Outdoor Church

We had a special guest preacher at my church yesterday from the Outdoor Church in Cambridge, MA. Pastor Jed started the Outdoor Church because he saw a need in his community for a ministry to the homeless. It’s surprising, I think, to a lot of people in Cambridge that there is a large homeless population since it is the place of Harvard and MIT and many historical places. Yet, there they are, if you look for them.

My church has supported Pastor Jed for many years in providing white socks and sandwiches to hand out and having volunteers go down on Sundays to help him in his ministry. White socks? Yes, white socks. The homeless really have no means to wash their clothes and their feet are often dirty and damp. This leads to all sort of medical problems. So Pastor Jed provides a clean pair of new whites socks to each homeless person so that at least once a week they have a clean pair of socks to wear.

There were two things that Pastor Jed mentioned yesterday that really stood out for me. The first was that the soup kitchens in Cambridge aren’t open on the weekends and, unless they can go to a shelter, the homeless have no food on Saturdays or Sundays. Why don’t they just go to a shelter? Well, if they are drunk, the shelter won’t take them in. Or if they are too drunk, they simply cannot find the shelter. Of course, if they could find it, they still couldn’t get in. So they go hungry. At least they did. Now Pastor Jed is not only providing a sandwich for them on Sundays but on Saturday nights as well. At least that is two meals each weekend rather than just one. Not that a sandwich is much of a meal but it is better than nothing at all.

The second thing that Pastor Jed mentioned that stood out to me was during the talk he gave between the two Sunday services. He mentioned that this ministry isn’t for everyone since it is difficult for some people to minister to the homeless when they are throwing up Listerine. Yes, the mouthwash. You see, the liquor stores in Cambridge don’t open until noon but the CVS drugstore across from Porter Square is open 24 hours a day. And Listerine’s alcohol content is between 21.6 and 26.9 percent. The average beer is only 8 percent. If you can keep it down, you can get pretty drunk on a bottle of Listerine or vanilla extract or any of the other items that contain alcohol that aren’t booze. It’s the keeping it down that is the trick, which leads to the throwing up of Listerine, which is one of the deterrents to being a street minister.

I know there are a number of people who have no sympathy for the homeless. “If they just apply themselves, they don’t have to live on the streets”, I’ve heard people say. Well, from my experience in assisting Pastor Jed with his ministry, that statement is not only true but is also really cold-hearted. Many of the homeless just simply have no way to earn money to get off the street. As I mentioned, they have no means to wash their clothes, or themselves for that matter, so they are dirty and they smell. They are depressed so they drink (all sorts of things) and that makes it difficult to get a job. So they live on the street being ignored by people who have no understanding. No understanding that is until their life situation changes and they lose everything. Living paycheck to paycheck is great until the paychecks stop and then you end up on the street. Having your marriage fall apart and realizing that you really haven’t any savings to pay first and last months rent on an apartment leads you to end up on the street. Or developing some kind of mental illness that causes you to lose your job and your family can’t deal with you and you end up on the street. There is a whole myriad of reasons why it happens and to simplify the situation by telling people to just “apply themselves” is cold-hearted and thoughtless.

I admire Pastor Jed and his calling to minister to the homeless. He is a lawyer (his profession before going to seminary to become a pastor) who saw a need in his community and has dedicated his life to helping a mostly forgotten segment of society. Time Magazine recently had a list of the 100 greatest people. Pastor Jed wasn’t on the list. In my book, he should be at the top of the list.