That Ain’t Love
Love that avoids truth to keep the peace.
What is niceness?
Activity focused on outcomes, control, and efficiency.
What is performance?
Jesus often taught through stories that invited imagination and surprise.
What are parables?
When churches prioritize order over joy, play is often missing here.
What is worship?
Community cookouts, game nights, and block parties can be theological acts because they build this.
Question: What is community?
Love reduced only to feelings instead of action.
What is sentimentality?
Play invites this posture rather than mastery.
What is openness?
Jesus’ table practices show love as this rather than exclusion.
What is radical hospitality?
Love in community requires this discipline, not avoidance.
What is accountability?
Love expressed through shared struggle rather than handouts.
What is mutual aid?
When love excuses harm instead of confronting it.
What is enabling?
Chapter 4 says play resists this dominant cultural value.
What is productivity?
Jesus’ healing ministry reflects love as embodied care, not abstract belief.
What is compassion in action?
A congregation practicing love will move beyond charity to this.
What is solidarity?
Play helps communities imagine alternatives to this lived reality.
What is oppression?
A form of “love” that maintains unequal power relationships
What is paternalism?
Play creates space for imagination, joy, and this spiritual movement.Question: What is the work of the Spirit?
What is the work of the Spirit?
Jesus disrupts religious seriousness by welcoming this group.
Who are children?
Chapter 5 emphasizes that love must be practiced in these everyday spaces.
What are relationships?
Loving practice always asks this ethical question: “Who is being harmed?”
What is discernment?
Chapter 5 warns that love disconnected from justice often reinforces this.
What is oppression?
When worship becomes rigid and scripted, play is replaced by this.
What is control?
Jesus models love that risks rejection by standing with these people.
Who are the marginalized?
When churches refuse risk, both love and play are replaced by this value.
What is comfort?
When play and love work together, they help the church embody this vision of God’s reign.
What is kin-dom living?