From the cuffs in his shirt, his pants, and even his hat, drugs fell and covered the pastor's floor. Joseph fell on his knees and emotionally said, “You told me I could come, just as I am.” He then raised his hands to God.

I have been in the church since I was two weeks old. The ministry that I learned and was trained in was the ministry inside the church walls. Outreach was always a quick foray into the world to tell people about Jesus and then quickly back into the security of the church walls.

Something has bothered me for years. Jesus was a man of the people and spent time with sinners and those people who were rejected by society. This was one of the criticisms the religious people leveled at him. An example of this can be seen in the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10. Jesus engaged this man on the streets, went to his home to eat, and was criticized for eating with a sinner. After identifying that salvation had indeed come to this home, Jesus established His priorities. “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” 

I think that it is even more remarkable that sinners loved Jesus. It did not matter whether it was beggars or vagrants alongside the road or people with diseases that made them outcasts. He even interacted with people whose life choices made them unacceptable to the majority. Jesus saw them all the same. By contrast, today, “sinners” usually don’t like Christians and they are just the ones who desire to be like Jesus. What a complete reversal in 2,000 years. I also observed that nearly all of Jesus' miracles happened outside the walls of a building.

Several years ago I developed a conviction that we needed to become a church without walls. Although we took steps in that direction, it is challenging for local churches to make that shift. As missionaries, we were quickly thrust into ministry outside the walls of the church.

At a feeding kitchen, I was told that they had no one to pray with the people. I objected to myself that I had no experience praying with people off the street. That day I began weekly praying with people from the streets who came for soup.

As I asked the simple question, “What do you need God to do for you?”, I found everyone was eager for prayer, except for Joseph. He told me that God was mad at him, and God wouldn’t hear his prayers. His story was that he had been a pastor and a teacher. One day he came home and found his wife in bed with one of his good friends. He went off the deep end and within a year was living on the street and addicted to drugs. Then after talking with Joseph for several weeks about God’s love, he finally allowed me to pray with him.

As we returned for an evening service at the same church that hosted the soup kitchen, I saw Joseph alongside the road in the dark. I rolled the window down and yelled at him. We began talking again through the open window. He was beginning to believe that God did love him regardless of what he had done. We invited him to join us for the service and to come just as he was. I was thinking of how he was dressed but Joseph was thinking about the condition of his heart. On the floor of the pastor's office, surrounded by drugs and with his arms raised, he opened his heart to God for the first time in years. This was a life-changing day as Joseph allowed the love of God to fill his heart.

One day, on the street where we live my wife and I were driving and we saw our neighbor with her young son. We were surprised that he wasn’t in school. As we talked, we discovered that he had a skin condition that left white patches all over his body, from his head to his toes. Doctors were not able to diagnose him, so samples were sent to another country for analysis. Everything indicated that he was contagious and that is why he was not allowed to enter the school. They wanted prayer. My wife Pam embraced him even with his potentially contagious illness, loved him and asked the Father to touch his young body. A week later we saw them again and he was excited because there were no spots. He lifted his shirt and twirled around to show us. God had healed him. We have taken Jesus to the streets again.

Chris is my friend, and he does not know his biological parents. He lived with several different families until finally at age eleven, he decided to just move to the streets.

I met him for the first time on a Tuesday night after teaching a class for two hours. I was taking two people home and we stopped at a food vendor to buy some food. The area was packed with people and Chris was there begging for food. As I sat, exhausted, waiting for our food, I listened to Chris tell some crazy stories about places in the world he'd never been to.

The Lord told me that Chris has demons. Reluctantly, I stood face to face with Chris and asked him about his demons. I told him that God could free him. He was eager to be free because he told me that demons kept him high. Within five minutes a smile appeared and brightened his face as his life changed and he was free from the control of the demons.

We told him that the same God who removed the demons also wanted Chris to be part of His family and for heaven to be his home. Right there on the street, Chris said a simple prayer and welcomed God into his life. The love of God filled his heart.

It’s been over four years since the first day that we met Chris. Now when I see him, he still has a big smile on his face. My wife and I talk, pray and eat together with Chris. He tells me that now he goes to church every week and enjoys it. I gave him some reading glasses so he could see more clearly. Now he wants a Bible with large print.

It’s hard for me to understand, but Chris wants to continue living on the street because it’s the only thing he’s ever known. He doesn’t know how to live any other way. No doubt that Chris loves Jesus. His life was changed that day when we took Jesus to the streets.

If Jesus walked the streets of your city or mine today, He would still be a man of the people. He would still walk the streets and bring the love of God to people who have never entered church building. I believe it is time to become churches without walls and once again take Jesus to the streets.

Our Global Harvest offering for 2023-24, is to help Acropolis Medical Centre in Trinidad. Please partner with us to help purchase special medical equipment. This will help save lives physically and spiritually. To find out more and learn how you can participate in this special offering, please click here.