We hosted 40 people - adults and children - friends - wonderers for a BBQ at our home. Rachel and Regan came down and stayed the night, as did Steve and Lynne Taylor and their two daughters. The principle aim was fun, laughter, and conversation around food and drinks. The secondary aim was to experience Godly Play first hand with Steve facilitating the experience for us. It was a rich multi-cultural evening with an American, a recently immigrated German family, South Africans, and those of us born here in New Zealand. Steve chose Joshua 3 as his story
The story utlised rocks = Mt. Sinai, sand = desert, blue satin = river jordan, grapes, milk bottle lollies, a match = God as a pillar of flame, cotton wool = God as a cloud, flat stones...
Lot's of wonderful "wonderings" - "I wonder...how the priests felt standing in the river waithing for the Israelites to cross over?" etc. Children and adults participated. A story about journeying. Formal story concluded and flowed over into more wonderings as adults and children relocated and continued working with the story over food and drinks. A brilliant night, wonderfully enriched by each person there. It was really precious watching the children move the materials around, interact with them and tell stories in their own ways. An experience I can't say I've seen repeated and the conclusion of any 'traditional' sermons I've done.
Night ended late with Steve and I toasting John Drane with a nice wee dram of Glenfiddich single malt whiskey.
nice reflection, paul! I might 'nick' that for a meditation I'm doing tonight (replacing the traditional sermon slot with a meditation - it's something I do quite a bit to bring little elements of the alternative thing into the traditional world of liturgy.)
thanks for the inspiration
Posted by: maggi dawn | Monday, 15 December 2003 at 01:06 AM