We all have to adhere to some sort of budget. My Godly Play budget may not be as restricted as some. I admit an unfair advantage in owning a large number of Godly Play lesson materials I collected over 15 years of being a consultant. A Holy Family is the first material mentioned in my plan for ages 3-5. You may already have a set of nativity figures in your church, or you may be able to use one from home. For the older class -- if you do not have a wooden model of the Church liturgical calendar, a good compromise would be to buy or make a felt liturgical wall calendar with Velcro® on the back of each piece and present the lesson using the wall calendar. You can purchase a wall calendar from Godly Play Resources – or find a church that has one and use it as a model to make your own.

Collecting shelving to hold the Godly Play storytelling materials and art supplies will be my biggest challenge. Ideally, the shelving should be a unit with two shelves at a child-friendly height. But to save time and money initially, I will scrounge around the church and see what might be available. There is some shelving in the current classrooms that hold craft materials, building blocks, and other secular toys. Some of that will need to be packed away and moved into storage. I will begin to assemble a small group of parents to help with that task. I think I’ll offer iced tea or lemonade, fruit salad and cookies to entice a few moms and dads to spend about 90 minutes packing old classroom items and organizing existing art supplies. It will remind them that something new and exciting is about to happen in the fall. We may do this after church or on a week day evening – maybe after picnic and prayer. Some of these parents may have ideas about finding or making shelves. We’ll need a focal shelf and at least two other sets of shelves for each room. (see Volume 1 of Godly Play in the Living the Good News Series)