Play turns stuck-ness into movement and imagination. Play is the lab where the Spirit teaches us new moves. Playing together as a Church trains us to live with wonder and curiosity in the face of mystery. In uncertain times, we don’t tighten control, but we stay open instead. Play strengthens our shared capacity to follow God’s surprising movements together. When the community plays, we remember that faith is not certainty but it’s the joyful courage to move together into what God is doing next.
September 27, 2026
Season of Play
“Masterclass for A Stuck Church”
Exodus 16:1-5
Matthew 14:13-21
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Exodus 16:1-5
The whole congregation of the Israelites set out from Elim and came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.”
Matthew 14:13-21
Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled, and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
Masterclass for A Stuck Church Exodus 16:1-5; Matthew 14:13-21
“Send them away. The hour is late. We have nothing to give”. These are the words the disciples said to Jesus in response to his compassion when Jesus saw the great crowd. These are the words the disciples said to Jesus when he told them to give them something to eat. These are the words the disciples said to Jesus when he asked them to be open to God’s Beloved Community in their midst. Thankfully, Jesus ignored the disciples’ words. Instead, he told the disciples to bring him what they did have…five loaves and two fish. And what follows becomes the miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand, not including women and children.
I often think about the disciples’ words which were given in response to Jesus’ request. I wonder about the many, many times in ministry when asked about a new mission or new idea, my immediate response has been, “Oh, we can’t do that” or “We’ve never done it that way” or even, “We don’t have the resources to take that on right now.” I often think about the disciples’ words which were given in response to Jesus’ request. I wonder about how often in churches, we are quick to say no simply because we are tired, because the need is too great, or we assume that what we can offer is not good enough to be shared with anyone. I often think of the disciples’ words which were given in response to Jesus’ request. I wonder about how sometimes we as people of faith get so stuck in our routines of how church is done, what events need to be on our calendars that we cannot see any other way of doing church, of being church.
This past week was an example of such an instance, not only for us as Midway Christian Church but for the city of Midway as well. As many of you know, last weekend was the Fall Festival and things looked a little different around here. We didn’t have church as “usual”. Instead, we had church on the street. We threw open the doors of our sanctuary while Alex played on the organ. We had visitors wander in and take in the beauty of this place. We stood on the street corner offering communion to the people who passed by. We opened our fellowship hall to vendors and Fall Festival goers, offering hospitality, air conditioning and space to sit and rest. You may know all this because many of you stopped by. But what you may not know is the time, effort and the many, many, many conversations and meetings it took us to get to that point.
It started innocently enough. We as a community of faith agreed and decided to explore how our buildings could work for us rather than just be a drain on our resources. Sure, we love this old building with all its character, history, beauty and charm but it takes a lot to operate, maintain and repair this old building. As a community of faith, we decided to see how we could turn our building’s “I’ve got nothing to give” into a “How can I help?” So, the idea came about for a vendor fair. Mary Sayre and I reached out to Cortney with the Midway Merchants Association to pick her brain for a bit. After all, she coordinates the Fall Festival each year, a festival which brings about 20,000 people to our little town. We asked what to expect. We talked about the best way to get vendors to come. We showed her the space, and she quickly came up with a rough plan. We took this rough plan and let it sit for a bit, imagining what could be bubbling up in our midst.
Little did we know that that one meeting would soon turn into another meeting which turned into another meeting and suddenly, this idea for a small vendor fair in our fellowship hall turned into booths along the street during Fall Festival. And that’s where it got interesting because now, we were not only involving Midway Christian Church, but we were also involving the City of Midway. Which meant more conversations, which meant more meetings, which meant more planning. And yes, there were moments we didn’t think it was going to work out simply because we, meaning the church and the city, had never done it that way. But here is where I want to say a huge thank you to Cortney. She not only spent hours and hours imagining and planning the possibilities, but she also reminded me why we wanted to do this thing in the first place. Whenever we would hit a roadblock or received a “well, we’ve never done it that way” response, she would always say, “remind them that we are doing it for Jesus”
Because ultimately that was what happened. Now don’t get me wrong. The money we received from renting out the space is nice but more so than that are the stories and interactions which happened simply because we opened our doors and did it for Jesus. We met a vendor who had been a member of a disciple church in Ohio for twenty years and had moved to KY. They missed the disciple connection, so we invited them to church. Who knows what will happen, but the invitation was shared. We met a young man on Sunday morning while we handed out communion on the street. He shared that he gets one Sunday a month off as a tour guide at a local distillery. And because of that, it had been a while since he had been to church, and he was so grateful to receive communion. Or one of my favorite moments was when Adele offered communion to a woman passing by. At first the woman quickly said no and moved on but then…a few minutes later, she came back and said she would love communion. She didn’t give a reason why she turned around but, in that moment, I could almost hear Cortney’s voice saying, “See you did it for Jesus”
Or let me say it this way… This morning, those who were in-house for worship this morning received a small container of play dough. Now here’s where I want us to be honest with each other…How many of you’s first reaction was… “we can’t open this in here because it’s going to be too messy. It’s going to get all over everything. The best thing to do is just keep it in the container with the lid on” But you see, here’s the thing about playdough. It is no fun as long as it is kept in the container with the lid on. Playdough is meant to be taken out of the container, taken out of the box and used to create, used to imagine, used to bring forth something new. Doesn’t mean you don’t take precautions so it doesn’t get stuck somewhere and ruin things. Doesn’t mean there isn’t an understanding of timing and space. Doesn’t mean that when you are finished playing with it, you won’t put it back in the container with the lid, so it doesn’t dry out. It simply sometimes to create, to craft something new, we have to take risks. We have to take things out of the container, to remove the lid and take a chance. Because who knows? A miracle may just happen, and we end up satisfying someone’s hunger for the Beloved Community of God in our midst. May it be so. Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for Sunday, September 27, 2026 – Masterclass for A Stuck Church Exodus 16:1-5; Matthew 14:13-21.
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