Profile: Andy Odle, street minister
Indiana native Odle began working at Church on the Street with the intention of only staying in Atlanta for three months. Twelve years later, Odle's now the executive director of the Christian outreach organization that goes into the community to minister to and develop relationships with the city's chronically homeless. Every Saturday, the group holds a prayer and outreach service in Old Fourth Ward.
What is the mission of Church on the Street?
What we believe is that no one is left out of God’s love. We don’t have the luxury of being able to just sit up in our nice condos or our houses in suburbs and forget about these people. We believe homelessness is a relationship problem. The first thing we want to do is to let people know that even though the world has pushed them aside or counted them invisible, the Church and God doesn’t. We go to them, and we love them. We’re not there to provide a meal for them or cottle them as some would say.
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