THE LANGUAGE OF FLAGS
Flags say things when they are waved. They say:
“Welcome” to a visitor,
“We’re for you” to a football team,
“We love you” to a celebrity,
“This is our identity” to a watching crowd.
“Praise and honour” to our God
“Watch out - here are the soldiers of God” to the powers of darkness.
During worship, they can say a lot of similar things but mostly, they say what you want to express to, and before, your God. There are no specific rules about the use of flags. It is well to work out for yourself a kind of language but the real key is to always keep the flag moving.
The movement of the flag should follow the rhythm of the music, echo the sentiments of the song, but most importantly, always follow the leading of the Spirit.
Sometimes the words of the song do not speak to me immediately and I might start a song with two colours then find I need to change them or even put one flag down. Not all songs require two flags, some are better expressed with one - or even three !
Note the mood and tempo of the music:
An up tempo beat calls for similarly vigorous movement.
A slow, contemplative song needs smooth, gentle movements that echo the mood.
On occasion, with a slow song, I waft the flag horizontally, so slowly it barely keeps afloat, thus representing the presence of the Holy Spirit in the meeting place. In the early days I found this quite a challenge but then I found the Spirit was keeping me steady and now I can ‘pirouette’ for minutes at a time without getting dizzy !!
I generally select a colour or colours that are appropriate to the words or sentiment of the song.
Thus if singing about .....
God’s majesty, purple;
the blood of the Lamb, red;
the Holy Spirit, white.
(see the chart on the page “language of colours”)
