I used to always lead worship barefooted until a lot of more conservative places began to protest. It was not one of those issues I would go to my grave fighting for, so I would always ask and comply if the leader of the event felt it was a little over the top. Once I learned the “gimmick” had been popularized and associated with Todd Agnew, I stopped doing it all together. It would be a lie to say I didn’t do it sometimes for show. But I believed, and still do, when I led worship, I was calling on the presence of God. And if God was present, it was holy ground. And if the ground was holy…you see where I’m going with this.

The most popular passage is in Exodus where God speaks to Moses through the burning bush and tells him to take his shoes off because he was standing on holy ground. There is the reference to this same passage in Acts and the one I read today in Joshua where the commander of God’s army tells Joshua the ground he is standing on is holy. Of course, these are the verses I would use in my defense to why I wanted to go barefoot in the first place. But seeing as how many people think bare feet are unsanitary and/or unattractive, your not going to find it a very popular point of contention in even the most progressive churches. That being said, let me ask the question, “Do you think we should be barefoot when we worship God?”

When Joshua learns the man he saw is the Son of God, he bowed his head to worship, offered his services, but Christ stopped him and tells him to take his sandals off as if Joshua should know better. Same thing happened to Moses. Before God would speak, he asked Moses to take off his sandals. These two instances are very similar. God himself appears in a miraculous form to give very clear direction to the leader of His people. And yet, throughout the Bible when people are in the basic presence of God and not in a face-to-face conversation with Him in miraculous form, they are not required to take off their shoes. The Israelites being lead by God’s cloud by day and fire by night is a prime example.

It’s not going to hurt anything to take your shoes off when you worship unless people around you are offended. Then you’ve got to respect their right not to be distracted by your smelly feet. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with keeping your shoes on. In fact, as far as I can tell, there are only two times anyone was ask to go barefoot in God’s presence. However, if God manifests himself in physical form to have a conversation with you, those shoes better come off before your face hits the floor.