I was asked at a service yesterday, how can the church serve the homeless? It got me thinking. I would like to share my thoughts on this.
The church can serve the homeless by making their facilities accessible to them. In most cases, the biggest asset a church has is its facilities, and often they are underutilised. It is important to consider using their buildings to meet the needs of the communities they serve.
Often, the people the church doesn’t reach on Sunday mornings have needs starting on Monday. They may need computer lab access to develop résumés and apply for jobs. Students may need a place to complete homework assignments or just to play computer games. Local community development organisations that link with a church’s vision may need a space to host meetings or deliver their services.
The church needs to serve the homeless by offering educational opportunities that enable them to secure a matric and receive personal finance training. This training can be offered through partnerships with other organisations.This training is critical, as nobody needs personal financial education more than someone whose resources are limited, stretched to the breaking point each month.
A bank can do training on handling your banking matters. A group specialising in retirement and investments can handle these topics, whilst legal clinics can provide instruction on rights, wills and taxes. Meeting the needs of the community is a wonderful way to bear witness to the kingdom of God.
The church must serve the homeless by availing financial resources to them in times of crisis. Most churches don’t focus on relief efforts, but life happens, and, sometimes people need financial assistance. Rent money is short, babies need coats, utilities get cut off, and food is in short supply. This can easily happen when takehome pay barely meets expenses or survival depends on a welfare or social grant.
The Bible is replete with passages on this topic regarding the poor (Deuteronomy 15:7-11, 26:12; Isaiah 58:7, 10; Matthew 5:42, 19:21; Luke 3:11). This doesn’t mean churches must just hand out benevolence, though in some circumstances that’s okay.
Instead, the church can serve the the homeless in times of financial crisis by becoming their temporary employer. Churches can provide opportunities for them to earn what they need by working around the church. The worker is worthy of his wages and, in many cases, the work provides them with a sense of dignity because an economic exchange is taking place as two people meet each other’s needs.
In my book, that’s not charity. Overall, the work of the church is about providing development opportunities as opposed to relief and rehabilitation. Relief and rehabilitation efforts are important in a crisis, they’re just not what churches do given the prevailing conditions among the homeless in most communities.
The ways the church serves and loves the homeless are not exhaustive. There is one gospel of Jesus Christ, but there is no one way to love our neighbours. Only through the gospel’s understanding can people learn contentment in states of plenty or want. Only through the gospel can people rightly form hope.
The gospel is about transformation – positive, progressive, life-altering change that produces good fruit. Let the church of Jesus Christ be the catalyst for facilitating this change by loving, advocating for, educating, and sharing with the homeless of this world.
My suggestion to the mayor has been that he hands over the issue of those living on the streets to ward councillors to address with all role players: businesses, the City, the ratepayers, the police, those living on the streets and churches.
A homeless hub should be developed in every ward. A place where the services required by those living on the streets are offered on different days at the hub. And churches are perfect for this purpose as they have underused facilities. This can be done with the assistance of city and provincial departments, businesses, and sector service providers and volunteers from those living on the streets and and homed residents.
The community would know where to donate and know that it would be reaching those its meant to impact on.
The City has no way of accommodating all those living on the streets. The City and Province have a total of 3 500 beds and we have over 20 000 living on the streets.
Ban all the unserviced and unmanaged, unhygienic, unsafe and unsightly encampments all over a ward and allocate a building or space (the church can help), which is city endorsed and supported.
These are open safe spaces where services can start being provided and the aim is to reduce the number of those living on the streets sustainably.
* Carlos Mesquita is an activist for the homeless and a researcher working in the W Cape Legislature for the GOOD Party.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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