Good and Faithful Servant Award: First Presbyterian Church of Dallas
First Presbyterian Church of Dallas get a nod today, from me and (I pray) from heaven itself.
Rev. Joe Clifford, the church’s senior minister, says his congregation has made its property available as an open-air shelter in response to a crackdown on the homeless by Dallas police.
The church provides portable toilets and security guards to ensure the people are not preyed upon by criminals or drug dealers.
In an interview he gave Reuters, Pastor Clifford said: “In September the police began enforcing ordinances more strictly, such as one against sleeping on the sidewalk”.
“Most of the police don’t like doing this job. Who becomes a cop to hassle homeless people? But it’s our belief that this is not a criminal issue but a social one,” he said.
Clifford, who sees helping the poor as Biblically sanctioned, said a few people had been sleeping on the church grounds but word quickly spread that since the church’s land was private property, the police were not allowed to clear the homeless away. Now between 150 and 200 people camp out there on any given night, which has angered many local business men.
As far as I can tell, First Presbyterian Church of Dallas has done a good jobn at remembering the one they serve, Jesus who had nowhere to lay his head (Lk 9:58), who was a stranger “and you welcomed me” (Mt. 25:35) and who told his followers “blessed are the poor” (Mt. 5). No less do they serve His Father in heaven who sung: “Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked” (Psalm 82).
You guys get my good and faithful servant award!
Drop them an e-mail and let me know you think they are doing a good job!
