I Wonder . . .

I wonder which part of this story is your favorite part.

I wonder which part of this story is the most important part.

I wonder which where you are in this story, which part is about you.

I wonder if we could take any part of this story away and still have all the story we need.

These four “wondering questions” are the exclusive discussion prompts for most of the lessons in Godly Play, a curriculum of Bible lessons for young children that I taught to preschoolers almost every week for several years. They are so useful that I have employed them in multiple settings and diverse populations of youth and adults. I’m doing it again this weekend.

One of the most fulfilling worship leadership experiences I ever had was a service to introduce Godly Play to our congregation. The teachers and I told a story from Genesis in which the teachers moved around the chancel like the implements from the curriculum. Then the four of them preached, each one addressing one of the “wondering” prompts. You could do a lot worse than that for a sermon preparation guide.

I taught my last Godly Play lesson in 2015. Maybe I’ll return to it someday. In the meantime I’m using its wondering questions liberally.