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Christian Rave Ministry: Dancing before the Lord: An interview with Jeff Stoltzfus

You feel the music before you even get into the room. Its steady bass beat rumbles your stomach and starts your head bobbing while you're still in the lobby. Upon entering the ballroom you are treated to sensory overload.

The music, now unfiltered by the walls, is loud enough to make your skin vibrate; you can feel the boom-boom-boom of the bass through your whole body. The room is mostly dark; neon lights blink; lasers pulsate to the rhythm of the song. There are smart lights (theater lights programmed by computer to move, spin, and rotate in a particular pattern based on the song playing.)

The adrenaline begins to pump. People on the dance floor are jumping up and down in unison. Some are waving their hands in the air. Some have their eyes closed. Welcome to worship.

Wait, did you say worship?

Yes, worship. Club Worship actually. The rave-like dance club experience found in the Olympian Ballroom in Reading, Pennsylvania. It's the inspiration of a group of teenagers and run by adults Jeff Stoltzfus and John Carlson.

A Christian Rave

We had a chance to talk with Jeff about his role in Club Worship and the role of Club Worship in the community of faith.

"The vision came from our youth," Jeff says. "They needed an adult to help run the thing, and I volunteered. But it's all youth run. All the crew, all the DJs, all the lights—everything is run by the youth."

Jeff is quick to draw the line between a "rave" and a "Christian rave." He'll also tell you that while what they do is "rave-like," it's primarily "DJ-lead worship."

"We get calls from secular news agencies who think that all raves are about sex and drugs. That's not what we are."

We asked Jeff what a teenager who would normally go to a rave would find different when walking into Club Worship.

"There are a lot of kids who've been to raves and have seen what goes on. They're trying out the world, but when they come to us they experience a unity together that comes from the Holy Spirit."

Transformation

Kairsie Miller, who credits Club Worship with bringing her to salvation, echoes these thoughts. She began attending Club Worship a year ago and now works for them as an intern. "I remember the very first time I was there. Before you even get to the dance floor, you feel this sense of love and happiness." Kairsie says she was Wiccan before going to the club. "God took the opportunity and caused an instant change in me."

True Worship

"There's not that many clubs doing what we're doing. This is very big in the UK right now," says Jeff. "But what we're doing is more than a Christian rave. This is worship. People's lives are being changed."

Stoltzfus sights a recent night when they decided to cut off the music and pray. "We're very spirit led," He says. "We turned it down and told kids to group up in threes and just started to pray. We kept some slow music in the background and then we cranked it back up again."

The DJs read Scripture over the music. One of Stoltzfus' favorites is from 2nd Samuel, chapter six, in which David dances before the Lord. "David would be the most likely to show up at a rave," says Stoltzfus. The Club Worship Web site (www.thepipeline.org/clubworship) quotes numerous Scripture references to dancing.

Euphoria

Without a doubt there are comparisons to what Stoltzfus and crew are doing to the raves that make the news.

"The world is searching for a euphoric experience," Says Stoltzfus. "People associate raves with the drug Ecstasy. Take it and you feel the tingle, you feel happiness, and you feel a sense of love. The problem with that is that, number one, Ecstasy can kill you. Secondly, the feeling goes away. If you get that tingle (that happiness and that love from God), it doesn't go away."

While pulse-pounding, adrenaline-pumping, skin-tingling worship may not be what you'd expect from your local church where they sit quietly in the pews, this is the congregation of Club Worship, where it's all part of experiencing God on the dance floor.