Teaching Godly Play - Review

I once read a typo on the church bulletin board: it said Sundays cool instead of Sunday school.  I told our children's pastor about the mistake right away. He assured me that everything was in order: the sign had been printed like that on purpose. I assumed that Sunday morning Christian education could not have been intentionally cool (I have since mended my ways). If we went to church with Jerome Berryman our notion of Christian education would be quite different. His book titled Teaching Godly Play describes a process by which kids discover the truth of the bible by having fun! Berryman leverages the best of Montessori teaching technique and philosophy to communicate Christian doctrine. Through a mix of carefully designed environments, the children are able to explore specific instances from the Bible.

Teaching Godly Play is a step by step guide for those interested in adopting a Godly Play model for elementary aged kids. The ideas are interesting and occupy a unique hemisphere of teaching philosophy. Parts of the book become tedious because of its nature and the examples come across as being a bit simple and ideal.

I would not recommend this book to everyone. If you are a Christian educator and are interested in teaching models then this book is for you. Berryman has followed through with his ideas and populated a notable portion of the Sunday School shelf. While being a bit out of style, his approach contains valuable ideas for any style of children's ministry.