Join in this week as HOPE Worship Artist and Youth Leader, Gabrielle Byrnes, shares her story of how creative expression can deepen our connection with God and infuse our everyday lives with a sense of divine purpose. Listen in as we discuss the myriad ways in which our passions can serve as conduits for prayer, worship, and a richer, more intentional faith journey.
NOTES & RESORUCES:
Thanks for being a part of the HOPE community as we continue conversations about faith and hope! You can learn more at meethope.org or find us on socials @meethopechurch. Join in for worship on Sundays at meethope.live! Have a question? Contact us at podcast@meethope.org.
Join in this week as HOPE Worship Artist and Youth Leader, Gabrielle Byrnes, shares her story of how creative expression can deepen our connection with God and infuse our everyday lives with a sense of divine purpose. Listen in as we discuss the myriad ways in which our passions can serve as conduits for prayer, worship, and a richer, more intentional faith journey.
NOTES & RESORUCES:
Thanks for being a part of the HOPE community as we continue conversations about faith and hope! You can learn more at meethope.org or find us on socials @meethopechurch. Join in for worship on Sundays at meethope.live! Have a question? Contact us at podcast@meethope.org.
Welcome to the Meet Hope podcast, where we have conversations about faith and hope. Hope is one church made of people living out their faith through two expressions in person and online. We believe a hybrid faith experience can lead to a growing influence in our community and our world for the sake of others.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Hope Hi everyone, welcome to the Meet Hope podcast. My name is Ashley Black and I'm your host for today. I'm excited to be talking with a friend of Hope. Her name is Gabby and we are going to be talking about worship in our day to day lives. Hey, gabby, hi, how are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm good. How are you? I'm great. I'm excited to have you back. For anyone that listens to the podcast, gabby, you were on the Drama Camp episode last summer, right? Yes, because you help out at Drama Camp, we're glad to have you back and have you talk a little bit longer this time about some things that you are passionate about and that influence your faith. Yeah, I'm excited. Yeah, I am too. Why don't you tell everyone who's listening, if they don't know you, a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 3:Yeah, hi everybody. My name is Gabrielle. I'm 24 years old. I have been going to church here since I was little and I love Hope so much. I am a dancer and I work in Westchester at a Christian dance company called Glorify Performing Arts. I also teach dance and I sub at a preschool sometimes. So lots of jobs, lots of things.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Oh, and you got your degree in dance, right?
Speaker 3:Yes, I got my BFA in dance from Adelphi University in Long Island, new York.
Speaker 2:Okay, and your family also is a part of Hope.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, they've been going since before I was born, so you've been around for a while and you're still around and involved.
Speaker 2:So what do you do now that you're a grown up? How do you help out here at?
Speaker 3:Hope, yeah. So currently I am a seventh and eighth grade girls youth leader at church and I have a co-leader. She's amazing. And I, as you mentioned, work in the summers as a volunteer for the drama camps, and that's a lot of fun too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so you. Sometimes in the past you've danced at Hope like in a service or in a like you danced in the Christmas production this past Christmas. When did you start doing that?
Speaker 3:I probably started, maybe middle school. I want to say I started dancing for church in the services and then I started dancing for arts productions or, you know, the Christmas services. So yeah, I've gotten to use that on stage too.
Speaker 2:So that's been wonderful, yeah, is that? Did you ever consider it to be a type of worship? Or did someone like suggest it to you, like, did it? Did it come naturally to you that, like I love dance, this can be a form of worship?
Speaker 3:So originally it didn't. I think Hope is a very artistic church, which I love love that about it. But I think so Marilyn actually Marilyn Bells wanted people to dance. I know you've danced on that stage before too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I was trying to remember when I was dancing, like what age you were, I think like middle school when you started dancing too.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that was the same for me. That was how I learned. Like someone was like oh hey, you dance outside of here. Like I also went to school for dance and got my degree in dance and when it was suggested to me, like why would you dance to this song, I was like we really think we can do that. Yeah, like in church.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool, like now that you can't dance in church but like that, to use it as a form of worship in front of others that I never considered really, that others could like watch me, like use my body in an expressive way and in doing that they would experience worship.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I kind of felt the same way too, I think also because I was so young and that wasn't really, I guess I just thought of it as oh, I'm performing, and I'm dancing for people and I never thought of it as a form of worship for God and like to connect to other people. I guess I didn't start realizing that until I was older, probably in high school and in college too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was a question I was just thinking about. Asking you was when did it switch for you? Do you remember if it switched, where it went from? Oh, they asked me to dance to this song it's a nice church song to this is for me too. Do you remember like the process?
Speaker 3:I definitely yeah, I think it was in college when that started to happen. When I went to college, I wanted to continue my faith journey and I wanted to get involved in Christian fellowship and so I went and joined Christian fellowship and I was a leader in there and it was interesting because they had like a retreat, like Like for a weekend. Yeah, yeah, one of those types of things. It was a week in the summer and we went to like Upstate, New York and I didn't know anybody but I just like felt called to do it and I was like okay, like this seems like something I wanna do and experience.
Speaker 3:So I went there and I really started to feel like I understood what it meant for God to like be in my life and the full understanding of his love for me and his love in my life and I got to experience different forms of worship and I got to experience people praying over others and like how that really works in people's lives and I thought that was so cool because I never had experienced that before and I went through this. It was transforming prayer tract and we went on these journeys and I had a vision and I saw that come to life and one of my leaders were just talking about how much like God loves me and how much he is so involved in my life and loves me like at this moment and this time of your life and we'll never stop.
Speaker 3:And I think that, and the whole experience of the retreat, really I came back like so different, different person and I just wanted to continue to share that love and share that idea that, like God loves you no matter what, and, yeah, that just really stuck with me.
Speaker 3:And so ever since then, I think, coming to church and like wanting to dance on stage, not just oh dance to this song it was more of like, okay, like I want to do this because I know that this is something that I feel called to do, and God is with me in this process and. I want to show that to other people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it became more about not only your personal faith growth but wanting to like, almost like witness through dance to others, versus like I just want to perform and watch me perform. Yeah, that's really beautiful. I can relate to that because I do agree that college for me was very formative in faith, and you mentioned like you got to experience all these different kinds of worship, and for me that was true too. Like being exposed to not just what I grew up with, but coming together with people from all different places and all different faiths, like Christian faiths but different faith backgrounds and different styles of worship within the arts, but then also like in general too, like it does something in you when you see, like how, like as much as possible and possible with God and how that's something that you love to be able to.
Speaker 2:Yeah and when other people then are moved by that too, you think, oh, this like it's like. Oh, my gifts are useful too, yeah, I love that, and so that led you, I'm guessing, to now you work. It's called Glorify Performing Arts in Westchester. How did you wind up there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I actually didn't know that there were Christian dance companies. Yeah, so I started to audition to different places when I was graduating college and it was like after COVID, so you had to send in the videos and pictures and all those things yeah fun stuff.
Speaker 3:But I started to do some research and I wanted to see if there was a company that involved faith and dance together. And there are a decent amount of dance companies like that. Glorify was one of the companies that I felt most attracted to and I felt most comfortable, and my director, melody. She was very inviting and she made me feel like I belonged there and I just felt a warm connection and this was the place that I needed to be, and so I decided. You know what this feels like something that I feel called to do at this time. I didn't want to be in a professional company, but it kind of ended up like this is something that I want to do and experience, and I've been there for almost two years. This is my second year in the company.
Speaker 2:I love that you, so people can't see your face because we're on audio. But if they could, I have seen this face before, not just on Gabby, where someone says this wasn't what I wanted to do right now. And what I mean when I say I said I've seen this face before. It's like the Holy Spirit nudge type face, Because I know I've had and that has it in C. This was not my plan, it's what I felt God calling me to do, and so I followed that. Are you glad that you followed that? So what is it that you love about being in a professional Christian dance company right now?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's really interesting to experience this type of company because I feel like it's different from any other dance company. Because it's not just about performing, and so at my company I'm a dancer. It's a very small company. Six dancers in it currently and we get to experience Bible studies. So we have different Bible studies each day that relate to whatever performance is coming up, and we perform different ballets that our director comes up with based on different scenarios in the world, whether it's like social justice, or the love of God or a ballet about.
Speaker 3:We're currently doing one on Lent. That's what I was going to say yeah during doing an Easter one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're doing an Easter, one.
Speaker 3:And so we also go to different preschools and we perform different parables, so it'll be like parable of the lost sheep.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yeah, because you came to Tomorrow's Hope, right? Yes, because my son came home. My son loves to dance. And he came home and he said mommy, there were dancers at school today and I was like what?
Speaker 1:Did you?
Speaker 2:really Did you see them? Like do? You saw dancers and I saw I found out it was you guys. I was like, how did I miss them? That's so exciting.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, so we traveled to different preschools and they love it. Yeah, it's great for their programming and stuff. So I really enjoyed doing that and it gets to experience, like the kids get to experience the same thing, so they get to experience you know dance and you know watching dancers perform something that's faith-based and like to connect to God, so I think that that's really cool too.
Speaker 2:So I love what you were saying about that you do this because it makes a difference when we can see someone else do something and call it worship, and then that's how they connect to God and we don't realize, oh, I can connect to God through dance, or I can connect to God through music or through art or through writing or through. I'm trying to think of non-arts, but I'm thinking of as arts, but there are non-arts ones too. So what I'm thinking about is how do you think your faith, your choice to kind of worship with your life, how does that play out in the rest of your day to day life? So you also work, you teach at a local dance studio, right, and you have friends you hang out with and you have family. How do you think your faith influences all those other parts of your life too?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I work at three different dance studios which is crazy.
Speaker 3:That's awesome, but, yeah, I love them all and I teach a variety of ages too. Yeah, I definitely think that first, if I didn't have faith, my world would look a lot different. I don't think that I would see the world in the same way. I think, knowing that I have this faith that there's a peace and there's a purpose in life, and that I can continue to share that with other people and express that in the way that I work with the kids, the way that I support my family, love my family and friends, I feel like it looks a lot different. Having that faith and knowing that God loves me and that I have that in my life, that I can share that and my heart feels like it's in a different place, that it feels like I can continue to go through life and support other people and be there for people and teach people in that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome. What do you think that you've learned about God through worship and dance?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I feel like I can pray and worship through dance and kind of connect to God on another level. It almost feels like a sixth sense in a way, even though I dance in a dance company and that's my job and I get to experience God's love and grace through my company. I've also found that when I dance on my own or I dance around the house, sometimes outside in nature, and I feel like when I improv, that feels like a way of prayer or worship in a way too, and Improving like just moving and yeah, whatever I want, yeah but yeah, I feel like I've and that's happened.
Speaker 3:I think I've realized that in the past couple of years actually.
Speaker 2:So that's been kind of recent that I've realized I can dance and worship on my own in, you know, and like pray if there's something on my heart or you know, yeah, so it's not just like worship for you, it's also like prayer fall and away for you and God too, almost like talk Without talking. Yeah, yeah, I love that. I think that's a really beautiful reminder that, just like we're talking about, like worship can look a whole bunch of different ways, that prayer can look a whole bunch of different ways, that Sometimes it's like moving our bodies, for for you it's dancing. If somebody else listening it might be like going on a walk, or you know.
Speaker 3:Playing music, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that, just like that God really longs to connect with us and that that can happen in so many ways Because he's wired us to. Sometimes we don't think about that. He's wired us, each person, and with like. We always talk about our gifts, like I'm gifted, like I'm I can dance or I can sing, or I'm really good at math, or I'm really good at you know science, and those are gifts that we have, but we don't Often stop to think about like we've been wired that way.
Speaker 2:We've got us also wired us to connect with him in different ways, and I find sometimes, when I talk to people about that, there's like they Mean like permission to be, like that's okay to do it, and so if so, for example, in a church setting, in corporate worship, we have like one style of connecting with God, or a couple styles, and that's usually like Prayer and worship music and someone gives a message, and those are a couple of ways that we connect with God and those are wonderful ways, but also they're also an exorbitant number of other ways too, but if you've never Seen them in front of you, you may not know, and then you may not know. Oh, that's actually how I also connect, like right, for some people it might be listening to a podcast.
Speaker 2:Then it does something in them that then that's how they feel connected to God. So, anyway, I just loved what you were sharing, because I think it we don't know sometimes until we see it someone else do it, or we Hear someone else do it. And it's the same for me with when I would use dance as a form of worship. It was because somebody else invited me to do it and said hey, did you know you can use this? Yeah, I was something you know, so I love that. What do you think you would say to someone listening who is like I'm not an artist arts are not my thing. This is really awesome for you, but like it's not my thing. I might you encourage them? Like what? What do you think they could take away from Talking about worship like this?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, definitely like going off of what you said Explore the different ways that you can worship God again.
Speaker 3:There's not just one way when you see like in a church service, definitely to like, explore your you know the things that you love to do, and Exploring that in a way of like, okay, I can, how can I use this for worship? How can I connect to God in something that I love because God gave me this and I can give it back to him and praise him in this way, by using something that I already have and like, yeah, I'm it for that worship, but yeah, just to, I think, giving your gifts and talents to him, even if you don't think that it's a form of worship, I think that God wants you to express and connect to him through that way, but also like that's why he gives us these things. Yeah, that we can connect to him and that we can Praise him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know I love that because God longs to be in a relationship with us and.
Speaker 2:I love what you just said about. You said Recognizing that God gave me this thing and so how can I give it back? And I, it just made me think about even just like my, my daily life, like all the little things that I do, like even just like cleaning, cleaning or Driving to work, or when I stop at wah wah, or you know like yeah, or making food, or you know that Some of that involves just like offering up gratitude and some of it involves giving back or what's that called when you move it forward. You know when someone pays for your coffee and then you pay for the person behind you.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, passing it forward Something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that doesn't make me think of all those little moments in our daily lives that we might not consider might be an opportunity to connect with God.
Speaker 3:And it connects with other people too. Yeah, by using what you love to do and again, passing it on to the next person. That's also showing your relationship with God and how God has influenced your life to other people and that light that's from Him shining through you to other people through the things that you love to do, whether that is dance or poetry, or cooking or cleaning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, sometimes I think we get nervous about sharing ourselves with others. Some people might feel nervous about sharing their faith with others, but sometimes I think it's about not that they see, it's not that they're going to see us, it's that they're going to see God, and so it's like you're kind of like a reflection or a refraction of God which I think is so cool.
Speaker 3:Like it's not about us. Yeah, it's about how you can use that to bless other people.
Speaker 2:I love that. Well, gabby, thank you for being here and talking with us. This has been wonderful. Can you tell us the name again of the company you're in, if we want to look it up?
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, definitely Glorify Performing Arts.
Speaker 2:It's in Westchester, pennsylvania, and do you have any upcoming performances?
Speaker 3:Yes, we do. We actually have one next week March 15th and 16th and it's about Lent and how you can express like dancing Through Lent and that's coming up.
Speaker 2:And do you, do they use social media? Yes, they do. Okay, so we have an.
Speaker 3:Instagram and a Facebook and a website, so we could see you there if we look it up. Yes, definitely, yes, definitely, all right.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Well, thank you, and if you're listening to the state, thank you for listening to the meat hope podcast. If you heard something today that really inspired you or encouraged you, we would encourage you to share it With a friend and pass it on as well. And so until next time, thanks for listening.
Speaker 1:Thanks for being a part of the hope community as we continue our conversations about faith and hope. If you don't already, please join us for worship on Sundays or on demand. You can learn more at meathopeorg or find us on socials at meathopechurch.