Knowing Godly Play in a New Way Part 1

On a Facebook page called Knowing Godly Play in a New Way, focused on how we "do" Godly Play in the current reality of a world that is physically distanced, I asked about Bibles for an at-home program. I asked what version of the Bible to buy to give to the families for their work at home, and then it seemed like I rejected all the great ideas people offered.

Just to be clear: I am not against children's Bibles - and I am not against offering information to families. I think I sounded like I might be against those things in my original post.

Here, I am expanding a little bit about my thought process, in case you are still wondering. I do go on for a while in this post, but I realize that my thoughts were much bigger than the question I asked. Since I was really doing my own work, in the end, I decided it was worth posting on my long neglected blog.

What I was trying to formulate in my mind was how to support the story called The Holy Bible: Where the Church's Story Comes From, found in Volume 2 of The Complete Guide to Godly Play (Revised and Expanded) by Jerome W. Berryman. This story suggests these materials: a large, presentation-type Bible sitting on a book stand, and a tray of material for making book marks. In the "Notes on the Material" part of the lesson, it says that the Bible "should not be a 'children's Bible' with cartoon-like illustrations."

It is more than trying to support just that story, I think. I am also trying to develop support for our families who need to know that they have at home all that they need to support the spiritual development of their children. We, the church, will support the families, and still the families will be the primary support for the children in this new way of knowing Godly Play.

A quote from "Teaching Godly Play: How to Mentor the Spiritual Development of Children" by Jerome Berryman: "Godly Play attempts to teach the classical Christian language system to children in a way that deeply roots it in them and yet encourages them to be open and curious about new people, new situations, new ideas and even new religions. It does this by integrating the children's experience of God, their existential issues and the classical Christian language system by means of the creative process to make meaning. Godly Play, then, is not a whole ministry with children and families." (This quote is in an explanation about music, but to me it says a lot about the whole Godly Play experience.)

And finally, a quote from "Does God Have a Big Toe? Stories about Stories in the Bible" by Marc Gellman. The author's note has long informed my life! Rabbi Gellman says: "One way to understand a story is to have someone explain it to you. They will probably say, 'Listen to me, this is what that story means...' and then they will tell you something. That is one way to understand the Bible, but I don't think it's a very good way. The person who explains the story might be wrong and, in any event, explaining stories from the Bible only makes sense if there is just one right way to understand that story. But the stories in the Bible are so rich and deep and packed with a thousand different meanings that they cannot be explained in just one right way."

I welcome conversation about how we will know if what we are doing in this new way is Godly Play!