Barefoot at Church

When I'm not telling Godly Play stories at church or at school, I am a part of a team at our school that plans worship services for the students. Although we are a public school, in Berlin we are allowed to invite students to worship services specifically for the school, because religion is taught as an elective in the public school system. 

For our last service before the summer break where everyone is preparing to embark on a different path, we told the story of Moses and the burning bush. We asked all the bewildered (and delighted!) students to take off their shoes . . . 

Then, we highlighted that God is with us wherever we go and on every sort of path. To bring it all home, we set up an obstacle course with every sort of "path". Rough and smooth ones, fun ones and difficult ones. 

The children loved it, and wanted to go around multiple times!

The idea came from a friend of our pastor named Dieter Altmannsperger, who has written a book called "Barfuss die Bibel entdecken" ("Discovering the Bible Barefoot"). It's a wonderful book that I wish we had in English!

I love being a part of making church a welcoming place for children where they can play with God and discover new things!