CHURCH OF THE WEEK
Church on the Street Helps
Homeless
By Ken Hulme and Pam
Miller
The 700 Club
CBN.com
– It has worship, it has preaching, and it has ministry, but this
is no ordinary church. Welcome to Atlanta's Church on the Street.
"The heart of who we are is reaching out to those who are hopeless,
who are the poorest of the poor, the least of the least," says pastor
Andy Odle.
Each week, in more than a dozen locations like this one, pastor Odle says
they are caring for the physical and spiritual needs of a large homeless population.
"What we want to do is reach out to these people, to go where they live.
They won't find the church, so we take the church to them," says Odle.
"We go under bridges, we go wherever they find themselves, and we try
to share with them through building a relationship that there are people who
can be trusted, that there's One who can truly be trusted."
Church on the Street doesn't just care for the homeless, but it actually is
training others to care for the poor in their community. On the day we visited,
Church on the Street founder and pastor Kurt Salierno was talking with some
teens from Indiana and Ohio.
"People ask me, 'Pastor Kurt, why do you pray with your eyes open?'
If you go to Church on the Street and you work with drug addicts and murderers,
you had better keep your eyes open when you pray! " Salierno says with
a laugh.
The church cares for as many as 6,000 homeless people a week. At a typical
Thursday evening service, there is an average of 1,500 poor and homeless people
coming each week to hear the gospel and receive a free meal. God is using
this church to help men and women change direction.
"I used to sleep under bridges and smoke crack under those same bridges,"
says Felix. "I just felt like somebody who was lost, who was giving up.
It was really bad. At times I felt like just jumping off a bridge. Church
on the Street-they've given me hope when I didn't think I had any more. Pastor
Andy, I love him like a dad. He's brought a lot of hope in my heart."
"Every life matters, we believe. It makes it all worth it," says
Odle.
CBN IS HERE FOR YOU!
Are you seeking answers in life? Are you hurting?
Are you facing a difficult situation?
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
