Lead Godly Play Storyteller First Baptist Church Halifax

First Baptist Church Halifax, an inclusive and progressive congregation, seeks a Lead Godly Play Storyteller to lead our Godly Play Team to develop and implement our Sunday morning Godly Play program for children and young adolescents.

The Lead Godly Play Storyteller will work approximately five hours weekly, developing the plan through preparation and training in July-August, leading the programming from September-June.

More detailed information including required competencies, experience, and primary responsibilities are available on the church website

Interested applicants are invited to submit a resume to Chair of Search Committee, Janet Margeson at jobopening@fbchalifax.ca. Screening of applications will begin on May 1, 2023.

Primary Responsibilities

  • Lead and strengthen our Sunday morning Godly Play program, expanding our implementation of the spiral curriculum to support children of various ages
  • Prior to worship, set-up Godly Play Room, ensuring stories and supplies are in place for storytelling circles
  • Inform the church office when supplies are needed
  • Participate in welcoming children and families as they arrive for worship andcommunicate information about Godly Play opportunities with all families
  • Join children for the children’s story; as appropriate assist ministers and layleaders in supporting children during this time
  • Lead the Younger Grades storytelling circle (in 2023-2024, this will be allchildren except those in the older/Middle School group). In future years, determine with Board of Christian Education and Godly Play Team where you are most needed to support the full implementation of the curriculum
  • Communicate information about stories told in Godly Play to the church office for a weekly FBCH Family News update sent out following worship each Sunday. Along with the stories told and a provided link to family pages (as available), share other important information for families to know about Godly Play.
  • Willing to receive formal training in Godly Play

Experience and Competencies

  • Experience as a teacher, or in leadership of children and implementing curriculum
  • Understanding of the progressive Christian faith tradition and an appreciation for Baptist heritage and values (see our church website for information on Baptist freedoms)
  • Outgoing personality, interpersonal attritubtes that connect well with children and their families
  • Storytelling and communication skills
  • Group management strategies
  • Understanding of pedagogy regarding stages of child development

Update from the Godly Play Foundation

An Update from the Godly Play Foundation:

We have begun a comprehensive review of the materials to address concerns about the lack of diversity and implicit bias in our materials. To begin with we have made some small changes to the story of Creation and to some of the images and materials used in the Parables. The changes we made include:

Continue reading “Update from the Godly Play Foundation”

Refugees – A Godly Play Inspired Story

Love is Stronger than Fear
by Mora MacDonald
DSC_6240Mora is an elementary School Counselor and  Godly Play Canada Storyteller at Sackville United Church, Sackville New Brunswick. She wrote this story when her church decided to sponsor a Refugee family to help children understand who a refugee is and consider how God might want us to live with refugees.

Script is written. Movements are in brackets.

Watch where I go to get this story so you will know where to go to find it. (Talk lower, but clear enough so the children can hear you as you find the pieces you need around the room.) I need that last card of creation, the Holy Family card from our Christmas story, a candle, some people of God, the 10 best ways heart. Hmmm… anything else?? Of course, the desert box. And I brought some things I had at home in this basket. Continue reading “Refugees – A Godly Play Inspired Story”

Godly Play Goes to the Nursing Home

By Anne Pirie

It started with a conversation.

My friend, Elsie MacDonald, shared her hope of maintaining meaningful connections with seniors who could no longer attend worship. I talked of offering Godly Play for adults.  What could be done? We read about Lois Howard’s ministry with elderly persons in a nursing home. A phrase leapt out: “to be a loving, accepting presence to often forgotten people”*.  Elsie described aspects of her pastoral visits with seniors: remembering their names, physical touch, speaking tenderly, listening, hugs, giving attention.

Godly Play at the Drew Nursing Home
Godly Play at the Drew Nursing Home

Hmmm…a loving presence: that is what we wanted to be. Godly Play offered a way.

Getting ready:     I wonder how a nursing home is like a parable.

Continue reading “Godly Play Goes to the Nursing Home”