I get a lot of comments on the name I have chosen for this website. A few weeks ago I went over why I chose evangelist and barefoot, but the comments keep coming. The online ones focus on “evangelist”, and given the all too frequent negative use of that term, I am not the least bit surprised.

In real life, however, it’s the ‘barefoot’ part of worship leadership that keeps getting people’s attention. That is especially true as the weather turns colder here in Canada. Aren’t you cold, I’m asked on a regular basis. Yes… yes I am, to tell you the truth. Especially when I step outside of church after service on to the cold stones or concrete. I don’t feel it when I’m leading worship – I move around too much – but I feel it when I stop.

There is a long line of Canadian women who felt more comfortable, more approachable by performing barefoot. Women like Anne Murray, Rita MacNeil and k.d. lang all performed barefoot, and if anyone was asked today what they remember about any of these women’s performances, it would probably be that they felt real.

Although the barefoot part gets attention when I’m leading worship, I don’t do it for that purpose. It’s a fun ice breaker, arguably, but this preference tells a larger truth – my desire to be grounded in what I am doing and saying.

Making the Gospel feel real to folks living 2000 years after the writers wrote it and the people lived it, is no easy task. The differences in cultural context alone make things confusing, and reading any of the Bible thinking it all makes sense dropped into our modern culture is a recipe for disaster, no matter who tries to do it that way.

One thing we can count on once cultural and historical context is explained, is the through line of social justice. The early church was never meant to be a religion. The earliest followers of Jesus were quite at home in their Hebrew tradition, they just saw where adjustments and changes needed to happen. Their focus was not on creating structure – that came later with Rome’s take over of the faith – the focus of the first centuries was on making life better and equal for everyone.

When we read the words of the Magnificat, we have to recognize how powerful it is to hear that the powerful are brought down and the weak are raised up. There is no changing places as so many in power fear, there is merely an equaling of places in society.

By grounding ourselves in the Gospel, we can see where change needs to happen. It helps us avoid the superficiality of salvation-behaviour encouraged in so many places, and it allows us to focus on the social Gospel that Jesus preached. Change, inclusion, social equality, mutual dependence, shared abundance… those are all Gospel ideals.