Approach in Love

I have always had a deep connection with the streets. Maybe it was my teen years of actually running the streets or getting introduced to so many street people’s brutal honesty attracts me so intensely to them. I honestly feel a sense of safety among street people, I would much rather go visit a couple of homeless guy or thugs then speak to a bunch of church people any day. Through my ten plus years of serving with a homeless church I have came to the realization that the only thing that truly difference from the people that I have met on the streets and church people is homeless will expose their sin, church people conceal their sin. In other words a homeless alcoholic’s breath will reek with alcohol, a church going alcoholic’s breath will smell like mouthwash.

One summer I was quickly reminded that when sharing the gospel of love with the streets, never fail to remind the in love part. With about 3 years of street ministry under my belt, I decided to be a part of a street invasion with my pastor at the time. Street pastors from all over the nation gathered each year to reach out to the streets of San Francisco. We awoke early the first day of the outreach. After spending some time in prayer, the time had arrived for us to hit the streets. Prior to the outreach I didn’t know that there would be people on our teams that were green in street ministry but I was soon to find out as the day progressed. We soon were off to share the good news with the streets of San Francisco. As the morning passed things were going rather smoothly. Then afternoon arrived with a little more excitement. It was around 2:15 in the afternoon when I heard some commotion behind me. I quickly turned around, not knowing what was the cause of all the noise I was hearing. There he was with a pale look on his face. A high school kid had approached some gang members sitting on park benches. A few gang members began to raise their voices at the terrified high school kid. After asking a bystander to fill me in of what was going on, I found out the high school kid told the gang members that they were going to go to hell if they didn’t change their ways. Although that kid was probably right, he quickly realized that he had approached these guys in the wrong fashion when they began to circle around him. Instantly I glanced around the now crowded street. Everyone was standing around watching, no one was attempting to rescue this poor kid. Adrenaline got the best of me that day as I pushed through the crowd to get where the kid was standing. Instantly I began addressing each one of the gang members in love and in a matter of minutes one by one the members began to step out of the circle that trapped the over zealous youth and I.

When God stirs your spirit to share your story with someone, never forget to approach the scenario in love.