Life@CF

The Lord of the dance

Sarah Bryner has been studying ballet since she was 3 years old. Now, she dances for God – her “audience of one.”

Oh, she’s still training with Ballet Florida, dancing 8 or 9 hours a day and hoping one day to join the company as a full-fledged, professional ballerina. But since giving her heart to the Lord in December, 19-year-old Sarah has emerged as a new creation in Him.

“I was ready to begin my ballet career and be a famous ballerina,” Sarah says. “I was like, wow, I’m 19, I’m on my own and I can make my own choices.” She got a part-time job and buried herself in dance and work. Still, something felt terribly, terribly wrong.

“I was at a point where dance was just consuming me,” she remembers. “I know God was trying to get me back, but I was just scared. I’d been away so long; I thought God wouldn’t want to hear from me.”

A very special Night of Worship

But one friend knew otherwise. Amanda Hartmetz, a fellow ballerina and member of Christ Fellowship, began to mentor Sarah in God’s Word and invited her to a Night of Worship at the CityPlace Campus.

“I remember how beautiful it was, seeing all these people singing and dancing for God,” Sarah says. “I’d never been to a church that was so much about your personal relationship with God. I couldn’t leave. I didn’t want to leave.”

And so she began to worship at The Ascent, which is geared toward college students and young adults, and soon after gave her heart to the Lord. She was baptized on Super Bowl Sunday.

Dancing, redefined

“My desires now are just not what I used to seek,” she says. “Before, I was seeking fame. Now I just want to further God’s Kingdom, love people, share my gift and use it as a tool for God. It’s been a huge turnaround and a huge purifying process.”

She hopes one day to create a dance program for the disabled, and keeps a daily journal of what God is doing in her life to make this dream become a reality.

Sarah also volunteers in Children’s Ministry at the CityPlace Campus, and with the little ballerinas at Ballet Florida. “My dancing has changed,” she explains, beaming. “It’s not so much a selfish art form, as I once thought it was. Dance has now become a way for me to praise God.”

You can worship at The Ascent every Sunday at 11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. at the Harriet Himmel Theater in CityPlace, in downtown West Palm Beach. Learn more about The Ascent and our CityPlace Campus.