Play Is a Doorway for a Stuck Church
by Abigail Browka
As I led workshops at Conference this year, a question I heard more than once was, “How do I get our church to even consider reaching new people or exploring a fresh expression of church?”
““How do I get our stuck church to even imagine doing something new?””
It’s a real question, when so much of our time and resources get poured into just doing the things we’re already doing—how can I help my church imagine more?
A lot of churches are stuck. They have been navigating decline, grief, conflict, cultural change, aging buildings, shrinking volunteer pools, and the quiet ache of wondering whether the forms of church they love will still be here in ten or twenty years.
When a church is tired, imagination can feel like one more demand. So when pastors ask how to help a church become more open to reaching new people, I don’t always start with strategy.
Sometimes I say: Play.
Because play is one of the ways weary people become enlivened again. Play allows a room to breathe.
After a season of vision and transition at a church I served, we decided we needed to play together. Not have another meeting or another strategy but enjoy each other—no strings attached. So we went to karaoke. We didn’t host karaoke. We went out, bought chicken wings, and cheered each other on.
A church may not be ready to launch a new ministry or talk about a blended ecology or Fresh Expressions or community-embedded presence. But a church might be willing to laugh together.
Stuckness is not just a technical problem. It is often a nervous system problem, a trust problem, a grief problem. Communities that have been disappointed, overextended, or afraid do not usually become imaginative because someone explains the need for change more clearly. They become imaginative when they have experiences that remind them they are alive. Play can do that.
Play moves us out of survival mode. It opens creativity, trust, and curiosity. It gives people an experience of movement before they know exactly where they are going.
Play can help a congregation remember that church is not only a place where people preserve what has been. It is also a place where people practice becoming open to what God is doing next.
This summer is a good time to try some Play.
I wrote Season of Play, a four-week worship series for churches, ideally for use in July, August, or September. It is available for free through Breakthrough Worship Resources at https://breakthroughseries.org/series/seasonofplay. The series invites churches to expect “laughter, low stakes, and high grace,” and to trust that God can meet us in delight.
The four weeks are:
Week 1: Play & the Gift of God’s Delight
Week 2: Out of Survival Mode
Week 3: Masterclass for a Stuck Church
Week 4: Joy in the Wild
The toolkit includes preaching resources, liturgy and music suggestions, children’s moments, small group guides, daily scripture readings, and graphics. It also includes several sermon-free Sunday ideas that help congregations practice play together.
My hope is simple: that churches will use this summer not only to fill a worship calendar, but to practice a different posture.
Less fear. Less tightening. Less “we’ve never done it that way.”
More laughter. More trust. More movement.
Because churches that play together can become more imaginative, more adaptive, more relational, and more capable of envisioning and navigating the future ahead of us.
Play can be a beginning.
Rev. Abigail Browka is the Director of Innovation and New Faith Communities in the Upper New York Conference of the United Methodist Church and the Program Director of Preachers: Rest. Work. Play.