Godly Play Volume 1: How to Lead Godly Play Lessons - Softcover

Berryman, Jerome W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1889108952 ISBN 13: 9781889108957

Verlag: Church Publishing, 2002

Inhaltsangabe

An internationally recognized Christian formation program.

This 4-volume series presents an imaginative approach for telling scripture stories that invites children to wonder about themselves, God and the world in a way that is playful and meaningful to them. Based on the Montessori teaching method, Godly Play outlines specific storytelling techniques and use of story figures that encourage children to respond through a variety of creative activities. This method is greatly respectful of the innate spirituality of children and encourages them to use their curiosity and imagination to experience the mystery and joy of God.

Volume 1 contains all of the material you will need to become familiar with the Godly Play approach, with detailed information on creating a special space for children and techniques for presenting each lesson.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

The late Jerome W. Berryman was the founder of Godly Play and had years of experience working with children ages 2–18. Priest, writer, lecturer, and workshop leader, Berryman was, for years, Senior Fellow of the Center for the Theology of Childhood. He was the author of The Complete Guide to Godly Play, Teaching Godly Play, Children and the Theologians, The Spiritual Guidance of Children, and Stories of God at Home.
 

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the complete guide to Godly Play

volume 1 How To Lead Godly Play Lessons

By Jerome W. Berryman

Church Publishing Incorporated

Copyright © 2006 Jerome W. Berryman
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-889108-95-7

Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1: What Is Godly Play?
Chapter 2: You Are a Storyteller
Chapter 3: Play, Pseudoplay and Grace
Chapter 4: The Nuts and Bolts of Godly Play
Chapter 5: Godly Play Spoken Here
Chapter 6: Entering the Tradition
Chapter 7: Toward a Theology of Childhood
Epilogue: A Last Story
Appendix: More Information on Godly Play
Bibliography

CHAPTER 1

WHAT IS GODLY PLAY?

THE WORLD IS A DANGEROUS PLACE

A family in our church suffered the loss of the mother and one son in a caraccident. The father, one son and one daughter survived. The surviving son wasin my Godly Play class last year. When I told the story of The Great Family, Iasked what the most important part of the story was. The boy, then in secondgrade, said, "The part where you said the desert is a dangerous place is themost important because the world is a dangerous place. Bad things happen likecar accidents and people get so mad about it but it just happens."

Another child in the class looked at me and said, "Yeah, his mother and brotherwere killed in a car accident." Most of the other children seemed to know thisalready and were nodding their heads. I thought it was so important that thechildren could attempt to process this tragedy and wonder about it together.

—Cyndy Bishop, Godly Play Trainer

AN INVITATION TO GODLY PLAY

This really is an invitation to Godly Play. I can't make you play, because playdoesn't work that way. An essential quality of play is its freedom: its lack ofcompulsion. Do you want to play? Do you want to join in Godly Play? If you do,this book can be one way you begin to accept the invitation.

In Chapter 3, I'll explore play in more detail, as well as its counterfeit,pseudoplay, and its divine counterpart, grace. For now, though, I'll begin bydescribing what I mean by the word play. This five-part description, the one Iuse most often, is based on Catherine Garvey's book Play:

1. Play is pleasurable, enjoyable.

2. Play has no extrinsic goals. It is played for itself.

3. Play is spontaneous and voluntary. It is freely chosen by the player.

4. Play involves deep and active engagement on the part of the players.

5. Play has systematic relations to what is not play such as creativity, problemsolving, language learning, the development of social roles and a number ofother cognitive and social phenomena.

So there really has to be an invitation to play, not a directive based on poweror an argument from authority. For you to enter into Godly Play, you must findit enjoyable.

You must want to play it for its own sake. You must choose to play it becauseyou want to play that game. You must be willing to let go of the myriad mundanedetails of daily life and to enter deeply into the timelessness of play.

In Godly Play, the invitation is given not for play in general but for play withthe language of God and God's people: our sacred stories, parables, liturgicalactions and silences. Through this powerful language, through our wondering,through the community of players gathered together, we hear the deepestinvitation of all: an invitation to come play with God.

AN ADULT EXPERIENCE OF GODLY PLAY

To experience Godly Play, you don't need to pretend to be a child. Instead, youcan experience for yourself, as a teacher or parent, how a Godly Play sessionworks. If you know of a church with an established Godly Play program, find outif they offer a parent participation session that you might attend. You can alsosign up for a teacher accreditation event, offered around the country byexperienced Godly Play trainers accredited through the Center for the Theologyof Childhood (see Resources, p. 147). For now, though, I'll invite you to joinin one adult session we can imagine together right now.

AT THE THRESHHOLD

You approach the door of a Godly Play classroom. Seated by the door is a warm,inviting person—the door person for this Godly Play classroom. Something isalready different: you don't walk into this room rummaging through your pocketsfor a pen or chatting with a neighbor. At this doorway, people stop and getthemselves ready to go inside.

The door person smiles at you. "I'm so glad you're here. Are you ready?"

You think for a moment. Are you ready? Yes. This is why you've put this timeaside—to play. To play with the language of the Christian people. "Yes."

He nods at your answer, and then, because no one is pretending that this is aclassroom of children, asks two questions that children don't generally hear atthe door of a Godly Play room: "Would you like to sit on a chair or the floor?"and "Do you have a cell phone?"

BUILDING THE CIRCLE

Cell phones turned off, adults make their way into the room. Some sit on chairs.Others sit, as children in a Godly Play classroom sit, in a circle around thestoryteller. She is talking quietly and easily with the people in the circle. AGodly Play community begins right here, by building a circle where each andevery participant is warmly welcomed.

When everyone is welcomed, the circle is complete. Now the storyteller says, "Weneed to get ready for the story." She shows how to get ready by sitting quietly,legs crossed, hands at the ankles. The conversation becomes a silence filledwith expectation. She smiles and says, "Watch where I go to get this story."

PRESENTING THE LESSON

The storyteller moves to the desert box—a large, shallow, wooden box on wheels,filled with sand. She brings it to the circle. "Keep watching," she says andgoes to a shelf filled with beautiful items: a rack of seven wooden cards, anark with graceful lines, a length of heavy chain. She takes up a basket andbrings it to the circle. She opens the lid of the basket and gets herself readyagain; now all her attention is on the desert box in front of her. Your own eyesfollow her focus and watch the sand.

"The desert is a dangerous place," she says. Her hands slowly move across thesurface, smoothing and shifting the sand. "It is always moving, so it is hard toknow where you are. There is little water, so you get thirsty and you can die ifno water is found. Almost nothing grows there, so there is almost nothing toeat. In the daytime it is hot and the sun scorches your skin. In the night it iscold. When the wind blows, the sand stings when it hits you. People wear manyclothes to protect them from the sun and blowing sand. The desert is a dangerousplace. People do not go into the desert unless they have to."

She pauses. Then she lays out blue yarn and blocks of wood on the sand. Shetells how, after the flood, people went out to the four corners of the earth.They lived along rivers and in villages and in cities. "One city was named Ur."She touches a block. "The people there believed that there were many gods. Therewas a god for every tree, every rock, every flower. There was a god of the sky,the clouds, the water and...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Church Publishing
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2002
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1889108952
• ISBN 13: 9781889108957
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 152
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: eucomply OÜ; hello@eucompliancepartner.com; ; Pärnu mnt 139b-14; Tallinn; 11317; Estland