br ick by br ick

loads of Lego in the middle of the room, and tables set out around it. Everyone is welcomed and is invited to sit at a table, where there’s a building challenge that is related to the Bible story we’ll be using on that day.

‘So they set about making anything they want. It might be a house, it might be a garden, it might be a bus.

‘We tell the story, we have some prayers, they go back to their tables with things to think about and to finish off what they’re doing. We take pictures of the things people have made. And then we have a closing ceremony.’

Lego church hit the headlines in an unexpected way last year when Stephen conducted what was said to be the first ‘Lego baptism’ in the UK.

‘Michelle, one of the mums who comes along, found that she was pregnant,’ he explains. ‘So when little Oliver was born, she asked if he could be baptised at Lego church. His family came and they had the task of building a surround for the bowl we were going to use as the font. After that, it was a fairly normal baptism ceremony.’

Since Lego church began, Stephen has found the response to be ‘really positive’, and it is now in contact with 60 people, with a regular attendance of about 30 each time.

‘Most of the people who go aren’t regular church people,’ he says. ‘We started small. But it slowly built up, mainly by people just telling and bringing their friends.’

Part of the initiative’s growing success is, he believes, the cross-generational appeal – older family members also go along to supervise their children and have fun too.

‘It’s something that parents and grandparents enjoy,’ says Stephen. ‘Lego was around when I was a kid. We’ve all grown up with it. It’s a kind of universal thing, it has been around for so long and is still engaging people.’

‘The most important thing is trying to build a sense of community, where people get to know each other in that informal way. When you’re making something with your hands – for men especially I think – it becomes easier to talk. Being creative is the way that some people think, through kinaesthetic learning.’

Lego church signposts people to something that endures far beyond their childhood years. Stephen knows the lifelong effect that a relationship with God can have on people, if they listen to the Bible stories behind the Lego building challenge.

‘I’ve been a Christian since I was 13,’ he says. ‘Then, at the age of 19, I had an experience of renewal when I was a member of the Lee Abbey Community in Devon, and it was that which set me on the road to ordination. Although the intensity of the experience died away quite quickly, the sense of God being with me has remained. I’m in my 60s now, and he has been my friend and my Lord all that time.’

Now All Saints Church is equipping the next generation with all they need to build up their own belief in God.