How popular is Godly Play in the Salvation Army?
Six years ago, a colleague and I did a three-day Godly Play training course and we started taking it around the territory ]local Salvation Army areas] showing people what Godly Play was like. Gradually the interest grew and grew so that eventually Rebecca Nye [child spirituality specialist and Godly Play trainer] suggested that I apply to be a trainer. Eighteen months ago I went to Holland to train to do just that.
From that point on interest has been overwhelming, but not just with children’s work, with our Lifehouses [homeless shelters], with old people’s homes, retreats… it slow-burned for five or six years, then suddenly we got this flourishing interest. Now that’s not just because I’ve trained to be a trainer, but because after that Rebecca and I and a group of others worked on three specific Salvation Army stories. The production and trials of those generated a lot of interest.
Because we’ve introduced these Army stories we’re running 14 introduction days across the UK. We’ve run two three-day courses specifically for Salvation Army people so far and we have another three scheduled that are fully booked - we can hardly keep up with demand.
There’s also something the Salvation Army runs called the Ultimate Church Visit, which can be used by local Salvation Army churches, where school children come and visit our place of worship. Usually on a school’s curriculum there’s a requirement to do that. This enables children to go into a Salvation Army Corps (the local church) and explore the different elements of the Salvation Army. In the Bible Zone, we provide a Godly Play story. This initiative has been going for several years.
What is it about Godly Play that people like?
I think it’s because it allows people to explore faith. When people have done training, over either one day or three, they often say, ‘Well this changes everything, doesn’t it?’ If children are already made in the image of God and we’re giving them a language and framework to explore that, it changes everything we do with children. It’s something they already know, they just don’t have the words for.
Some people get that and some people don’t but I think we're at a turning point of saying that we could think of even more exciting songs and games, but how are we really helping children explore? This seems a very accessible way to do that with both children who have no Church background and children who have been brought up in the Salvation Army.
Are people just doing Godly Play or are they mixing and matching different methods in their children’s work?
We’re quite a small denomination and there’s quite a lot of interest now but at the moment, but it’s being used most by our divisional children’s officers (who are the equivalent of Anglican diocesan children’s ministry advisers). They are showing people Godly Play and have started training people; it’s gradually beginning to seep down. There are places that are using Godly Play regularly, though I think I only know one place which has turned the whole of their Sunday club over to it. Most of the time it is done alongside other things and that’s probably going to be the reality. But it’s not being diluted. Those who are doing Godly Play are using the scripts and remaining faithful to the material.
Godly Play is quite an expensive thing, if you get all the materials…
We have shown Godly Play to our Territorial Commander (who’s in charge of all the work of the Salvation Army in the UK). We told him the stories and he was very keen that we share it, and so we have funding available to help people set it up. We’re also subsidising training for people from other European countries to train in Godly Play. But people are being creative in the making of things. We’re in quite early days with Godly Play, but we’ve got a lot of interest and so people are exploring those creative avenues themselves. It’s hard to go out and buy a whole Godly Play set of materials!
Do you have any stories of where children really are kind of motoring with God because of the way they’re engaging with him in Godly Play?
It’s very hard to say because you can’t quantify the response? To tell stories might undermine the whole concept of Godly Play. There is endless anecdotal evidence of quite phenomenal engagement with material, the wondering and the response, but there could be a lot more that obviously will never know about. The Army stories had to be trialled quite extensively with children, just in the way that Jerome [Berryman, the founder of Godly Play] did with the original scripts. We were able to get the children’s feedback and we found a huge engagement with the Army tradition. The stories are ‘The Flag and Ceremonies in the Life of a Salvationist’, ‘The Mercy Seat and Salvation Presentation’ and ‘Social Action: Here to Help’. Children who had never had much to do with the flag really engaged with the wondering verbally in a profound way. During the trials, I was frankly astonished at the level of engagement. Again I don’t want to tell a story because it’s not the Godly Play way is it?
However, children’s leaders have bought into the idea that children might not know about God, but they have the capacity to know God. Godly Play enables them to make this connection with their Creator.
