SPLASH Prayground

The first time I explained my idea of a special area dedicated to children in the sanctuary, I got a pretty quick no.  Not being one to give up, I brought the idea up a time or two more.  When I saw a Facebook post from Grace Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, Minnesota doing something similar, I re-posted it and tagged my coworkers.  My re-post got some attention, including attention from our senior pastor.  That same week he was in the area of Grace Lutheran and stopped by.  He came back and gave me the green light to give our own Prayground a go over the summer.  The next day he even brought a table and chair set from his home to loan to the cause.

We have had a lot of positive feedback about our Prayground and love to see it being used by children of all ages.  It currently includes puzzles, children's Bibles and books, crayons and activity sheets, small stuff animals, and a child-size wooden cross. 

The challenge is how to keep the area fresh so children continue engaging while also intentionally choosing materials that lend themselves to be used in meaningful ways.  The last thing I want to do is fill the space with quiet, keep busy materials that have nothing to do with worship.  I want this worship space to be part of the greater worship happening all around it; not separate.  Suggestions, questions, input welcome!

Why WOW?

God has been whispering in my ear for years to do ministry but in the meantime, I kept myself busy as a teacher and mother of 4 boys.  Having taught a little bit of everything, but really having early childhood on my heart, I bring a lot of gifts and ideas from the world of education with me into my ministry when I began to answer God's call to me in the spring of 2013.

Even with my background, I still found myself getting frustrated with my own children in worship.  In September 2014, my children were playing under the chairs at a family retreat during a Holden Evening prayer service.  I bent over to scold them but instead scolded myself.  Under the chairs, with a basket of flicker lights sat my 7 and 5 year old making a cross and having a worship service all their own.  It was then and there that I decided to be more intentional about not just bringing children to worship, but to find ways to help them fully participate in worship in meaningful, age-appropriate ways.

Join me on this journey as we together discover what it means to open our hearts, minds, sanctuaries and worship services to even the youngest of our worshipers.