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Always looking for ideas to use with kids. It's amazing how freed up a kid (and an adult for that mattter!) can get when you put a worship extension in their hands. They suddenly stop being self conscious and start dancing uninhibitedly, expressing such beautiful pure worship that I know the Lord must be pleased.



What is a worship extension? It's anything thing that increases the height, the range of motion and the colorfulness of what the physical body can do in worship expression. Flags, streamers, hoops, ribbons, scarves...all qualify.



Here's a couple we've used successfully over the years:<LIST>

• <LI>
• ribbon sticks</LI>
  <LI>
• ribbon hoops</LI>
  <LI>
• small flags</LI>
  <LI>
• finger streamers, either tinsel or ribbons</LI>
  <LI>
• scarves, can be reminiscent of water or flames, etc.</LI>
  

</LIST>I like to get some fullness in to ribbon-y things, so I like to add a nice wide piece of colorful fabric in with ribbons, or use metallic tinsel for some flash.



The hoops are a better choice for smaller children as the flags or ribbons that are attached on sticks quickly become "swords" and otherwise lethal weapons!



I like a set of small flags that our church kids use because even though they are small, there has still been some care and thought put into their design. They are made from quality fabrics & trims and have a praise phrase or Name of God on them and are attached to the sticks with long ribbons, so that there is some movement beyond just the flag itself.



We designed a ribbon stick that was a basic dowel with a bunch of narrow ribbons attached to a fishing swivel at the top, but added a 6-inch wide band of silk essence in a brilliant color to give it some fullness. The stick was about 18 inches, and the ribbon length was about a yard.



I'm sure we've done some other interesting things that I'm not remembering now, but I'll add them as they come to me.



What sorts of things have you used with young people? Maybe we can inspire each other.

hellow my name is phulzun and i suppose i'm the only (or one of the few) asians here

urs a new forum, u should advertise it a lot and recruit some mods

For any interested in a fairly succint following of the trail of worship dance through church history.



Worship God in Dance - Lucinda Coleman



In the Hebrew tradition, dance functioned as a medium of prayer and praise, as an expression of joy and reverence, and as a mediator between God and humanity (Taylor 1976:81). This understanding of dance permeated the faith of the early Christian church. During the Middle Ages despite increasing proscriptions against the use of dance, it continued to be utilised as a medium of prayer and praise. However, by the time of the Reformation the church, both Catholic and Protestant, had eliminated dance from worship.......<URL url="http://www.pastornet.net.au/renewal/journal6/coleman.html">more.....

I love Shislik. It is marinaded steak meat grilled on skewers !



1/2 cup Olive Oil



2 cloves Garlic, crushed



1/4 cup chopped fresh Parsley



2 Tablespoons fresh Lemon Juice



1 Onion chopped fine



2 Teaspoons Salt



1/2 Teaspoon ground pepper



1/2 Teaspoon ground Thyme



2 pounds Steak ( I like to use Top Sirloin )



Combine the oil, lemon juice, garlic, onion, parsley, salt, pepper, and thyme in a large bowl.

Cube meat into 1 inch cubes, and add to the bowl. Stir to coat well. Cover and let stand in refridgerator for at least 2 hours (overnight is better). Drain the meat and arrange on metal skewers. Cook on grill.

Well, I had a lovely experience Friday night. After being forcibly retired from my beloved nursing job that day, I went to meeting of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a type of Amnesty International but for prisoners of faith. The worship leader was Ian White and I was bold enough to ask him if he would mind my friend and I using flags during his worship. To my delight he was delighted and even introduced us from the podium!



Now Sunderland Minster is a very old and very beautiful church and I have often visited the little coffee shop at the side and peered through the glass doors and thought how wonderful it would be to use flags in the transept. It seemd unlikely as the church is a fairly high Anglican church and very reserved! So I ewas sure my thoughts were little more than a flight of fancy.



<IMG content="http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b286/flagady15/SunderlandMinster.jpg">





But Ian's music was brilliant - just he and his guitar, but boy, could he sing up a storm! He did "Blessed Be Your Name" and then "How Great Is Our God" for which not so long ago the Holy Spirit gave me a brand new and totally unique routine. Towards the end he concluded with "In Christ Alone" which had me going out all guns!! I dance my heart out before the Lord and it was totally awesome!



We had Deborah Xu as the main speaker, who had been imprisoned and tortured many times by the Chinese Cultural Revolution Army for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ but latterly she was placed under close house arrest with a constant military guard. Yet people came from all over to sit outside her house. She would preach to them out of a tiny window, shouting through the line of soldiers!!



At the end, her friend and spiritual mentor, Peter Xu, a venerable Chinese gentleman in his eightieth year, was asked to close in prayer. But he wanted to speak. The leader urged him not to as the meeting had already run over time by over half an hour but he kept saying "I must. I have a word, I must share it."



So he did and what he said was that he saw many people with 'halos' of white hair and that they should be proud for they were earning the halos by their age and experience. And he said "people would have you believe that you when you retire that your life is over - don't you believe it! Your life is beginning! Now you have time to do God's work and trust me, it is just the start of your new life!"



I was amazed and totally overwhelmed. I really felt that this lovely man had been sent all the way from China to give me that word!!



I have been meditating on it all weekend and today - my 65 birthday - I have decided that I am going to do a pilgrimage of flag worship in the cathedrals of Northern England! How's about that then!!