“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’” Matthew 25:35-36
I saw this verse personified this morning at Angelus Temple. This past Thursday Pastor Matthew Barnett and the Dream Center celebrated 15 years of ministry in Los Angeles, California. This service was like no other I’ve experienced. There was no hype, just a sense of vulnerability and reality. I watched a 20 minute documentary of Pastor Matthew’s night on Skid Row as a homeless person. After celebrating fifteen years of ministry at the Dream Center, he and his dad (Tommy Barnett) as well another leader (formerly a resident of Skid Row) placed themselves the middle of one of the most dangerous places in America. They slept on cardboard, panhandled for change, and ate food handed out by another group of people.
During the night Pastor Matthew and his team met a woman named Stephanie. She had grown children and had found herself on Skid Row and wanted to get off the streets. She had been praying for a away out. That next morning she got in a van and started her journey through the women’s discipleship program. This morning as she stood on the platform sharing her testimony, she declares, “I’m family now, I’m not going anywhere.”
Watching this documentary reminded of the stories I grew up hearing from Bill Wilson of Metro Ministries. He started out in Phoenix, Arizona with Tommy Barnett and later began a bus ministry in New York City. Bill lives in a warehouse and buses kids to children’s church every week. He’s been shot, had TB, stabbed, and continues to love and minister in a dangerous area. Nothing can stop the Gospel from pouring out of this man in a hard core way. Metro Ministries ministers to over 20,000 children every week. I absolutely love his heart and the work he and his team are doing.
Leaders like Pastor Matthew and Bill are dangerous. They love dangerously. Lord, make us dangerous.
