice.
funny! I remember a movie where all the kids had to dance w/ a balloon between them. If it popped, bad news!
the only thing that bugged me is that the Holy Spirit is a HE, not an IT! :)
Thank you.
In Jr. High I went to a christian summer camp and they called the friday night a'hem (dance)a "rhythmic movement celebration"
We were never allowed to have an organized dance, even though dancing was allowed in church. I always wanted to pull a Kevin Bacon in Footloose and try to get a dance organized. Why are church people generally so uptight about moving to music? I attribute my current lack of rhythm to the dancing void of my childhood. But I can do the approved two foot hop to praise and worship like no one's business. That move doesn't work too well with the ladies though.
My husband and I taught "youth" or students for a little while years ago. We would say, "Save room for Jesus" in a very sweet and patronizing voice. That's what our youth leaders did to us and we just wanted to pass on the torch.
I went to public high school. I never heard of bible lengths or balloons between dancing couples. Seriously people, have we learned nothing from "Footloose"?
And what about not "making purple." Did some youth pastor invent this wierdness?
we used to say :no making purple: in college
I was raised with dancing as a no-no so we always had youth banquets. These were a formal night where girls would wear spaghetti-strap prom dresses with t-shirts underneath. Not a good look. Also, we'd have youth retreats with the 6-inch rule and the Bible space rule. Couples weren't allowed to hold hands; the camp leader would say, "If you need to hold hands, find a stick at least six inches long and each of you hold one end." There was always a couple that would do it just to be funny. Good times.
We used to have the "fit a Bible between us" rule ~ so we got a sweet ultra slimline edition and had a great time...
At the Christian school I currently go to, the big thing is "six inches for Jesus" and we aren't allowed PDA (public displays of affection). The six inches for Jesus is more of a student joke then an actually enforced rule though.
At the Bible college I went to, girls were encouraged to carry around a massive family Bible with them in the car when they went on a date. If there was the slightest temptation for a goodnight kiss, that Bible was supposed to serve as a reminder that if the guy thought he was going to get anywhere, he'd have to climb over Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to do it.
And dancing? Don't even think of doing anything other than the Holy Ghost Hop during morning chapel.
Post a Comment