# Preaching to the homeless



## chuckd (Jul 3, 2013)

If you were to preach a sermon to a homeless audience, what would you preach? Particular Scriptures come to mind? Majority of those homeless are in this situation due to drugs, alcohol, laziness, etc., but circumstances leading to their condition are unknown.


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## Vladimir (Jul 3, 2013)

Preaching? You mean saved homeless people?


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## py3ak (Jul 3, 2013)

Our church has been involved in doing chapel messages at a homeless shelter for about 13 years now. Obviously in that time very different sermons from a plethora of texts have been preached. There isn't a wrong text, but we have had people spend the whole time trying to find Philemon rather than listening to the sermon based upon it. Here are a few suggestions based on our experience:

1. Speak to them with respect. We do not know the circumstances that brought them there, and there is no need to be patronizing. There are sometimes people of remarkable intelligence and learning in the audience.
2. Their main problem, as is true of any audience, is not homelessness, but sin. However, do not assume that it is sin that has brought them to homelessness.
3. _Prepare_; at homeless missions, they sometimes get chapel guests stumbling in last-minute expecting to wing it. This is especially important because you have to
4. Be clear and concise. You have people with mental problems, people on medication or drugs, people with debilitating conditions, people who have not had a good night's sleep, in some cases, for years.
5. Take charge, but be kind. Sometimes you have people who will take opportunities to disrupt: don't give them any. You can definitely control the room for anyone who responds to social cues (mission staff will remove someone who doesn't, usually) without resorting to hostility.
6. Don't forget that there may well be Christians among them; speak to them as well.
7. Choose a text that doesn't require you to deal with arcane details or tremendous intricacies. 
8. Don't worry too much about customizing it; you never know what may catch someone's attention. There was a young man who told our contingent that he started paying attention when he heard the word "witchcraft" in a message. Due to his background, that caught his attention and he listened closely from that point on. If I recall correctly, it arose from speaking on a passage in Isaiah that references heathen practices.
9. Preach a sermon that speaks to your own heart. It not only helps with presenting yourself as superior, but it helps you to preach it better. The great basic doctrines of the Christian faith are always timely, and of course a redemptive and Christological focus is appropriate. 
10. Follow-up. If possible, hang around to talk afterwards. It's helpful to have someone present to take combative types off your hands and let you move on to those who have a question or concern but aren't assertive enough to intrude into an argument.


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