I have a new project to explore what it might look like to form new faith communities around a common interest in LEGO (TM). This has come about for a few reasons, including my own need/call to be involved in something in a missional vein. Lego has become big as a play and learning tool across all age groups. It allows for ability-inclusive, intergenerational and intercultural engagement. It is tactile and multi-purpose. Lego allows for creativity of expressions and can be used for both realist and symbolic purposes.
Of course, Lego itself is a medium, not a purpose. My interests are in faith formation, community-building, creativity and self-expression, and missional engagement. For five years in Adelaide we ran a monthly gathering called Alive@5 which was sort of like Messy Church but also not in several important ways. These related to how we engage with Scripture, how we worship, how we interpret Scripture, and how we form community.
Personally I’m not a Lego buff, although we played with it a lot with our kids and I enjoyed it! I’m very interested in Lego Serious Play (TM) as an approach to working with adults. My main interest is in the deeper questions around community and faith life.
The first step was to create a Facebook group Brick Church Australia as a way for people to share ideas, questions, experiences and learnings. So far we have 80 members, including a bunch from the UK.
Step two is identiyfing resources to share.
Step three is to document the journey if we manage to start someting.
Step four will be the Brick Church Australia website – yes I have a domain.
Stay tuned. This will be fun.
Hi Craig, as the Facebook expression of this is a private group, can you give a ‘public version’ update on how this idea is going? Is there anything needed to support or encourage it?
David, thanks for a great question. My dive into this has largely been put on hold by my change of circumstances. My plan has been to set up a website but at the moment I’m not even engaged in an active experiment. There seem to be quite a few versions of Lego / Brick church in the UK, and some in the US. What is needed are some local “champions” to encourage the idea. Should the Facebook group be public? Maybe. I guess that I started with the view that people don’t want to experiment in the spotlight, so to speak. I’m happy to chat further. And hoping I’ll get the chance to play with it here soon.