Everyone needs a hobby, and for a surprising number of people connected to theological schools, that hobby is creating structures out of little plastic bricks.
Or maybe that’s not a surprise. Toy building sets are big business. In the first half of 2025, LEGO Group reported revenue of more than $5.4 billion. LEGO has released thousands of individual sets tied to popular culture.
The charm of LEGO and other mini-brick brands is that you can follow step-by-step instructions to produce pre-designed cultural icons like the Batmobile (272 pieces) or the Titanic (9,090 pieces). Or you can design and build your own creations, which is what Bob Simon has done. Simon, who received his master’s degree in liturgy from the University of Notre Dame, took about three years to construct his alma mater’s Main Building in LEGO bricks (around 300,000 of them). He balanced the project with his job as a parish pastor of Our Lady Queen of Peace parish in Pennsylvania.
“I compare the process to prayer and meditation,” he said in a story on Notre Dame’s website. “It’s like the Rosary in a way. While your hands are busy, your mind can be elsewhere.”
When a team of over 20 community members at Virginia Theological Seminary finished a model of several VTS buildings in 2022, President Ian Markham described it as “spectacular.”
Others have designed smaller models and made them available as plans or full sets. Tyrel Bramwell, a graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, created a LEGO version of Kramer Chapel, the 1958 landmark by Eero Saarinen. At Asbury Theological Seminary, the campus store sells a building set featuring the school’s Estes Chapel. And Jason Ng, a master’s student at Canadian Chinese School of Theology in Vancouver, created a model of his campus that became a commemorative piece for the school’s 10th anniversary.
“Start by enjoying the creative process,” Ng says. Don’t rush into thinking about outcomes or goals. For over eight years, I simply enjoyed building with LEGO. Only later did I realize I could incorporate elements of my faith, transforming my creations into expressions of reverence to God.”
