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Becky Ramsey | Author & Children’s Minister
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What is Godly Play?
According to the Godly Play Foundation, Godly Play is a creative and imaginative approach to Christian nurture.
Godly Play is about understanding how each of the stories of God’s people connects with the child’s own experience and relationship with God.
Godly Play respects the innate spirituality of children and encourages curiosity and imagination in experiencing the mystery and joy of God.
Read more about Godly Play here.
How do we do Godly Play at First Baptist Greenville?
Christians of many different denominations use Godly Play and probably do it differently, even within the same denomination. In this blog, I describe Godly Play by sharing the way our church does it. That doesn’t mean that it’s the best way or the prescribed way, or the only way, of course, but it’s the way that suits us best.
What are we here for?
We meet here to talk about Godly Play, to share what it’s all about and to discuss how to do it better.
The weekly blog posts are designed to help Sunday school teachers prepare for their Godly Play lessons, and the individual pages (see the tabs at the top of this page) share information about how we do Godly Play at First Baptist Church, Greenville, SC.
We’d love to hear from teachers everywhere, not just the ones at our church! We hope you’ll join our circle and share your ideas!
What Godly Play is Not
Godly Play is quite different from the traditional model in which the teacher tells the children what they need to know. Godly Play is not about things that are that simple. It is not just about learning lessons or keeping children entertained. It is about locating each lesson in the whole system of Christian language and involving the creative process to discover the depths of meaning in them.
The Falling Apart: the Story of Adam and Eve
Welcome to our Godly Play lesson for July 24, The Falling Apart: the Story of Adam and Eve, based on Genesis 2:4-3:24. You can find the story script in the pink book, The Complete Guide to Godly Play, volume 6, 15 Enrichment Presentations for Fall.
I really like the way Jerome Berryman shares this story, helping children see how Adam-Eve fell apart from God and “from the image of God in their deep selves.” Presented this way, we can remember that we came from a oneness with God, which God still wants for us, even though we live in a land of differences and separateness. This Godly Play script also recognizes that part of what we are to become is creators, like our God, taking things (and people) who have fallen apart and helping them come back together with God.
How will the children celebrate this story through art? They could focus on recreating all the elements of the story- Adam-Eve, the trees, the apple, the serpent. Or they could think about how we can imitate the God we follow by mending brokenness and by creating things ourselves. If you’d like more concrete ideas to show the children (to inspire them- not have them recreate exactly what has already been done) check out my pinterest page on this story, here.
Enjoy!