Church on the Street

About me:

Church on the Street is committed to not only being actively for the poor, homeless and marginalized, but also to being with them. To this end Church on the Street provides opportunities for the church to reflect on its relationship with its most vulnerable neighbors. In the city of Atlanta there are over 12,000 people that are homeless every night and countless others who live on the margins of society. Serving this population are many diverse ministries and social services, such as shelters of differing sorts for differing needs, feeding and food programs, worship services, and drop-in centers designed to connect the poor with the many different programs and social services developed through government agencies, private institutions and faith-based organizations. Over 2,000 of the nightly homeless in Atlanta stay in emergency shelters or out in parks, parking lots and under bridges. Many of these approximately 2,000 persons, making up only 10-20% of the entire homeless population, are commonly known as the long-term or chronically homeless. These are the people who often fit the caricature of the homeless. Yet these persons do not wake up one day and find themselves in extended bouts with homelessness, rather they have gone through a long history, sometimes a lifetime, of struggling with poverty, social problems, mental illness, addictions, inadequate or unemployment, injustice, crime and occasional stints as homeless. These persons have become isolated and disabled by their own sin, the sin of others, and the sins of society. For many of these, the programs and services designed to help them overcome these difficulties go largely untapped. This is due in large part to being divided from others and society for so long that they have become jaded and their minds have fixated on hopelessness, death and division. This is the point of contact where Church on the Street understands its commission. First, instead of creating new drop-in centers, shelters or food services, our task is to go to the parks, street corners, bridges and slums where the chronically homeless and extremely poor “live” in order to develop consistent, loving, unconditional relationships and community through which one’s self-understanding and dignity of being part of the human family is reclaimed. Then, perhaps, through our many partnerships with other ministries and social services, we can direct those that are willing to further assistance. This first task we refer to as “Outreach Ministries.” Second, we contend that when it comes to concrete interaction with the poor and homeless, the church has far too often resigned itself to simple answers, political ideology and the answers of social-scientists without sufficient theological reflection. Thus we propose providing space where the church’s activists, pastors, students, lay persons and academics can gather to think together and give voice through various media about these paramount theological issues related to poverty and homelessness. This we refer to as the “Center for Practical Theology.”