Introduction
How can we encourage children in prayer?
An interactive Prayer Room is a space designed for people to enjoy being with God in playful ways. Through various types of interactive prayer, we are invited to enjoy being with God and to bring our whole selves into his presence. This toolkit has everything you need to learn more about interactive prayer stations we created, and to create an interactive Prayer Room of your own.
In this toolkit, we’ll also consider three central questions:
- Can prayer be playful?
- What strengths do children have that can help them pray?
- How can playful prayer benefit children and adults?
Check out photos from a recent conference hosted by CFC!
Explore the Questions
Resources to help guide the conversation for you and your church.
These blog posts invite you to explore the central questions we’re raising in this toolkit. What stories come to mind? What ideas do you have? What are your hesitations?
Interactive Prayer with Kids
Ever struggled to explain prayer to kids, or wondered why they seem to “zone out” during prayer time? This blog post gives a brief introduction to interactive prayer and shares three ideas for interactive prayer with kids.
Interactive Prayer Space
Get inspired about what an imaginative prayer space could look like in your context! This blog post briefly describes the interactive prayer space CFC hosted at the 2024 Children’s Spirituality Summit.
Get Equipped
Real-life resources to kickstart your child’s prayer journey.
These resources will help you take the next step towards interactive, playful prayer in your context.
Prayer Station Set Up Guide
This document contains an overview of all the stations in the prayer room and a checklist for setting up each station. Use this to select which prayer stations you’d like to create or be inspired to come up with your own!
Interactive Prayer Room Shopping List
Whether you want to recreate one of these prayer stations or you’re ready to set up your own prayer room, we’ve got you covered with this shopping list, complete with links.
Descriptions & Instructions
Here you’ll find printable descriptions and instruction signs for each station of the Interactive Prayer Room in one downloadable PDF. Print these out and use them alongside your prayer stations.
- Please note there are not printed instructions for the Prayer Hopscotch station.
Learn More
What else could a playful attitude reinvigorate in your ministry?
Read about the grant that started it all, and get inspired by the other great ideas!
Exploring Sacred Play
This article by Dr. Mimi Larson explains what Sacred Play is all about. This Interactive Prayer Room is a variation on one of the projects from the Sacred Play Cohort led by Dr. Mimi Larson with a grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.