It particularly seems so relevant now as so many of us are dancing and moving more than ever have before. 1000 Reasons to dance for our King, is a project about acknowledging all those reasons that we choose to dance for our King, what pulls at our heart, the emotions we bring and experiences we have, the answers to prayer.
I know not all of you dance, but I expect at some point you have been impacted by dance in some way, that is also a good reason to dance for our King. In a time when when everyone needs to be encouraged, when people want to witness the effect that God has on people, when people are asking questions. Let’s be deliberate in understanding why we are moving, what initiates us and takes us on the journey. From there, we have the opportunity to be equipped to share and explain the gospel in a more comprehensive way.
So, my question to you, will you join me on this journey? I know that why you dance today, will be different to why you dance tomorrow. Or how dance impacts you today, will be different to how it impacts you tomorrow. Over the next few months and the month previous, the journey each of us will go on will test our faith, movement and resilience to stand firm with our faith, lean into God and dance for our King. Check out the video below to hear more before the project.
Comment below or drop me an email and let me know if you’re up for it.
Then as you dance and move over the next days, weeks, months, pop me a message and share your reason why you dance for the King. You can do this via email (click here) or phone.
Please do share this with anyone you think would love to join this movement. The #dancingarmy is growing at an immense rate, it is awesome to see God move and witness people choosing to #dancealittlelouder.
Many of you have heard me speak about raising up a #dancingarmy and encouraging people to #dancealittlelouder. The reality of this happening has snowballed, and it is awesome to see how God is using such a simple concept to gather people, to gather movers and dancers whose whole heart is simply to worship, praise, prayer, live life and more through Jesus. If you’ve not joined us yet for a Prayer Dance Bite can I encourage you to do so. Let’s step out and live our journey of faith through movement, however big or small that might be.
During this crazy time that we are living in at the moment. It can send many of us into a spin with an unclear way out. In another one of my late night/ early morning awake times with my son, my head was in a spin about the latest news of the more intentional lockdown we were about to enter. So many people would be feeling so many different things. What was God saying in amongst it all?? PEACE. PEACE, BE STILL.
I knew that I had to dance to that. That myself, and many others needed to know that God says, Peace Be Still… Let your Faith arise. Jesus is the one that calms the storms with 3 strong words, He is the one that will bring us comfort, strength, peace and protection over the coming months. We need to choose to let our faith arise and lean into all that He has available for us.
As I shared with others my passion for moving to this song, they wanted to also dance, before I knew it, there was indeed a dancing army, proclaiming God’s word, safety, protection and peace. That’s what this video is. A culmination of 8 dancers stepping out to move in prayer for all. God moves mountains, he changes water into wine, he raises people from the dead, he heals the sick. He stands by us no matter what, walks with us during our darkest hours, and carries when it gets too much.
Remember this ripple I keep talking about? How a ripple can change the atmosphere. For just by one starting, others will follow. Let’s make this ripple shake and move the heavens. Let’s be bold in our conversations, our prayers, our movements. Let’s shake the heavens and show people how great our God is.
Join me, #dancealittlelouder. Be a #dancingarmy.
We’d love to connect with you further, so why not sign up to our newsletter where you can hear more about what we are doing and how you can get involved. Head here.
As more and more people have asked me this over the last year I
found myself having to think really hard about what the ‘UC’ was for. I knew I had
written a sentence that encapsulated it, but what that was I couldn’t remember.
Not because there wasn’t ever a reason to not remember, but because in the
beginning it was front and centre in my mind, as I set my name and started my
business. But as time has gone on the ability to recall those details has been
harder, there’s been shifts in my aims, my logo design and branding, as well as
the ‘info’ that I display about UC Grace. Plus, the reality of life and just
being busy!
How UC Grace began in 2010
Let’s open the door…
But, there always comes a point when you need a spring clean, a
bit of a shake through to remove bits of info that have served it’s time and
that’s what happened with the ‘UC’. The logo changed to the letters and wording
beneath it changed, I revamped the website, once, twice, many times, I
rebranded, I acknowledged by values for the business and the way I wanted to
push forward. But the reasoning behind the name was always there, it’s just
been hidden behind different layers.
The logo in 2011
So, let’s revisit our roots and share in more depth how the ‘UC’ came about, the biggest thing to recognise first, was that it was a 2 fold development (see Golden Whirlwind for info about why I teach).
So what was the starting point?
In the early days as I sat with my notebook writing down lots of
different names, I settled quite quickly on the word Grace, acknowledging that
as part of our Christian walk, grace was so important. I realised that I wanted
people to ‘see’ grace in dance, in our movements, actions, connections and
relationships. So initially all I had was ‘you’ ‘see’ and ‘grace’. Deciding how
to coax that into a name was super hard. The development of single letters
happened quite quickly ‘uC’. Notice the little ‘u’ and the big ‘C’. That was pivotal
as I felt it showed where the emphasis needed to be. The idea of opening up our
eyes, seeing things that we wouldn’t have seen before, releasing something,
and, so began the next stage.
We we entered 2012 there was a slight change, feeling that I needed to put ‘dance’ within the name and encase the tagline to a more succinct one with just my key words.
Defining what the ‘uC’ was about, working out what would create the foundation. I settled on it encompassing these words – uncapped unceasing unchanging uncover uncontrolled
The addition of dance didn’t last long. By the end of 2012 I’d reverted back to just ‘UC Grace’
This became the saying that best described what the ‘uC’ was
about, and it sat beneath the name uC Grace.
You can see the progression of the logo in these pictures.
As I moved forward with the company, another 3 words were pivotal
in under pinning our tagline
– encouraging | growing | releasing –
these enable us to put Gods word front and centre in the
company.
Encouraging – each person to grow into who they are
meant to be
Growing – each person in their skills, knowledge and
confidence God has given them
Releasing – each person into their dreams, ministries
and journeys God has for them
The last change before the major rebrand was this. The debate about whether I didn’t dance in my title had trundled on, so I wanted to add an image that would explain a bit more about the company was rather than putting dance.
But what does it all mean?
Let’s go back to the ‘uC’, where I had the little u and the big C. You might notice that now the little u is a big U. At the beginning of 2018 I undertook a rebrand of UC Grace. Initially it was just going to be an update of my logo, but after a few months of thinking and praying I realised that UC Grace had changed so much that it deserved a logo that would reflect it’s true heart. Big and bold YOU SEE GRACE, grace in our everyday, the way we think, move and act. Colour displaying individuality, fun and integrity to Gods promise. The dancer with a ribbon displaying the ability worship in different ways (You can read more about ribbons here). A yellow ribbon, to demonstrate JOY. JOY of movement and remembering someone who danced with such joy for Jesus throughout her whole life, Lyn.
Lyn Cave. The joyful dancer.
What ‘UC’ is going to be important for you going forward?
We all see
different things in life, that means we see the importance of things on a
different level. Take a moment to think about your present life, what areas
might you need to see things differently? What areas might you need grace?
This is what the UC is all about!!
Going forward UC Grace is committed to demonstrating and sharing Gods word through dance and movement. The saying below is what developed in 2010 when I started UC Grace. It encapsulates so well what it means to generate a deeper conversation with God through dance and movement. We hope it connects with you and encourages you in your journey.
We’d love to connect with you further, so why not sign up to our newsletter where you can hear more about what we are doing and how you can get involved. Head here.
