Homeless Ministry

Over the past few years our church family has come across a number of persons who are struggling with transitions. They are near homelessness or homeless often before they seek help in a normal case. Perhaps pride or lack of knowledge of options lets things dwindle and dwindle until there 'seem' to be no options left. By God's mercy, we have been able to help arrange places to stay, or see a solution for that time to make the situation rendered fixed, or refer to a place that may help. Like most evangelical churches, we seek to provide various options to meet needs between shelter/clothing/food/financial support. These are always necessary for church family members. For those who aren't part of the church family, decisions are made based on benevolence support *beyond* the previous commitment.
In my opinion, some of the most challenging persons to minister to are those who struggle with drug addiction. This is difficult because everything serves the addiction, if cash is given, the person will always be tempted to use that to trade in for drugs. What has happened in their life to get them to the point, as they respond wrongly, continues: lies, using people (whoever, even their own children as sympthathy to get drug money), and lack of clear thinking about a holistic view of their life, plague someone who is not consumed with Christ Jesus as first and foremost, but rather with their own thing. They have to find comfort in that drug of choice, so they think. Rather a lasting solution and hope would be in the living Savior Jesus. He is the only person who can change someone needing to seek help from drugs so as to escape homelessness. I have heard of a number of people in and out of drug rehab facilities in the county or state, and not much ever seems to change; they are 'clean' for months, and then they are back in the addiciton. In my opinion, these are the saddest instances, when you can help someone only physically for a time, but they refuse to turn to the One who can through His personal presence in their lives make real changes that affect the situation permanently.

Homelessness is a real challenge in our area, and I am exploring the issue in more depth. With the economic downturn, a lot of 'services sector' people have been showing up for help. Particularly, construction people. I don't expect this to change as the building / construction area is facing a lot of Baby Boomers retiring who do not need an even more expensive house, or an even larger garage, or a excesses like vacation homes. Less construction work means there is going to be a lot of transitioning going on, and some homelessness as a result for set times; sad to say.

Scripture commands us to look out for those who are of faith. We must do this or our message is no message at all. There is also the witness in the world aspect of caring for those who are hurting in society at large. This too is important.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

D.A. Carson on the Emergent Church -2-

W ell I've made some more progress in the Carson book, he displays some significantly worthwhile insights into the outlook of leading writer Brian McLaren especially. One of Carson's points, without giving too much away, is that the emergent church employs a 'flat' critique of modernism. But it does so without normally acknowledging the benefits of modernism. While Carson doesn't go quite this far, what I liked too coming off of that and the Carson long quotes of others is the realization that no culture is itself holy. Pre -modernism, modernism, postmodernism; all have/will be full of good aspects and not so good aspects. This balance is worth taking into account no matter where one comes down on it. At times Carson seems a bit modern, I'll admit, but at other times he seems somewhat postmodern. Especially when he recoils to the useful (although typical) missions influence on us and our healthy self-critique idea. He mentions that one a couple of times as a po
Read more

You Cannot Fumble Your Salvation

     Recently, I came across when looking for a sermon illustration, a story of the Top 10 worst NFL fumble situations in history. The article covers some classics. Here is that article . An example many remember is the 2006 fumble of quarterback Tony Romo with the Dallas Cowboys. A divisional round was very close and the game was within just one point. That is when Romo fumbled the ball from a snap and the Giants benefited from it. Oops. This is not to pick on Romo, he had lots of great plays too (most will admit). But he didn't always measure up, despite the practice, coaching, and need to do so. People are like that before a completely holy and perfect God (Romans 3:10; 23). The wages or earnings of people, it is spiritual death, Romans 6:23. But there is good news. It's all about Jesus, not you.       What I find wonderful to remember for the Christian person, is you cannot fumble your salvation if you have placed saving faith in Jesus Christ. When a person calls upon the L
Read more

Integrity Matters

     In America in 2021, integrity is often hard to come by. Politicians promise one thing, and then the news reports what they miss and don't fulfill. But people don't trust the media either . A record 56% of Americans believe the media is intentionally misleading them. In other arenas, people promise love to another and then don't mean it. And employees may feel they are in demand, and do less (visit a restaurant in 2021). Other Americans accept benefits and insurance for being unemployed when they could be employed instead, but do not as a lifestyle choice. Even medical doctors are trusted less than they once were , even pre-Covid. And the list goes on. I'm sure any area tested except a minor few would show similar results. All of that is just illustrating a point.      Yet: Integrity matters, but it is elusive in our times. This means we as Christians, as living out our faith, must examine our own hearts and minds to ensure we are people of integrity (Psalm 116:11).
Read more