by The Reverend Steve Burger

The face of the homeless has changed significantly in the past four decades, making ministering to them a greater challenge.

About 30 percent of the people who check into a Rescue Mission tonight will be women and children — the fastest growing group among the homeless.

Twenty years ago clients were, on average, 50 years old. Now, they are in their 20s. Increasingly we work with people who have mental and physical disabilities. The immigrant population, too, has changed. In the past, immigrants had relatives or community sponsors in this country That’s no longer the case.

In the past, missions dealt with people passing through the community. Today 70 percent of our clients are local people who have grown up within five miles of the mission.

In response to the changes, we focus on longer-term programming and our approach is holistic. We provide job skills training through computerized educational centers and address issues like hygiene and retention. (No matter how well you train people, if you don’t deal with attitude, body odor or getting to work on time, they fail.)

But ultimately the issues are spiritual. For people dealing with alcoholism, drugs, guilt and frustration, no amount of training is going to help. At the Gospel Mission, we can talk about things government agencies can’t address. We can tell people about forgiveness and moving on and right relationships with God, self, family and community.

We need partners. It’s our job to work on solutions but we can never have enough help to do all that needs to be done. Because more and more of our clients are minorities, we’re trying to develop relationships with minority churches in the inner cities. We also seek support and volunteers from suburban churches.

We need older women to be mentors to younger mothers. We need people to read to children. We need male role models for young men. We also need folks who can walk people back into the community. All too often, when people leave the mission they go back to the same terrible situation they came from or they simply turn around and come back to us. We’re the only family they know. Mentors from churches can help people to make the difficult transition to life outside the mission.

What’s required is a balance of love and law. On the one hand, the Bible says if a man does not work he should not eat. Certainly if we always spare people from the consequences of their own behavior, they may never change. Like the prodigal son in the pigsty, people have to decide for themselves when they’ve had enough and are ready to change. But at the same time, we want to be benevolent and kind and demonstrate God’s love through our compassion. When they seek help, He! we will be there for them.

The Reverend Steve Burger is Executive Director of the International Union of Gospel Missions. IUGM has 270 missions nationwide that offer homeless shelters, rehabilitation and family programs and youth and jail ministries For more information call: 816-471-8020 or e-mail iugm@iugm.org.  Visit the IUGM web site at http://www.iugm.org

From the October 1999 edition of The Calling, a publication of Ministers Life