Mixing food with evangelism a complicated issue

“I wanted to quickly share a very inspiring story with you that happened last Saturday in Winnipeg in the Main/Higgins area,” the sender of an email I received in July excitedly said.

“About 20 or so young Christian adults got together at noon to spread the Love of Jesus to the homeless in the area.”

The sender went on to say that the group, from Winkler, had raised money to buy food, water and Bibles to give out to homeless people in that area. “They went out on foot and met face to face with the homeless residents in this area. They showed courage and love in spreading The Word. Four people were saved.”

The email pointed me to an Instagram site that featured additional photos and videos of that group, and others, including visiting encampments in Winnipeg to hand out food and water and doing evangelism.

“They’re hearing the Word,” the narrator said in a video showing young people playing and singing songs and reading Bible verses near the Alexander Dock.

While I honour their interest in wanting to assist people who are homeless in Winnipeg, I have questions about the mixing of food and evangelism, about the wisdom of dropping into the downtown for a few hours and thinking they had addressed this complex issue, and about what the youth themselves might have learned from the experience.

Rather than try to answer those questions myself, I reached out to people who have experience with homelessness. People like Julianne Aitken, executive director at Siloam Mission, and Tobi Jolly, who directs community wellness for that organization.

Both have Christian backgrounds. Aitken attends Riverwood, an evangelical church located in Elmwood, and Jolly grew up as the daughter of a pastor who served in a First Nations’ congregation.

And Siloam Mission itself is a Christian organization. It’s a mission of the Church of the Nazarene, an evangelical denomination whose mission statement is to “make Christlike disciples in the nations.”

While both Aitken and Jolly also honoured the motivation of the young people from Winkler who came to downtown Winnipeg to do something for homeless people, they disagree with their tactics.

“I understand how someone who has had a transformative spiritual experience feels a desire to share about it with others,” Aitken said. “But the key question is how. What is the best way to show love for neighbours?”

She cited a verse she had read just that week from her morning devotions from 1 Peter 3:15. In it, the writer says that believers should be “always prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that you have.”

For Aitken, the key thing is to wait to be asked — not to presume that people want to hear about your faith. It’s a simple matter of respect for others.

“We treat people the way we want to be treated,” she said, referencing what Christians call the Golden Rule. “It informs how we work here. We understand that people are about more than their physical needs, and we want to be available to talk about meaning and purpose, but only if asked.”

For Jolly, there is also the problem of tying physical needs for food, water and shelter to hearing about Jesus — whether that is explicit or implicit.

“We want to be open and invitational, without placing any expectations on people to have to hear a message about Jesus,” she said, noting that can lead people to say or do most anything in order to get what they need — including getting “saved.” “There’s no pressure to attend a service. We’re careful about not tying the two together.”

It’s a matter of respect for others, Jolly said. “People shouldn’t come here having decided what people need. Listen to them, hear their stories, build relationships, find out what their needs are. Don’t just treat them as objects or targets for salvation.”

Plus, said Aitken, even if people get “saved,” becoming a Christian doesn’t solve the issues of finding affordable housing, dealing with addictions, or addressing food insecurity and poverty. It can help, but it’s not a magic solution.

What the two recommend to anyone who feels called to address homelessness is to volunteer at Siloam, or other reputable organizations working on the issue. They acknowledge that might not be as dramatic or exciting as visiting an encampment and preaching by the river, and it will take more time and commitment. But it is more effective as volunteers get to know clients, hear their stories and learn about the contexts that caused them to be homeless.

It’s especially important for Christians to keep in mind the legacy of church-run residential schools, and the impact it has had on generations of Indigenous people. “The terrible role churches played in residential schools should always be in the back of our minds,” Aitken said.

Those aren’t easy lessons to learn. Even Siloam had to wrestle with it a few years ago when it was accused of limiting or denying culturally appropriate programming and foisting an evangelical Christian message on its Indigenous clients. But it did learn, and it changed. And so can any other group, Christian or otherwise, who wants to show concern about homelessness.

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