Spirit Play Cart

I've been thinking lately about capacity as it pertains to RE programs, in the sense of having the resources and ability to function to our fullest. Different factors affect that, right? How many and how skilled the volunteers, the size and other particulars of the space, the quality of the partnership with the minister (if there is a minister) and other church leaders, the attitude and presence of the parents, funding, training, the degree of buy-in and support of the congregation at large, the nature of the community where we're situated, etc.

And I think capacity is often in flux. A longtime board member and once-RE chair described it as the "biorhythm of RE" when I approached her for insight into plummeting numbers.

So, rather than feel bad about our low capacity at present, I'm trying to find ways to work with it. Adaptive change.

In that spirit, I created this set-up on a rolling cart today around the Seven Promises lesson to present on Sunday. It's an attempt to scale down our Sunday offering to something that could be managed by one person (me, with another there for safety policy compliance) in any location that was fit to hold children. It's not technically Spirit Play. With no prepared classroom, and no second trained adult, there is not the opportunity for ritualized arrivals and leave-takings; nor the guarantee of tidy, well-thought-out spaces to occupy; and no way to offer past story and lesson baskets to engage with after their told. But, it is one of many examples where my Spirit Play training and short experience has allowed me to put together something that I hope will be meaningful and enjoyable for the children, and that might be useful as an example of ways to do RE without fixed spaces or even a regular crowd of children to count on coming.