The River is all about the arts – exploring them, and then finding ways to express our faith through them. To demonstrate the variety of mediums available, we’re adding links to our own YouTube playlists and other relevant sites and articles. We hope you enjoy them and we hope they inspire you to join us at The River and let your own creativity flow!
Praising through dance/Movement:
From Praise and Worship’s site:
Is worshiping in dance biblical? It is according to God’s Word.
“Praise his name with dancing, accompanied by tambourine and harp.” (Psalm 149:3 NLT)
“Praise him with the tambourine and dancing; praise him with strings and flutes!” (Psalm 150:4 NLT)
Are you an aspiring dancer? Praise or worship dancing is just one way to express God’s message. Want to learn more? Interested in getting together with others who share your interest? Come by one of our regular meetings and talk with us. Still not sure? Check out our “playlist” of praise/worship dancing examples we’ve found on YouTube: The River – Praise Through Dance Playlist on YouTube
Praising through theatre & Spoken word
To paraphrase Tom Woodard and Eddie James over at The Skit Guys, theatre and spoken word performance is a way to spread God’s word “using comedy, drama and whatever category talking action figures fit into”. Opportunities exist from using pre-written material to finding your own voice, your own words, and your own way of delivering the message. The Skit Guys have numerous examples on their site, or you can look through the playlist we assembled on YouTube: The River – Praise Through Theatre
Praising through Song & Music
The phrase “sing praise” is written in the Bible twenty-nine times. Twenty-nine! Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, “Music is the universal language of mankind.” And Henry David Thoreau wrote, “There is as much music in the world as virtue. In a world of peace and love music would be the universal language, and men greet each other in the fields in such accents as a Beethoven now utters at rare intervals from a distance. All things obey music as they obey virtue. It is the herald of virtue. It is God’s voice.” We couldn’t possibly create a large enough playlist for all the styles of praise music or Christian music performers out there so, instead, we’ll recommend a few local radio stations we enjoy:
- K-Love (listen online or, in the Knoxville area on FM 88.3)
- Air1 Radio (listen online or, in the Knoxville area on FM 89.1)
Another existing opportunity at our church is HealthRhythms facilitated by Gaye King.
Praising in color (art)
We have done a variety of projects since we first organized in October of 2014, most of which have been documented on this blog. Praising In Color is using any art medium to create pieces of art that accomplish our goal: Exploring and spreading the Good News. Art mediums include 2D and 3D visual arts, photography and videography.
Other
Are you a writer? A poet? Is there some art form we’re missing? If you have an art hobby or passion and would like to know more about how it could be used in Praise, contact us! We’d love to hear from you.
