Whoever thinks praise dance is just a form of church entertainment did not attend the inaugural Praise Dance Workshop that took place at New Zion Christian Church from 8/4/06 to 8/5/06.

The workshop brought together 16 churches from Houston and from as far as San Antonio, TX., Little Rock, Arkansas and California. Houston area churches included Refuge Temple, Christ Way Church, South Union Mission Baptist, Grace Church, Anointed Family Church, Virtue Word of Life Church, Bethel Family Church, First Fruits Community Church, New Life Church and First Assembly of Rosenberg.

     The main organizer and instructor at the workshop and New Zion Christian Church’s Praise Dance Ministry leader, Mrs. Sukky Fagbohun said, “I felt the need for churches to learn to seek their choreography from the Holy Spirit and not from the world. I also saw the need for New Zion’s praise dance ministry to move from the inward to the outward by taking dance out of the church walls to other churches and the world out there”.

     Ms. Fagbohun a lawyer-turned-praise dance minister puts her money where her mouth is. “I found my true calling and joy in the praise dance ministry, I live and breathe dance and I am called to worship God. God has blessed me in this ministry, otherwise, I would be practicing law somewhere”.

    The Praise Dance Workshop also benefited from the instruction of seasoned praise dance minister- Janet Crews of Janet Crews Prophetic Ministries out of Fort Worth, Texas. Another instructor was Toyin Allen Taylor of New Zion Christian Church.

     Most of the churches commented about the quality of teaching and excellence of the conference but none said it better than Anita Ross of Virtue Word of Life Church, a few days after the workshop. “Keep up the good work. After this weekend, we are revamping our youth group. I am over the adult praise dance ministry. The class on authority was wonderful with Mrs. Crews. That Saturday night on the way home our overseer stopped by the store and bought some stuff to make flags with and during our Sunday service, we had a praise that we had not had before”.

     As might be expected, the churches represented at the workshop demonstrated diverse and interesting approaches to praise dance but by the end of the conference they were unified on the need to attain excellence in ministry and using praise dance as an effective tool to touch those inside and outside the church.

New Zion Christian Church will host the Praise Dance Workshop annually.

Sukky Fagbohun
Conference Organizer