Page 5 - Demo

The centrality, capability, and capacity of children
What distinguishes Godly Play from so many other faith formation or
spiritual nurture
methods, programmes,
to discover who we are. All too often what passes for faith formation in the church is about telling children of all ages precisely what it looks like to be a person of God, including
what to believe and how to behave. In Godly Play we tell stories. We tell them without interpretation and without application. We tell the stories of people of God from the past in order that those in the present can nd their identity as a person of God.
The practice of telling stories as a way of making meaning subverts the more traditional dialectical approach of bequeathing information
or persuading. When I think of this approach, I imagine participants sitting in rows of chairs with the ‘teacher’ standing at the front indicating the relevant points projected on the screen behind. While this method may have its relevant applications, identity forming is not one of them. The more appropriate image to me is of a circle of participants listening to and seeing a story that draws them in and asks the question: ‘I wonder where you are in this story, or what in this story is about you?’ And so again this strikes me as being one of those aspects of Godly Play that is applied universally in every context; we tell stories as a way of helping hearers
nd their identity.
Meaning is found through wondering
In Godly Play we hear the stories, and then we wonder. The wondering is a way of engaging the imagination, and engaging the imagination is our method for making meaning out of the story. What makes this work, of course, is that our wondering questions are genuine questions; we really do wonder what part of this story the hearer likes the best. When the wondering question is not genuine, we
fall into a dialectical approach which suggests that there may be a ‘right’ answer to the question. Godly Play does not do right answers. We do not employ an ‘I know something that
and curriculums is how we view children. In Godly Play we embrace the centrality of children in our midst, taking seriously Jesus’ perspective when “he called a child, whom he put among them, and said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven’” (Matt 18:1-5).
Godly Play in Turkey.
Furthermore, and unlike many other approaches to ministry with children, we also believe in the capability and capacity of children to engage in the deep work that is required of them in Godly Play. I do not need to expand on this because Godly Play practitioners are well versed in these principles. But my point is that there is something that is inviolate about how we view children. We must all be vigorous in not allowing other views to prevail, even if they may be accepted in a particular context.
Having said that, I can understand that other contexts—both ecclesiastical and ethnic—struggle with these concepts. I am prepared to, and do,
empathise with the challenge
inherent in Godly Play to long held beliefs around children and around the faith formation of children. Indeed I believe that when introducing Godly Play into new contexts, we need to be compassionate, caring, and considerate about the challenges our view of children brings. But I also believe that this is one area where our default position is to be uncompromising in our stance.
Identity is found in story
Godly Play in Costa Rica.
In Godly Play it is a truism that identity is not formed by being told who we are but by hearing stories that help us
A GODLY PLAY QUARTERLY PUBLICATION 5