At Bible Study for the Homeless, a Search for Meaning – The New York Times:

Religion is often overlooked as a source of resilience among the poor, but the Lamb Center’s Bible study is in its 33rd year, and seats can be hard to find. Some people come to listen, some to vent, some to mull the parables through fogs of addiction or mental illness. They seek hope, but even when hope proves elusive the gatherings can provide a sense of community absent on the street.

In Bible study, no one is treated as an outcast or even a client. Everyone is a child of God.

[…]

“When I tell people that I study the religious lives of unhoused people, they’re usually surprised to hear that unhoused people have religious lives,” said Susan Dunlap, a Presbyterian minister who taught at Duke Divinity School and volunteered as a shelter chaplain. “It humanizes unhoused people to think they’re theologically interpreting the world.”

Totally tracks my own experience working with people living on the economic fringe. I’ve learned from their faith and from the insights they bring to the meaning of passages in Bible. Preaching to people on the street is humbling as they won’t let you get away with pablum or superficial teaching. 

Do read the article. It should be a “gift” link in case you don’t subscribe to the Times.

And here’s a link to our diocesan street ministry, Church Beyond the Walls.