Dance / Interpretive Movement /  Signing

David Buckner

Get Attention: There aren't many other things that will effectively grab  and hold the attention of someone than well-done  performance material. There are many effective forms of  performance. Three of the most widely used for ministry are  interpretive dance, movement, and musical performance. When  done well, these things, along with many other performance- oriented ministries, will not only grab someone's  attention, but it will also hold their attention.  Unfortunately, sometimes the attention that is grabbed and  held is not because of positive aspects of the performance,  but because of the negative. It's fairly obvious that you  always want to prepare something that will be of the  highest quality possible in order to gain as much positive  attention as possible.

Do Something Eternal With A Moment: As with all other creative ministries, we are all  responsible for taking the attention that is going to be  given to us and turning it towards God. One of the many  strategies we have for doing this is recommending that all  performance based ministry have a solid mix of well known  secular music to be used for securing the attention of the  people, mixed with some good Christian music in order to  plant a seed. Picking appropriate music is probably one of  the most important aspects of musically performance-based  ministry. Another strategy is to always have people  designated to inter-mingle with anyone watching the  performance. One of the most used strategies with  performance ministry is to keep the time factor in mind.  People will typically not devote an hour to watching one  performance group. So sets of 15–20 minutes are strongly  recommended. Please do not forget to instruct the  performance ministers to not huddle together after they are  done to discuss what happened. They are to immediately go  and mingle with those who were watching. These, and many  others, are strategies on how to do something eternal with  the single moment you might have in contact with a certain  individual.

Quick Resources:
Dance: Lion's Players in Columbus, Ohio
Interp: Centrifuge in Nashville, Tenn.
Greg Cagle in Branson, Miss.
Signing: Tyra Locke in western Kentucky