The Gospel on the Street

Top 3 in Poverty

Top 3 in Features

Top 3 in Violence

The Gospel on the Street

By Brenton Diaz
July 22, 2009

I emerge out of the parking garage into the brilliant sunshine of Toronto in early April. The whir of Yonge Street, the main drag in the largest city in Canada, fills my ears. A disheveled man approaches me as I take a step toward Sanctuary, a street ministry. I'm here to interview its director, author Greg Paul.

Wearing tattered clothes and several days’ growth of facial hair, he calls out to me and asks me for some money. Half-wondering if Paul has arranged this meeting to watch my suburban reaction, I sheepishly give the man enough money for a coffee and a muffin. The man, whose hands are hardened and look leathery, turns and looks at me with piercing eyes.

“Do you believe in God?” he asks. I stutter and stammer that yes, indeed, I do believe in God. The man abruptly begins to dig in his pocket, and my life begins to flash before my eyes. He pulls out an old plastic rosary and hands it to me. “I found this in the garbage the other day, and I’ve been waiting to give it to someone who’d appreciate it. Why would anyone want to put Jesus in the garbage?” Instantly, I become simultaneously filled with joy and embarrassment as I realize the good, pure intentions of this precious man standing before me.

It turns out this “chance” meeting (arranged no doubt by God, and not Greg Paul, who arrived at Sanctuary 10 minutes after I spoke with the man) is a fitting introduction to the ministry of Sanctuary, which is a multifaceted ministry center in the core of downtown Toronto. With a strong emphasis on relational ministry among the poor, homeless and marginalized in society, Sanctuary seeks to create a community of people from disparate backgrounds in the hopes that in the midst of the community relationship, Christ might be shared in a tangible way.

“Our approach to street ministry is to view it relationally rather than programmatically,” says Paul, who has directed the center for more than 13 years. “So our approach is not to develop a bunch of programs to put people through and they come out the other end and there’s some change in them. Our approach is to say that we are fundamentally a community. We try to be a community, nurture healthy community, nurture healthy relationships. We often say about Sanctuary that we intend to be a healthy, welcoming community centered on Christ.”

In the midst of this community, the staff of Sanctuary addresses the needs of the street population. “Our approach is to walk with people, so that when we do street outreach, it’s about initiating new relationships with somebody,” Paul says. “Or being with that person we already know on their turf on the street. Hanging out with that person. We may also offer health care, socks, food, water, some practical stuff. But really those things are tangible expressions of relationship, or an invitation to a relationship, rather than an end in themselves.”

That there is even a need for street ministry on a continent as wealthy as North America is a sad phenomenon in itself. When asked about how people even end up on the streets of big cities like Toronto, Paul answers, “How people end up on the street typically is that some aspect of their personhood has been deeply compromised. Statistics show that ... of youth who end up on the street, 84 percent of them will admit to having experienced physical and/or sexual abuse in the home. The vast majority come from broken homes. The vast majority come from homes where one or both parents have a drug or alcohol problem.”

In fact, Paul explained, the people seen on the street of major city centers are more likely to come from middle-class homes than poorer homes. Clearly, a church-based solution to the problem of homelessness and street-involved people is not found merely in throwing more money at the problem. Paul explains that “as to what church groups could do, it’s important to remember that these issues are as present in church communities as they are anywhere else. So, in a church of several hundred people it’s entirely likely that there are a few kids being sexually abused. It’s entirely likely that there are a number of families where one or both parents have an alcohol or drug problem. So, the first thing churches need to do is get their heads out of the sand and recognize that this is probably taking place in our own congregation. And look around the church for the people who exist at the margins.”

As evangelical churches in suburban centers come alongside the members of their community who are hurting, these people will receive the support and help they need, not only to experience Jesus in personal salvation, but to also give them a better chance at living a life of dignity.

As I think back to my encounter with the rosary-bearing saint on the streets, more of Paul’s thoughts echo in my head: “The social misconception is that street people are inherently different from you and me, or other ‘regular’ church people. And nobody thinks they believe that, until they get here to a place like this, and they start to engage with people from the street, and then they realize that at some deep level they’ve always thought that the that guy panhandling or that girl on the street corner is somehow inherently different than I am. And the big surprise is that he or she is not. That we are essentially very much the same, and that that person on the corner could very easily be me.”

In the context of community, Sanctuary is able to give people who, like this man, are marginalized and judged an opportunity to be involved in a sincere and loving community, eventually freeing them to respond in meaningful religious expression.

10 Comments

Celsus commented…

Its always interesting to watch evangelical, Christian zealots mix delusional superstitions, and their ever present nebulous, derivative god-speak, as they try to relate and mystify events the rest of us clear thinking atheists, view as quite ordinary, everyday life.

Imagine my amusement when a homeless man who rummages through garbage all day, finds some cheap Catholic superstitious beads, and in return for being given some money, hands them to a suburban, evangelical Protestant; who dont use, or even allegedly believe in such blasphemous Catholic traditions but this somehow becomes a miraculous work of god and makes the homeless man a saint, and the suburban evangelical awestruck by this miracle of god.

Its this kind of inane, religious nonsense and muddled, superstitious thinking, that makes clear thinking people just shake their head when trying to have any kind of rational, serious discussion with an evangelical cult member.

The acts of charity, mercy and kindness this street ministry provides for these homeless people, while certainly noble, and beneficial to these people, is no more or less effective, or being directed by any invisible deities, than those provided by secular charities that do similar work.

Human beings are genetically similar; you should have learned that in high school. But there are enough slight genetic differences, that when these differences are combined in complex human social groups and societies, under various circumstances, with uneven resource distribution, it results in some people being comfy, rich, suburban evangelicals, driving their SUVs, to their lavish churches, each Sunday morning, where they sit in finely tailored clothes and give thanks to their personal gods... Meanwhile, other genetically similar human beings, rummage through garbage cans on Sunday morning, looking for food and other valuables, and they occasionally find discarded, superstitious, Catholic,beads; that ironically, were no doubt manufactured by an atheist or Buddhist in China.
The fact that you think an inner city, homeless agnostic, giving a suburban evangelical Protestant, some cheap, discarded, Catholic trinket beads, made by an atheist in China
is an arranged miracle of your personal god, and makes this man worthy of sainthood (something else Protestants dont condone) is quite ironic, hilariously superstitious, and points to the basic problem of uneducated, suburban, evangelical Protestants that dont even grasp the basic tenets of their professed religion, versus Catholicism. Perhaps if the man gave you a discarded Book of Mormon, or a Jewish Yakima, you would have been less impressed, less inclined to take it, and perhaps you wouldn't have seen his act as a miracle?

I give homeless people spare change all the time in NYC, I dont consider it a miracle, no god is influencing me, and I dont pretend Im going to change the persons life by doing so.

7/30/2009 5:41 AM

Celsus commented…

Imagine, all you need to do to cause Brenton Diaz to be filled with joy, and make him think you are a 'good man', of 'pure and precious intentions', is to panhandle him for money, and then liken Jesus Christ to some cheap plastic beads, you found in the garbage...

...praise the Lord!

7/30/2009 10:33 AM

Kelly McClure commented…

@Freethinker.

Protestants can use the word "saint," it just means believer, someone who believes in God, in Christ. Not like Saint Paul, where the Catholic church has elevated him to a high status where he deserves to be prayed to. Granted, Brenton gives the homeless man this title, it seems, without knowing that he is a believer. But the point is that he had one perception of this homeless man, and the man turned out to be different than that perception. And another point is that, forgetting religiosity, humans are a communal species. In general, we need community and are meant to be in community and have relationships with other people. What a wonderful thing that this program, Sanctuary, recognizes that and is striving to create that and offer that to the street living people they meet. For me, I also think knowing God and Jesus is incredibly important, but one of the ways we can show that to other people is to love them. Just to care for them, treat them kindly, walk with them, spend time with them...love them. It is ironic that so many Christian symbols and trinkets are probably made in China, but who cares? Everything is made in China, practically. Last thing I'll say is that you can't assume that all Christians live comfy, rich, suburban lives driving their SUVs. You don't know who these people are any more than I do, or any more than I know you. For all we know Brenton, for example, could live in the city, drive a crap car from 1989 whose windows don't roll up or down and whose ac doesn't work, and who only writes one article a month and is struggling to pay his bills. I mean, that's probably not his situation, but you don't know what his life is like or where he's coming from, just like you don't know anything about the Christians who come to work with Sanctuary, or any other ministry for that matter. There's a good probability that some of them used to be homeless, or addicts, or whatever, themselves.

8/6/2009 9:41 AM

Celsus commented…

Sorry, 'keepinion', but the words saint and believer are not synonyms, although I suppose in the lax and imprecise language of the superstitious Christian, anyone who shows up, sits in a pew, and puts a dollar in a collection plate is now a 'saint'. Here, all it takes is a homeless bum to give some suburban born-again, some religious trinket, he found in the trash...and viola! sainthood is bestowed...how amusing.

The fact that humans are a communal/tribal species is something well understood by evolutionary biology and anthropology, and it doesn't require any magic beads, holy water, or special spells recited in Latin, by men in robes, waving incense around.

You know 'God and Jesus'...in much the same way I know Zeus and King Arthur. I just don't pretend the latter is all important to me, or that these ancient fictional characters are somehow magically controlling and/or directing chance encounters with bums on the street.
See the difference? I'm rational...the author is hopelessly, emotionally superstitious and can't think clearly because of it.

I never said all Christians live 'comfy'...did I? I was referring to the author of the story...again...reading is fundamental.

You're right I don't know the Christians who 'come to work for Sanctuary'...nor do I care to...

...all I can do is judge them by the superstitious tripe and self flagellation I have read in these pages.

It matters not to me if you're well healed and hilariously superstitious, or a homeless bum who thinks some plastic beads he pulled out of the garbage have magic powers and represent 'Jesus'

Here's the kicker...plenty of people do charity and community work without the needless, 1st century, superstitious bullshit being hurled alongside it.