Emerging Church, Alt Worship & Godly Play

[Ian Mobsby]

Not sure what is going on out there in the whole area of emerging church and youth - but in Moot we are attempting to use Godly Play - as open ended and narrative approach to hearing and engaging with biblical stories. It has been quite profound - for both adults and kids. Unfortunately the unchurched families that were engaged with this, have moved on. Some have re-engaged with their local churches - so that is a good thing. We have taken a pause on this now, as we have parents with young kids under 4, so we are doing something called a Scream Service - where kids are able to run around safely, and parents are able to partake in a simple liturgy. Anyone else doing anything like this - using Godly Play?

[Kit Wang]

I am rolling on the floor laughing at the "Scream Service." We have one of those at my home parish--and if we called it that, well, people might get the picture more easily! (and when it's summer and there's a story teller available, we use Godly Play stories as the homily)

I've been using Godly Play in every and any setting in which I thought it might be vaguely appropriate since I did accreditation training about 5 years ago (need to do a re-accred soon....)

We now use Godly Play in the 3-5 year old and 6-9 year old formation classes at my home parish, and may implement for the next group up/last group before Rite 13 when space and leadership present. We introduced the program as a part of Baptism and confirmation preparation, as the programming for an intergenerational Lenten series--Story, followed by simple potluck or soup/bread meal. The stories we used (Abram and Sarai, Ten Best Ways, Baptism and Parable of the Good Shepherd) were chosen as representative of covenant and baptism. It was also a great way to showcase the different types of stories.

I've also used Faces of Christ as a Christ the King "sermon," and took the cards and transferred them to muslin and made hangings for around the church so everyone could see one closer than just at the front of the church. Also used Holy Family as a "kids' sermon"--and an essential part of my homily for everyone that followed Christmas Eve this year, but realized after the fact that it could have been the whole thing--I think it was more appreciated than the homily I wrote.

I have found that Godly Play has invaded just about every aspect of my life--not a bod thing--to the extent that it showed up in my ordination exams and one of my ordination process essays.

I think one of the concerns with telling the Godly Play stories is making sure the environment is intimate enough to convey the multi-layeredness of each story. Also, whenever possible when I tell a story, I make sure that there is a focal shelf type back drop--unless I'm actually in the sanctuary and the Gospel Book, candles, veiled chalice & paten are on the table behind me, etc.

[Kay Flores]

I just registered for Province VI's Faith Formation Summit - it will be at Estes Park in Colorado this May. One of the long workshops is "Godly Play Outside the Box" - and it counts as re-accreditation training.

There are lots of other events including an Emergent Church worship experience, faith formation in a small church, and more and more.

[Paige Blair]

I am laughing out loud with Kit, as the rector of her home parish, and recognize the Scream Service as what we (not nearly as descriptively) call The Family Service... But Scream Service is so much more apt...

[Jonathan Wickham]

Godly Play is a great approach to Christian formation. As the parent of children formed in the story method of Godly Play, and, more significantly, as the spouse of a Godly Play Teacher and Trainer I have been deeply shaped by its depth. There are many cases where GP has been used with youth and even with adults with good success. I would recommend connecting with the GP network through www.godlyplay.org.

The most profound insight for me using the GP methods is that the learners are invited to get inside the story instead of remaining observers to it. Kids and adults are encouraged to learn and refelct from within the world of the story. This is key in the formation of reflective followers of Jesus. We get inside the story, we reflect on the implications of the life and words we see there, we three dimensionalize what is many times a two dimensional faith.

[Steve Godfrey]

I'm glad to see Godly Play mentioned in the context of Emerging Church. We're thinking about this kind of approach here in trying to develop a new worshipping venue along Episcopal (Anglican) lines in a Congregational/Methodist church basement of a town without an Anglican presence (and where most religious energy is conservative evangelical). I'll try to remember to post how it goes. I also like the idea of a Scream Service. That's what tonight was, which I think is awesome, but the parents can't get used to. (BTW, I'm Paige's associate rector and the energy behind our little emergent effort in the neighboring town is coming from the parents of the "Scream Service" there - I'm sensing a movement...)

[Kit Wang]

So, Steve, are you meeting at the Union church that's on the corner of Academy and 236 in S. Berwick?? I am SOOOO out of the loop!

[Ian Mobsby]

This is all sounds very good. The beauty I think about what were doing with Godly Play and what we are doing with Godly Play, is that we are not doing "Children's Church" or Sunday School. Our approach is 'both and' - that Godly Play and our simple Scream Service are fully participative.

For information, Lucy Moore of 'Messy Church' has been utilising activity as arts and crafts in being church for adults and kids together. Click here to see what Messy Church is about.

Ian Mobsby

[Jonathan Wickham]

I like the BOTH/AND idea. There is a church in Corpuis Christi, TX (USA)- All Saints- that works very hard to have a service that is "both/and" for families and kids. They have seating in the half circle/round in their parish hall (where the floor is a beatutiful wood inlaid labyrinth- great image of workshipping amidst the journey). There are small tables in the midst of the chairs for coffee and the like. THere is a kids area on the front side where the team puts down soft play surfaces and soft toys for kids to play with but not dominate the sound of the service. They do a Godly Play inspired children's sermon time in concert with the "regular" sermon. The whole thing oozes the both and idea- they are a place where adults and kids find worship and formation. We do something like that here in San Antonio as well though not to the fullest degree mainly because we are in a temporary space until July. All Saints is worth a visit or at least a phone call. The rector who sheperded these additions is David Stringer, now in the Atlanta area.

[Kit Wang]

The discussion on Jason's blog here that shows up as a discussion about equality in worship reminded me of one of the ways the structure of Godly Play can contribute to emergent worship.

The Godly Play lesson or class is structured like the Eucharistic Liturgy. Each of the actions in a class reflect/mirror actions in "worship upstairs." As an accredited GP teacher who often works with other teachers as well as in other formation contexts (baptism and confirmation preparation, older youth, classes on liturgy and worship) I find that remembering the different roles/tasks of the Godly Play lesson to be helpful in terms of thinking of how to re-shape or re-think the shape of worship. It not only helps me to get inside the story, but to get inside the service in a different way.

[Devon Anderson]

In my former congregation we fully employed Godly Play in a series of Holy Week services designed to be intergenerational. So often Holy Week is for adults (services happen late at night, or on Good Friday during school and require children to behave like adults and be silent). We did a children's Good Friday service that used the Godly Play lesson as the central focus -- we conflated Good Friday and Maundy Thursday into an interactive narrative of Jesus' last night and day -- one of the most incredibly powerful services I've ever planned or attended. Watching children wash their parents feet (and vice versa), hearing the story, sitting in the dark, inviting the children to bless each other with oil...I still well up when I think about it.

We've also used Godly Play for a family-friendly Easter Vigil which we titled "Easter Vigil for the Young and the Restless." Biggest service of the year.

Devon Anderson

[Kay Flores]

I started learning Godly Play stories a couple of years ago, and then I started using them for adult groups and for homilies in my small congregation. Adults and kids all are so engaged in stories when they are told rather than when they are read.

Last fall I was asked to preach for a morning service at our diocesan convention. I told the parable of the Good Samaritan to a packed chapel using super-sized figures on a magnet board. There were technical difficulties - I misplaced one of the robbers before I put him on the board, and some of the magnets were not very attached to the magnet board - but the story is the important part, and it worked. I talked to a lot of people that day who were astounded at the wondering questions and the insights they'd gained.

[Karen Johanns]

We've been doing a Children's Eucharist service every Sunday for the past 6 months and we use Godly Play as the Scripture/sermon portion. The kids just love it - they find the story compelling, love to touch and handle the story material, and there's "wondering" going on all the time.

One of the most fascinating components of using Godly Play is how much the grownups attending the service love the stories. Almost every week at least one adult tells me that they never really understood a particular parable or Scripture story very well until they heard the story presented for the kids! This has got me thinking about Godly Play as a way to teach adults who were grew up "unchurched" and are now attending, or who just never had good catechesis and therefore have significant gaps in their understanding of Scripture. Anyone else had this experience?