What if the greatest barrier to children experiencing the love of God isn’t their capacity to understand, but our adult tendency to instruct instead of invite? When we create environments where faith can play, we invite children to bring their whole selves. With play, we are not just honoring the way God designed children to learn; we are opening opportunities for wonder, discovery, and authentic relationships with their Creator.
Designing Your “Yes Space” for Faith Exploration
Many early childhood educators will call their classroom the third teacher because it has the potential to guide learning when it is designed intentionally. What we provide in the space can say yes, while those things we would say no to can be put out of sight. When our environment sets kids up for success, our role becomes less about saying no and monitoring behavior and more about joining kids in playful faith exploration.
The ancient Israelites experienced the impact of an intentional design of space for spiritual formation in the tabernacle and temple. God cared about and gave details about everything from the color of the curtains to the height of the walls, because physical space can communicate spiritual truths.
Neuroscience confirms what ancient wisdom knew: children’s brains are literally shaped by their surroundings. When we design spaces that invite exploration rather than demand compliance, we’re not just decorating rooms—we’re creating opportunities for encountering God. The goal isn’t perfection or Pinterest-worthy aesthetics, but rather intentional spaces that reflect both God’s order and His invitation to wonder.
Physical Environment Principles
A few principles to consider when designing the physical space are flexibility, accessibility, beauty, and safety.
We want to consider a space that is flexible for various activities, many types of play, and different learning styles. Flexible seating, light furniture, and open space can be helpful.
For accessibility, open-ended toys are great. They invite creativity and allow children to use them with a wide range of Bible stories and play. These include things such as blocks, animals, magnatiles, scarves, baskets, and art supplies.
While we are not trying to win a design show, aesthetics can help reflect the beauty of God’s creation. They can also inspire the attitude and energy in the room. Would we like calming, energetic, liturgical, or playful? Each of these, and more, can be invited through your design.
Finally, we want a physically safe space. Be sure that heavy furniture is safely secured to the wall. Also, try to remove or hide things out of reach that you do not want kids to touch. Saying no, instead of setting them up for success, does not communicate that this is a “yes space.” Also, younger children do not have the developmental capabilities to practice self-control around exciting-looking decor, tools, or toys.
Spiritual Environment Creation
While an incredibly important aspect of a space where faith can play, the spiritual climate can be easily overlooked. We want to consider the psychological/emotional safety, wonder cultivation, empowering children to lead, and adult modeling.
If the children do not feel safe asking questions, doubting, wondering, making mistakes, or sharing their life and prayers, the best physical space will not make a difference. Children’s thoughts, ideas, and curiosity need to be wholeheartedly and obviously welcome and intentionally invited. If this is a change for you, awesome! It may take time to make this type of shift and for children to truly feel safe. Keep going. It will be worth it.
Next, we want to cultivate wonder. Building in moments of discovery and time for awe can make a huge impact. Awe and wonder are not rushed and cannot be forced. When activities are planned back-to-back with every minute accounted for, it will be harder for children to enter into a deep, creative play that allows for wonder and discovery. A more relaxed schedule can cultivate wonder in ways that a tight schedule can not.
Another aspect of creating an environment where faith can play is allowing children to learn from each other. Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” (Luke 18:17 CSB). Children have so much to teach us and each other. When children see that we believe they have something to teach us and each other, they can believe it too and will rise to the occasion. We can scaffold their learning through play and help gently guide their spiritual conversations with each other.
Lastly, we want to model well. As adults, we can model our doubts, questions, and curiosities to show that it is a safe place for them. We can also model that we all have something to bring and learn together. Children may not have experienced environments where they were seen as co-collaborators. We can model this and help them experience taking ownership of their faith.
Practical Implementation
So what does this look like practically? Stations, centers, or tubs with a variety of activities where the children we serve can choose where to play and explore are a great place to start. This allows us the opportunity to guide what is available and gives children freedom and choice in what to play with.
Providing quiet spaces for reflection and spaces dedicated to movement will also be helpful. These do not have to be large, elaborate spaces, but corners or nooks can be enough. If noise or movement becomes a problem in the classroom, and you have enough volunteers, offering a walk, break, or dance praise party in the hallway may be of benefit. Our kids have a variety of needs and they do not always work well with the other children’s needs. But, being creative and willing to think outside the box to meet kids’ needs will speak volumes to the children and their families. If a solution to one child’s needs is not available, we can talk with the child to let them know we will prayerfully consider how we can say yes to that need in the future, and do it!
Finally, having a place to display pictures of kids, their wonderings, their discoveries, and their questions works well. When we only display finished work, it can unintentionally demonstrate that we only care about products and outcomes. But we care about the process because God cares about it and is present in the process. This might look like photos of kids playing and praying, “I wonder about…” themed art, or even a wall of questions and aha moments. All of this is worth remembering and celebrating.
Safety and Stewardship as Ministry Values
Just because we are inviting children to play, does not mean that we are letting go of boundaries and inviting chaos. When we design our space with safety and stewardship in mind, we think through how to provide space to say yes, by saying no to some design elements.
Integrated Safety Systems
We all want to keep our kids safe. Children’s faith cannot flourish without a feeling of safety. With that in mind, we can ask ourselves:
Physical Safety
- Do I have clear lines of sight around the room, even with centers?
- Have I secured heavy furniture?
- Do I have tools and resources put away that I do not want children to have access to?
- Have I looked at the room from a child’s perspective and imagination?
Emotional Safety
- Do my volunteers understand their role as co-learners with the children?
- Am I a safe place to ask questions and share doubts?
- Do my volunteers have a basic understanding of child development?
- Are we equipped to be a safe place for children who have experienced trauma or have neurodivergent brains?
Spiritual Safety
- Are we clearly celebrating the process of faith exploration and not pressuring performance or works-based faith?
- Are we providing a variety of ways for children to experiment and try on their faith?
- Are we giving kids the opportunity to take ownership of their faith?
- Are we modeling our own doubts, mistakes, and questions in developmentally appropriate way?
Stewardship Strategies
In yes spaces, we want to be careful not to overmonitor the use of materials and mistake the children’s learning for waste, but we also want to practice and model wise stewardship. We can allow the use of extra paper and glue with the children when we have done our due diligence to be wise and creative with our provision of materials. For example, if we notice the children are only drawing on half of a sheet of paper before moving to a new sheet, we can provide them with half sheets of paper instead of full sheets. Or, instead of putting out a full cup of paint, provide it in smaller quantities. This way, when the paint colors get mixed, as is completely appropriate and expected, our time can be spent scaffolding the child and listening to the work of the Spirit through the painting, instead of stressing about the waste and poor stewardship.
Some other stewardship ideas to consider are:
- Be creative with supplies: repurpose and recycle everyday items for spiritual exploration. What are other ministries getting rid of that may have a newfound purpose in our classroom? Examples are old hymnals, choir robes, paper towel rolls, or books.
- Community involvement: invite our congregation to donate magazines, notebooks, blocks, and art supplies. This is a wonderful opportunity to share the rich and meaningful kingdom work we are doing that they might not see.
- Sustainability practices: Invite children to share their ideas for stewardship by spending time exploring our role as caretakers of the earth as a spiritual practice. They will care more when it is important and understandable to them.
- Resource rotation: Rotating materials in and out of the classroom can be helpful. When we notice something is not being cared for or used properly, we can quietly, without shaming, remove the material. Then, when children ask if they can play with it, we can say, “Yes, when it is back in the classroom.” Rotations also add a level of novelty and surprise that is exciting and helpful for children, without taking away their sense of safety. The balance of consistency with a splash of novelty is a strong foundation for an environment where faith can play.
Structure that Serves Wonder
Structure is a useful way to provide that balance of safety and novelty. Here are a few things to consider:
Prevent Chaos While Preserving Wonder
- Have flexible, yet predictable rhythms. Children feel safe when they have an understanding of what to expect, so do volunteers.
- Have clear expectations, yet be patient and gentle. Children feel safe when they have clear boundaries. Communicate developmentally appropriate boundaries with love, grace, and modeling.
- Use natural and logical consequences. Shaming and disconnected consequences do not help children experience the love of God or learn how to follow our expectations.
- Use transitions wisely. Honor God’s design for childhood and children’s attention spans. Make transitions clear, yet be flexible when we need to transition sooner or later than we had planned.
Leadership Strategies
- Watch ratios. Having appropriate adult-to-child ratios will make a big impact on the safety of the space. Be considerate of the needs of the individual children. And, be thoughtful of the team of adults that are serving together.
- Provide training. Equip leaders with more than the curriculum. Be sure they understand child development, the church’s ministry philosophies, play-based learning, and are trauma-informed.
- Be proactive. Anticipating needs allows focus and engagement with children instead of reacting to problems. This will not always be realistic, but can be the norm.
- Create a culture of celebration. Recognize that a small amount of chaos and noise may be learning in action. Children require movement, and their voices need to be heard for them to flourish.
Ready to Play?
Ministry leaders today can be purposeful in our spaces to share the messages that you belong here and God loves and delights in you. When our spaces say yes to play and faith exploration, our children will grow in their knowledge and recognition of the Lord, his Word, his voice, and his work. Watch for more joy, more stories, more questions, and even more doubt. Hearing these things lets us know that we are providing a safe environment for kids to work out what God is doing in their lives.
Creating a yes place for faith to play will not happen overnight. It takes time and energy, but it will be worth it. The children you serve are already theologians; offer them a safe place to wonder, explore, play, and encounter God the way they were designed to. What is one way you can say yes this week to the children that you serve?