A Bristol man has combined his love of LEGO and his faith in a fun and innovative way to get people talking about some of life’s big questions.
Matt Doherty is one of the leaders at The Community Church in Southmead, Bristol, and founder of Bara Studio, a creative agency working with brands on to improve their strategy, design and marketing.
He runs workshops using the LEGO Serious Play method for corporate companies, charities, churches and even festivals.
Matt hit upon using LEGO as a tool in a faith setting having trained as a LEGO Serious Play Facilitator to help support businesses. The method is a fun, inclusive and effective way to stimulate discussion and problem-solving through modelling and storytelling, and has been used by some of the world’s biggest brands including Google and Coca-Cola.
In these workshops participants can create strategies, share ideas or engage with concepts such purpose, faith or prayer.
Matt, 32, said: “LEGO Serious Play is a perfect combination of some of my life’s passions – creativity, communication, strategy and … LEGO!
“As I started facilitating these workshops with churches, charities and faith groups, I discovered it was an effective tool for helping people to talk about the faith. Everyone loves LEGO and it helps people to explore complex issues in a fun and relaxed environment.”
Through his business, Matt uses LEGO Serious Play to assist CEOs and companies to problem solve. The sessions usually run for 2-4 hours for groups of 15-30 people, although he has facilitated groups of as many as 80.
At this year’s Creation Fest, a faith-based festival held in Cornwall, more than 100 people took part and the sessions were sold out due to their popularity.
Matt added: “Talking about faith can be difficult and considering big questions like the meaning of life isn’t easy, but using LEGO to externalise your ideas makes those thoughts more tangible and accessible. And who doesn’t love LEGO?
“When I started out it was never the goal to support churches planning their social impact for the year, or helping large groups of young people figure out their connection to prayer, but it’s seriously good at those things so I intend to press in to it more.”
Matt has run the courses across the country for churches, youth groups and schools, and they are suitable for anyone from ages 8 to 80.
For more information on how this could help your team, or to learn this method for yourself, e-mail matt@barastudio.co.uk
