The world is hard right now. Our people are carrying a lot. So this summer at Morristown United Methodist Church (MUMC), we decided to do something deeply theological: we played.
Last summer, we enjoyed using resources from Breakthrough’s collaboration with the Upper New York Annual Conference, a worship series called Season of Rest. This summer, we were excited to return for a Season of Play. Rest and play! Two things adults sometimes need to be reminded are not only good for us, but can also be holy practices.
Like congregations across Greater New Jersey and beyond, we were given a wonderful framework to work with, and we had a lot of fun adding our own MUMC flair. Over four weeks, we explored joy, delight, curiosity, wonder, and play as part of our life with God.
And we really did play!
Our Sunday School kids blew bubbles during our Bubble Benediction. I preached on roller skates, complete with protective gear, using skating forward, backward, and alongside others as metaphors for holy curiosity and the different ways we learn to see and practice our faith. We went axe throwing with our friends from the Presbyterian Church in Morristown, who worshiped with us on the Sunday we kicked off the series. And for our final Sunday, I preached with a punch balloon in my hand as we talked about the early church in Acts and its “glad and generous hearts.”
The punch balloons became one of my favorite surprises of the series. We handed them out after worship, and I expected adults might take one for a child or grandchild. Instead, they were genuinely delighted to get one for themselves! There was something wonderful about watching adults give themselves permission to play.
That may be one of the gifts of this series. It gave us permission.
Permission to laugh in worship. Permission to be curious. Permission to try something new. Permission to experience delight without feeling as though we first needed to accomplish something to deserve it.
And our people responded. I heard wonderful feedback from folks who told me how much they were enjoying the series. The playful activities also gave us opportunities to spend time together outside of Sunday morning and to deepen relationships with one another and with our Presbyterian neighbors.
What I appreciate about resources like Breakthrough is that they give congregations a strong starting place while leaving room for us to make the experience our own. At MUMC, that meant bubbles, roller skates, axe throwing, punch balloons, and a whole lot of laughter.
In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we decided not to stop after four weeks!
We yoked Season of Play to another four weeks of summer fun with “Morristown Goes to the Movies.” We are gathering after worship to watch movies together and then bringing their themes into conversation with Scripture the following Sunday. We kicked it off with a trip to the movie theater to see Moana, followed by Encanto, Luca, A Bug’s Life, and Zootopia. We will bring the summer to a close with something else new for us: a Blessing of the Animals.
Through all of it, we have been reminded that delight is holy.
Play has helped us laugh together, try new things, build relationships, practice curiosity, and rediscover joy in community. None of that makes the difficult realities of our world disappear. But joy was never meant to make us forget the hard things.
Holy joy can give us strength to face them.
Rest and play are not ways of escaping the work God calls us to do. They can be part of how God restores us for that work.
In a world carrying so much anxiety, division, grief, and uncertainty, sometimes we need a break. We need to remember that there is still beauty. There is still wonder. There is still community. There is still laughter.
There are still glad and generous hearts.
And sometimes, there are punch balloons.