Dancing in the Aisle
Dancing in the Aisle: Spiritual Lessons We’ve Learned From Children (25th Anniversary Edition)
By Rochelle Melander and Harold Eppley
Dancing in the Aisle: Spiritual Lessons We’ve Learned from Children (25th Anniversary Edition) invites readers on a transformational journey, showcasing the profound spiritual lessons offered by children. This captivating collection includes true stories that resonate with readers of all ages, enriching their experience of the spiritual life.
In the book, Melander and Eppley reflect, “One of our children’s best gifts to us has been their unique, unyielding vision of life. Many days it has pulled us out of our anxious, grown-up lives and asked us to pay attention to God’s gifts.” The authors experienced this in concrete ways, “For our children, a dying dandelion was a wish waiting to be blown into the wind. For us, it was the ruin of our yard.
In this special anniversary edition, readers will discover a unique perspective that shows how children encounter the world and teach us about spirituality. Each chapter is thoughtfully crafted, featuring a scripture passage related to the theme, a meditation to deepen understanding, questions to stimulate reflection and discussion, and a challenge to encourage personal exploration of spiritual insights.
“When children play, they show us how to encounter the world and connect to God,” says Rochelle Melander. “Children teach us what it means to be love God and others.”
Dancing in the Aisle will be a source of inspiration and a tool for growth. Whether used in personal reflection, study groups, or family discussions, this book offers practical ways to consider one’s own spiritual journey. The blend of storytelling, scriptural passages, and reflective practices makes it a perfect companion for anyone seeking to enrich their faith and understanding.
Join us in celebrating the wisdom of children and the spiritual lessons they have to offer. The 25th Anniversary Edition of Dancing in the Aisle is available now everywhere books are sold.
For media inquiries, interviews, or review copies, please contact Rochelle Melander, rochelle@writenowcoach.com
About the Authors
Rochelle Melander is an ADHD-trained professional certified coach, an artist educator, and the author of many books, including the award-winning, Mightier Than the Sword: Rebels, Reformers, and Revolutionaries who Changed the World through Writing. She’s the founder of Dream Keepers, a writing workshop for young people. Visit her online at writenowcoach.com and rochellemelander.com.
Harold Eppley is the author of many books, including the forthcoming children’s middle grade novel Deadpan. He has worked as an ESL (English as a Second Language) educator for immigrant children and is currently an interfaith chaplain at Eastcastle Place, a senior residential community in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Reviews
Revisiting their acclaimed 2000 ground-breaking work, Melander and Eppley demonstrate again their prowess in breaking the molds of conventional book genres. This 25th Anniversary Edition of Dancing in the Aisle pushes past simplistic notions of “parental self-help” literature to find something uniquely spiritual: The usefulness of considering children as profound teachers about life.
Each of the 32 meditations features a real-life story centered on the wisdom embodied in the experiences of children. The authors are not content to deal with life’s easier lessons, instead digging deeper into the realities that all of us–as former children—face during these turbulent times. Woven around Scriptural stories and concepts, the entries serve as life hacks for our roles as parents, family members, colleagues and leaders.
Melander and Eppley come to this re-release with continuing credentials as life coaches, authors, educators and writing/ESL mentors. They graft the wisdom of an additional 25 years of life onto their original pastoral and parental intuitions. The writing remains as fresh as the rest of their books, adding the soaring emphases of practical theology, poetic flairs and emotional honesty.
Their in-depth exploration of critical spiritual matters leaves readers with the feeling that Rochelle and Harold are kindred spirits—that they have known us well over all these years. None of the life-lessons they unfold is easy to learn, but the presence of children’s perhaps-inadvertent witness invites readers to examine their own childhoods (and their own children) as continuing sources for living good and godly lives. With their approachable style of thinking and writing, the authors prove the premise of the book’s title: We can all gain spiritual maturity by paying attention to what children know, as well as what they seek to know.
Each entry is accompanied by Questions for Reflection or Discussion and Challenges that invite readers—individually or in groups—to translate useful ideas into daily life. The volume serves well as meditative encouragement for parents and grandparents, as well as a tool for leaders of small groups and adult learning opportunities. Pastors and other congregational leaders will find this inspirational book to be a widely applicable source for strengthening congregational life.
I highly recommend this seasoned work by two veteran writers. Read over time, it will strengthen your skills and your resolve to continue growing wise alongside the children who can help you learn again what is true and useful.
—Bob Sitze, Author, parent, retired denominational staff, blogger
The 25th Anniversary edition of Dancing in the Ailse: Spiritual Lessons We’ve Learned from Children by Rochelle Melander and Harold Eppley reads as though written yesterday. They mix snippets of stories about children they’ve known with scriptures they’ve studied to present helpful insights into the dilemmas adults face every day. With wit and charm they consider what might stop us from doing things we enjoy or what to do with questions that go unanswered or how to be grateful when we truly are not. Children haven’t yet learned to squash their playful impulses, mask their feelings, or stifle their curiosity. Scripture has told us that a child shall lead us. With all the mess adults have made of things, we would do well to let them do just that. Readers in search of a bit of hope, joy, and encouragement will find amply supplies of these in this book.
—Kathryn M. Haueisen, Freelance Author, Pastor, Speaker
Author of Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures
and Mary Brewster’s Love Life
Website: HowWiseThen
REVIEW: DANCING IN THE AISLE by Rochelle Melander and Harold Eppley
By Elise Seyfried
I first encountered this book 20 years ago, shortly after I began working at a church as faith formation director. At the time, the youngest of my own five children was only 10. I was in the thick of it, surrounded by young people at home and at work. My office bookshelf contained many weighty tomes by theologians, but I was looking for bite-sized insights into faith that I could both share, and savor for myself. To my delight, I discovered Dancing in the Aisle.
Rochelle Melander and Harold Eppley have just released a 25th anniversary edition of this gem, and I enjoyed it even more, two decades after my first reading. Now, I have three grandsons. Where I once saw my offspring in these stories, these days it’s Aiden, Peter and Dimitri I see.
The title gives away the game: contrary to what we may have been taught (or our embarrassment when our own little ones do it during worship) it’s OK to dance in the aisle at church. More than OK, in fact. Children, with their open-hearted spontaneity, have such a lot to teach us grownups about God’s love.
Too many devotional books portray kids as tiny saints, their every adorably profound utterance suitable for a religious greeting card. Melander and Eppley give us children as they really are—complicated humans, just like their grownups. They fight with their siblings, struggle with bedtimes and night terrors, have doozies of temper tantrums. And it’s these stories of perfectly imperfect kids that animate the book, and are so relatable to those of us who live with, and love, children.
Need a reminder that we (you and I) are God’s beloved children still? Each chapter ends with terrific discussion questions and challenges for further reflection, drawing parallels between our faith journeys, and those of little ones.
There’s room on your bookshelf for this slim volume, and it deserves a place there. Enjoy—and don’t be surprised if you find yourself some Sunday, joyfully dancing in the aisle in church.
—Elise Seyfried
