Lego Church, Clooney Hall Methodist Church
In Spring 2024, Creative Ministries Grants were launched by the Home Mission Team and the Ministries Team to support lay people to use their creative gifts for worship, mission and outreach. These small grants of no more than £1000 have helped local churches to engage in new and innovative ways with their local communities such as through the development of a podcast and creating a sensory garden in the church grounds. Another new way that one local church is using their creative gifts is through LEGO Church. Read on to hear all about this new monthly Church community based in Clooney Hall Methodist church…
“On the first Sunday of the month in Clooney Hall Methodist, church looks a bit different as we meet as LEGO Church. It’s not something we’ve come up with ourselves, it happens elsewhere, but it’s likely to be an unfamiliar idea to many of us, so let me explain how it works.
People come to LEGO church on a Sunday afternoon, and we gather in the church hall. Each session starts with free time to search through our ‘Brick Pit’ and build whatever you want with LEGO, while having a chat with your fellow builders. Of course, tea and coffee isalways on the go.
Part way through the session we read a story from the Bible, often with images of the story recreated in LEGO bricks. After hearing the story, everyone is invited to create something out of LEGO in response, while also having the opportunity to chat about discussion questions if you want.
What the creative responses look like varies greatly, but whether it is someone’s own depiction of the story, something representing how the story made them feel, or another image that came to mind, each individual has the chance to respond creatively. We then have a time of sharing, with the opportunity for people to share what they’ve built and explain what it’s about.
We’ve been running LEGO Church for about 6 months now, and have 19 different families signed up to take part. It has been great to see faces new and familiar, all coming together as we start to form a distinctive LEGO Church community, and it’s exciting to think about the potential that lies in the future.
Why might you want to give something like LEGO church a try? LEGO Church is designed to be a form of church which is accessible to as wide a range of people as possible. For some, LEGO might be seen as exclusively for children but I know in the congregations here LEGO is enjoyed by people from a whole range of ages; from very small children to church members in their retirement years. More than that, these sorts of building blocks are accessible for people who are neurodiverse, and those with additional needs. It’s church that people can feel fully involved in, even when the format of traditional services poses barriers to participation. It’s church that isn’t just about listening to someone else speak, but is an opportunity to use the creative gifts God has given us as we get involved in and respond to the story. And of course it’s lots of fun.
We’re so grateful for the Creative Ministries Grant, which allowed LEGO Church to get started. Now that things are set up, the running costs for our monthly gatherings are relatively low. However, the initial start up costs would have stopped us from ever getting this new expression of church going. LEGO is certainly not cheap, but the money we received from the Creative Ministries Grant allowed us to stock our ‘Brick Pit’ with the wide range of shapes and colours needed to let people’s imaginations run wild, as well as purchasing the necessary storage and to invest in publicity to spread the word of our new church venture.
Thanks to the Creative Ministries Grant, church community is accessible to even more people, engaging with God’s Word in a fun and creative way.”
- Rev Peter Morris
Do you have a new or innovative idea and desire to communicate the gospel to everyone and introduce them to Jesus?
Are you passionate about a creative gift you have eg music, art, poetry, storytelling, digital art etc., and want to use it to build relationship with people in your community and introduce them to Jesus?
Do you want to explore your creative self, as created by a creative God and find out how you can use your gifts for worship, mission and outreach?
Applications will open again for Creative Ministries Grants on the 17th February 2025.
To find out more, including application criteria visit www.irishmethodist.org/creative-ministries-grant.
The closing date for all applications is Tuesday 18th March 2025.
