PRAYGROUND FAQ

St. John’s opened its Prayground in the transept near the end of 2023.  Here are some answers to some frequently asked questions about Praygrounds. 
 
What is a Prayground?

• A Prayground is an area is designed for children to quietly engage in age-appropriate activities while experiencing worship in the nave along with their families. 
• These spaces are usually at the front of the nave in front of the pews or in a transept.
• A Prayground is a place where children can experience worship through age-appropriate worship materials and tools that will help keep them engaged in what is happening — materials such as children’s Bibles and books, coloring/drawing materials, soft toys, and other manipulables.

 
Why Did They Develop?
Praygrounds developed due to a number of shifts and changes in today’s Protestant church culture, such as:

• Parents desiring to have their children in worship with them
• The understanding that the children can only learn to worship by regularly being in worship

 
Why a Prayground?

• Praygrounds welcome families with young children and enact our hospitality for children of God of any age into our worship services. 
• Christian worship is embodied.  We sit, stand, kneel, bow, process, cross ourselves, face different directions, commune, shake hands, anoint with oil, baptize, and other motions and gestures. Praygrounds offer children the to observe and participate in these embodied actions.
• Children learn best by observation. Nurseries often only offer the sounds of the service and children are not able to observe and participate in the community’s worship service.
• Praygrounds are an effort to encourage future participation.  When children who are separated out of the worshipping community get to an age to decide for themselves if they want to be a part of worship, they will likely decide not to be part of worship because it hasn't been part of their life.
• Praygrounds offer an opportunity for spiritual formation to begin at an early age. We want children to witness their parents and other adults worshipping to show that this is what our life looks like together as children of God.

 
What Do They Look Like?

• Click the link to see images of Praygrounds in other churches: https://bit.ly/praygrounds

 
Do We Still Need a Nursery?

• A prayground does not negate the need for a church nursery, leaders say. Rather praygrounds supplement existing spaces. Most churches continue to have nursery ministries.
• Some parents will choose to use the nursery exclusively.  Others will use the nursery when a child needs to be changed or is crying.   

 
How Can You Help Welcome Families?

• Greet and learn the names of the young children who sit near you in worship.
• Offer to read or color with one child during worship, especially if another child in the family is especially fussy or upset.
• Help preschoolers and elementary-aged kids to navigate the liturgy, locate the hymns, etc.  (Children learn to worship by participating!)
• Invite kids to serve alongside you in worship, as greeters, ushers, etc.

 
What Do Church Leaders Think?

• “I like to think of Pray-Grounds as an accommodation, like a wheelchair ramp or a hearing aid, to help children access worship. Pray-Grounds can be a useful tool and I love how they make it clear that children have a place in the sanctuary.”
• “Praygrounds say loudly, ‘Children are welcome here.’”
• “We hope you will try this model of inclusiveness in your service of worship. Let your community know that kids are important!”