guest post - Godly Play training 1

As I, Storyteller, said in my last post, and as Sheila has more eloquently said here, we're going to celebrate Easter together with a series of guest posts for Eastertide. Part of what gave me the idea was that I'd just received a guest post myself. So although this one's not about Eastertide per se, I'm going to use it to kick off our Eastertide guest post series. 

I met this week's guest, Matthew, through Twitter. I asked if he'd be willing to write something about his experiences of Godly Play training for my blog. I'm happy to say that he agreed. With his permission I split it up into a sort of mini-series, and I've illustrated it with some photos of my own choosing. Without further ado, here's the beginning of his post. 

Background and introduction to Godly Play

My name is Matthew Loader, I am a Children and Families worker for the Peak Methodist Circuit in Derbyshire. I have recently completed a 3 day training course in Godly Play.

My Godly Play experience began when I saw a Sacred story being told at a child’s celebration service. The things that struck me was the level of engagement of both the Children and the adults present, further the lack of engagement of what I now know was the Storyteller. This experience left me both intrigued and with questions about Godly Play.

In the circuit in which I work there was also some knowledge and experience of Godly Play. After more research I decided to organise a taster session to take place in the Circuit in Bakewell where I live. This was well attended and saw representatives from 4 different churches, 3 from within the Methodist circuit, and 1 from a Anglican church from a village in the circuit. Those attending the taster session were informed of local training taking place to follow up on the taster session; myself and one other booked ourselves onto the next available course. The two questions I remember I had at the end of the taster session, therefore going into the training were:

1. Was Godly Play an experience intended primarily for working with Children? 
2. Was Godly Play an experience exclusive to a full Godly Play session, or could Godly Play be integrated into other activities, for example after school clubs and Toddler carer groups?

Bakewell Methodist Church, photo by Eirian Evans

For the answers Matthew found, tune in next time!