Heavenly playground

Calvary Pentecostal breaks down barriers of church experience

By Lisa Rutledge, Cambridge Times Staff

News
Sep 29, 2009

For kids who loathe the thought of going to church, Calvary Pentecostal Assembly might just be a little piece of heaven on Earth.
That’s the divine goal behind a $5-million renovation project officially unveiled during the Hespeler Road church’s grand opening Saturday. Five years in the making, the project aims to make church a more engaging place for children and young adults and ultimately make finding God, well, fun.

“So many people think church is a boring place,” said youth pastor Carolyn Burge. “We wanted to really go all out and make it a fun place to go to.”

And fun isn’t hard to find when touring the church’s Promiseland, where the assembly holds its Sunday school programs. The title purposely avoids using the word school in yet another effort to make learning the Bible’s lessons seem less like a chore.

“Who wants to go to school on a Sunday?” laughs Burge.

One of the driving players behind the project, Burge knew she needed something special for the renovation to attract and keep children’s attention. She was determined to enlist the creative talents of Floridian Bruce Barry, founder of Wacky World Studios, whose artistic works can be found in places like Rainforest Café restaurants, as well as hundreds of churches across the United States. The self-taught artist and son of a Disney cartoonist hadn’t done much in Canada, except for one installation in an Oshawabased church. However, it doesn’t compare to Calvary’s.

After meeting up with Barry when he spoke at a conference in Canada, Burge’s passion for the project persuaded the highly sought after artist to take on Calvary and even waive his consulting fee.

“I was just very persistent,” she admitted with a smile.

Since then, the project called for intensive planning, designing, fundraising and endless hours of volunteer labour.

As part of the bigger and better Calvary, 15,000 square feet bigger to be exact, there are three storeys of themed learning-through-play areas in Promiseland, each floor dedicated to an age group. The first floor, for infants and preschoolers, features an underwater quest theme, including brightly-painted murals depicting cartoon sea creatures.

The second floor, Toon Town, designed for kids aged kindergarten to Grade 2, brings cartoon drawings to life. There are three-dimensional cartoon cars, embedded WII video game stations, a mini-stage for talks and performances, and even a two-storey play structure and slide where kids run and roam. The play structure already existed at the church but was reconfigured to blend with the new project.

The third storey, The Slime Factory, appeals to the curiosity and gross factor ever-present in Grade 3 to 5 children. Decorated with faux laboratory cabinets, the “slime floor” even has mini-climbing walls designed to look like lab equipment.

Another wing of Promiseland is set aside for young adults, including a supervised video game arcade and club-style venue, where aspiring musicians can perform.

Some may not subscribe to Calvary’s decision to incorporate video games and a play structure into a Sunday school setting. Burge sees things differently.

“People have a preconception of what church is like,” she said. “We’re trying to break down those preconceptions.”

For the youth pastor, the new facility is a heavenly playground where lessons of the Bible can be taught in a way that makes sense for kids. That way they’ll be more likely to implement those lessons in their own lives.

The key is to make kids want to come, maintains Burge, and stay connected to church.

Have your say! Submit your story!