The Power of Play

I stood in the Narthex at Calvary Lutheran Church. I had not been there for worship that morning, but drove over after having a conversation with a group of emerging adults in St. Paul on the recent report on the rise of nones from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. As I stood there, I looked around to see who was present this morning. 

I quickly spotted a small cafe size table where five-year-old Jacob was sitting. He sat at this table by himself, but there was some empty cups and used napkins making it clear that earlier he was not alone. It was then decided that he would be the victim of my attention for the duration of coffee hour, although I was aware that he would be perfectly content without my engagement.

I found a seat, brushed off some crumbs and took a seat. In front of Jacob was some goldfish crackers, a small pack of Gobstopper candy and half-empty glass of lemonade. I then began my attempts to engage five-year-old Jacob in conversation. I said, ‘Hi’ and he looked at me. I asked ‘How is school ?’, he again looked at me. I asked, ‘Are your brothers here this morning?’ he looked at me again. 

Jacob was no stranger to me nor was I stranger to him. Just last week I sat with him as he worked on his mosaic cross during education hour. I knew I needed to make a leap in our encounter, so I did.

I then asked, ‘Jacob, tell me about his snack.” And off he went. 

It was clear that I had interrupted his play when I sat down with him at that small cafe table. Instantly the story of momma fishes, baby fishes and fish food came alive. Before long the seat cushion became the belly of the big momma fish. And one by one, the sneaky momma fish would eat a piece of food and leave less and less available on the table. 

I was clueless. ‘Jacob’, I said, ‘where has all the fish food gone?’ He giggled and looked at me with suspicion, followed by another spurt of laughter. Before long we dreamed of all the places the fish food had gone. Maybe they had rolled down the small slope in the sanctuary and could now be found under the alter or maybe the fish food was hiding under Pastor Brad’s foot.

Jacob, like so many children I meet, have challenged me to ask the following question -- What is the role of play in the life of a child?

As I paid Children, Youth and Family minister within the church, I have always felt that it is my job to create the program for young people. Our programming must be filled with structure. This can easily be seen in Sunday School classrooms. Even if we leave the space to create or imagine, we very rarely leave room to play. My question is, how do we as the church leave room for play? 

Of, course, I do not have all the answers at this time, yet the role of play continues to be part of my wonderings. Maybe my role is not to create the structure but lead people in the understanding of what it means to engage a child in play. Or maybe my role is to create the space for play. I am not sure, but I have this hunch, a really big hunch, that as the church we must begin to create more space for play. I also have a hunch that this space for play must be created for all ages, not just children.