New Executive Director

After eighteen months of transitional leadership Rebecca McClain has resigned her position as Executive Director of the Godly Play Foundation and has been elected to resume a seat on the Board of Directors. Board President Tim Alderson, after resigning from that position, was elected by the Board to replace Rebecca as Executive Director.


Tim Alderson,
Executive Director
Godly Play Foundation.

In April of 2007 the boards of the Center for the Theology of Childhood and of Godly Play Resources met separately to discuss, among other things, how to find their way into the future beyond the impending retirement of founder Jerome Berryman. Tim Alderson had been newly elected to both boards based on his history as a Godly Play practitioner and successful entrepreneur. At those meetings Tim helped to formulate a plan for a new organizational structure that will carry Godly Play forward while insuring its integrity and growth for future generations. At that time Rebecca was elected to replace Jerome as Executive Director of the Center and to provide leadership in the transition.

Much has happened in the intervening months. First, was the challenging legal work, led by Board member Jim Daugherty, of creating a single entity that will hold all the pieces of Godly Play (research, publications, materials, and training) within a single, centrally managed organization. This came to fruition in December of 2007 with the formation of the Godly Play Foundation. Rebecca became the Executive Director of the new Foundation and Tim was elected President.

While all this was in progress, in October of 2007 Jerome, Tim, and Rebecca met with Davis Perkins and Pete Velander of Church Publishing to talk about a number of issues related to CPI’s recent acquisition of Living The Good News, the publisher of The Complete Guide to Godly Play series. After a successful meeting, during a fine Italian meal Tim proposed an idea that seemed a bit bold at first, but rapidly got traction during the course of that meal. The proposal was for the Foundation to enter into a strategic partnership with CPI that would put CPI in charge of all the commercial activities associated with Godly Play. The idea seemed to complete the picture of creating a single structure to carry all of Godly Play forward in a concerted way. In November of 2007 Tim was appointed by the Foundation board to lead the negotiations with CPI. That deal was completed in May of 2008.

In August of 2008 Rebecca and the Foundation office moved to Seattle, WA. The Episcopal Diocese of Olympia offered generous hospitality to the Foundation and Rebecca was asked to provide yet another kind of transitional leadership. She was appointed Canon Missioner for St. Mark’s Cathedral and was asked to shepherd that congregation as they find their way into their future. This is the sort of work for which Rebecca is uniquely suited. Her expanded role with the cathedral, however, meant that new consideration needed to be given to the leadership of the Foundation.

As the organizational structure of the new Foundation came together and the course was set for future growth, the role of the Executive Director expanded dramatically. Rebecca recognized that it was time to return to an advisory capacity on the board and away from the day-to-day operations of the Foundation. Tim Alderson, who had just completed the sale of a company he had been running for the past seventeen years, became the clear choice of the board to step into the role of Executive Director. Over the past twenty-five years Tim has created and operated a number of companies, both for-profit and non-profit. He is an experienced Godly Play practitioner who is on the floor with children in his Godly Play classroom every week. The combination of his business background, Godly Play experience, and his vision, leadership and hands-on involvement through the transition to the new Godly Play Foundation make Tim uniquely qualified to take on this role.

Tim is excited by this new challenge and looks forward to the work of insuring the integrity of Godly Play for future generations while expanding its reach so that every child of God can be invited into the Godly Play circle.