Looking to the past to reach Skid Row

Abstract

Every community faces unique challenges in their pursuit of ministry and evangelism. For the Skid Row community in downtown Los Angeles, poverty, violence, addiction, and mental illness are among the struggles they must navigate. Skid Row is the area with the most concentration of individuals experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles and is also the community where my ministry serves. Although homeless communities can be particularly challenging, it is not impossible to make a meaningful impact. This article will explore from a missiological perspective how Christians can draw on the missional history of the Church to effectively reach the subpopulation of homeless individuals in Skid Row. This will be accomplished by first describing homelessness as a complex social phenomenon and providing a brief overview of specific aspects of the social context of the homeless subpopulation within the Skid Row community. It then argues for the adoption of specific missional traits of the early Church, such as having a missional mindset that was fearless, taking care of the poor, praying, and incorporating agape meals, and then providing a contextualized approach to applying them to the community and how the practices can be meaningful for their context. By studying the past, Christians can gain valuable insights into ministry and evangelism praxis in Skid Row and beyond.