Went to downtown Louisville this afternoon to ask people this very question. "Who do you say Jesus is?" As I walked around the park observing people, and getting my thoughts together in my head as to how I was going to pull this off, I noticed the only people that seemed to be alone were homeless. I didn't want to interrupt people in their Saturday afternoon family activity, so I zeroed in on a homeless fellow.
My approach was pretty consistent throughout my different encounters - Went something like this:
"Hi, my name is Adam. Can I talk with you for a minute?"
In every instance there was a few moments of tension or awkwardness as they tried to figure out why I wanted to speak to them. I found out through a couple of my conversations that they frequently have violent encounters for absolutely no reason, by random people just as myself. One guy said he was sucker punched not 10 yards from where we were standing a couple of weeks ago. And just when I thought - yeah right! - we went to a little hut (renting bikes to ride around downtown) to buy a drink, and the guy behind the counter said "you staying away from the crazy people?" To which the homeless man, Robert, said "I told you."
All in all it was a fantastic experience. I think I might frequent that area in the weeks to come in hopes of actually forming some relationships with these guys and others. You may be thinking - "how did they answer the question?" Well it was interesting, b/c most answers I got were "he is my Lord and personal savior." Which to me says a lot about how we as a church "preach the good news."
Jesus has become nothing more and nothing less than "our Lord and personal Savior." I am not even sure that phrase is in the Bible, but oh well - it very well may be.
So when I got home today, and sat on my front porch I prayed for Robert, Stephen and Lester. I pray we meet again.
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