Services For The Poor

A characteristic of my urban ministry in particular was services for the poor. In fact the Church itself gained a fond reputation for ministering to the poor in this way. We waived all fees for the poor. But these were inevitably services with a difference. The people involved tended not to have a culture of speaking in turn, or of coming on time. In the case of funerals, the deaths were often unnatural, and the services therefore more traumatic. And the worship was likely to involve some turmoil. In one service, there was a fist fight at the microphone, then a fist fight at the gate. But they had their own bouncers -- I could relax.