The Best Group Project Member

Raise your hand if you hated group projects in school.

Group projects were so stressful! Trying to coordinate schedules, figuring out how each person could contribute, trying to put all the pieces together into a coherent whole... The. Worst.

And the worst member? That person that doesn’t tell you what they’re doing and you just hope they will come through in time.

I was speaking with God today about our group project that we are working on, also known as “the church,” and I suggested that I would appreciate a little more communication.

And then it hit me with such incredible clarity: God is the best team member ever! All I need to do is focus on my part of the project and let God focus on God’s part of the project. It is super tempting to try to “help” God, maybe try and move things along. I have definitely had to cover for people who didn’t come through.

But God always comes through with the highest quality work at just the right time.

I guess I will stick with him and keep doing my part of the assignment.

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

5 Ways Church Should Be More Like Zumba

Recently, I went with my mom to a Zumba party at her gym. The whole time I was there, I kept thinking, “man, I wish church was more like this.”

So here we go, the ways I wish church was more like a Zumba party:

1. It was beautifully diverse. Just so everyone is comfortable reading this, let me start out by talking about race! But seriously, if you are also the kind of person who needs gallons of sunscreen to make it through an hour of pool time, does it ever bother you that most everyone at church looks similar? I think (I hope) we all know, on some level, that the Gospel isn’t just for white people, yet our congregations do not often reflect that.

Zumba class had all kinds of people of all kinds of races and ages and backgrounds. I saw the full spectrum of hair color, including some that do not occur in nature. All were welcome and no one stood out.

2. The leaders were women! And as an added bonus, 75% of those leaders were women of color! I can’t help but think that a lot of that amazing diversity in point #1 is directly linked to point #2. If your church is struggling to grow or to “reach your community” for Jesus, take a look at the people who are making the decisions. If there are a whole lot of very pale, very masculine faces, it might be time to elevate some women and/or women of color to leadership positions. And not just as a mascot or token board member – put them in charge of things. Homogeny is too limiting for such an expansive Gospel. 

3. Global solidarity. The steps to these dances are the same all over the world, anywhere there is a Zumba class. This is pretty much the goal of global missions but notice a key difference: Zumba isn’t just exporting an American version of itself to other countries. We danced to Beyoncé (as is right and salutary) but we also danced to reggaeton, salsa, samba, and Kpop. The songs were in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Korean. Zumba incorporates groovy beats from anywhere.

Our churches could benefit from incorporating the worldviews and experiences of believers from cultures very different from our own. What can a grandmother is Guatemala teach us about community? What can a sweat-shop worker in Bangladesh teach us about materialism?

4. It was a judgement-free zone. Confession time: I can move my legs OR my arms, but certainly not both at the same time. I am not a good dancer. This is how I Zumba: My feet do what now? Oh, we’re going in a circle! But not that direction! Jazz hands.

Guess what – no one cared! No one gave me side eye or whispered behind my back. Everyone there was just trying to figure it out too. Zumba doesn’t exist for professionally trained dancers. It’s for anyone who ate too much dip at a Super Bowl party or just wants to burn some calories while having fun. There was no special lingo to learn or specific doctrinal hoops to jump through. We just tried to do what our leader was doing. 

Church doesn’t exist for good people who have it all together. What if anyone off the street could enter our churches and immediately feel comfortable enough to jump in and dance? Can we be that accessible?

When every song ended, we clapped like crazy for each other. We spoke words of encouragement and made eye contact with strangers to share smiles of chagrin but also triumph. Because…

5. Doing it right wasn’t as important as doing it. Every wrong-footed cha-cha or robotic shimmy was still a movement toward health. My cardiovascular system didn’t care how graceful I looked – exercise is exercise, ya’ll.

What if our churches were healthier because the people in them were active? Sedentary Christians easily become consumers of religion instead of the hands and feet of Jesus. We get entrenched in being right instead of overflowing with love. Shouldn’t we be known for good we are doing in our neighborhoods and our world? (Spoiler: yes we should. See Matthew 5:16)

We can’t expect pastors to do the work of getting healthy for us any more than we can expect the Zumba instructor to lose our weight. We, the pewsitters, have to get up and start dancing along to the rhythms of grace, even if we’re initially really awkward (If you’re not sure what the steps to the dance are, you can find them pretty easily in Matthew 25 and Isaiah 58). Don’t worry about doing everything right, get out there and love people!

Love, like Zumba, is good for the heart.