Godly play is concerned with the spiritual development of each child as an individual and with modeling the appropriate moral behaviors expected of people living within a Christian community. In Godly Play, each class session follows the pattern of the church's Sunday service, so children will have a deeper understanding and enjoy fuller participation in the parish worship. A greeter or door person waits at the door to help each child become ready to enter the room quietly. A child who arrives late will be admitted as soon as this can be accomplished without disturbing the circle of children. Then each child chooses whether to respond to the story with art materials or play.
Every child has a personal folder that serves as a spiritual journal.
The folders stay in the room to hold students painting, sketches, poetry and other writing because often students will choose to work on a project many weeks before they feel it is finished. At the end of the year, each student will take the folder home. The most important thing that we teach in a worship-education center is how Christian people live and work together in community. Many parents who have children in the Godly Play program find that their children will begin to retell Bible stories - often in the car on the way home from church. In most churches using Godly Play, it is customary for the children and the storyteller to sit in a circle on the floor, literally surrounded by our religious language system.