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September 1st, 2006 | by Scott |
I talk a lot about social justice and caring for the poor and marginalized in our society. Jimmy Dorrell does more than just talk. He is making a difference in the Waco community.
14 years ago, this month, he began meeting with homeless people underneath a bridge along I-35 in Waco. Before long it became a weekly church service. Today that church meets weekly under the bridge, providing hope and redemption to the forgotten souls here.
Here is a YouTube video of The Church Under The Bridge. Jimmy’s vision has spawned other movements under bridges in other cities as well.
Jimmy’s work is contained in the most vital ministry in the Waco area called Mission Waco. I have had the honor of getting to know Jimmy, eat with him and participate in a group of urban ministers concerned about being the Kingdom in the midst of the lives of the “least of these.” He knows them and he loves them.
Today sees the release of his book: “Trolls & Truth: 14 Realities About Today’s Church That We Don’t Want to See“
This is a book that you will want to read. Will you support this ministry? If so, click the link above and buy it today.
Read this summary from the promotional copy of the book:
Every city has a group of troll-like rejected misfits. They are the homeless, the prostitutes, the greedy, and the addicts. These are the people on the fringe to whom churches close their doors, the ones you move away from on the pew. They are the marginalized, rejected, and forgotten cultural lepers who lurk outside your church. They are the most unlikely prophets of all.
Trolls & Truth is the story of a local church of homeless people; college students; middle-class Christians; some poor and some rich; black, white, and brown; drunks; materialists; mentally ill; and former inmates who meet beneath the noise of 18-wheelers and rushing traffic under an interstate bridge in Waco, Texas. As they live out biblical mandates across cultural barriers and institutional baggage, they remind us that the gospel cannot be shaped by socially accepted values and remain “good news.” Through their testimonies they reveal the mystery that such a diverse group without buildings and traditional expectations are finding the power of the gospel in ways that brings cultural validity to the skeptics and unbelieving world. They have a wake-up call for the American church.
Transformation in the church must come. In new wineskins and perhaps through the life of an old wino, our ecclesiology must be upended by the “least of these,” the hungry, imprisoned, sick, and stranger. Intentional efforts in local congregations must be made to reconnect the rich and the poor; the black, white, and brown; those educated in the university; and those educated on the streets. Only then can we wrestle with the values of the kingdom and learn the lessons that this God of the little people wants us to know.