Equipping the Body of Christ to Respond to Needs
by Katie Iversen, Educational Ministries Director
We have three major ministry areas here at Emmaus: Evangelization, Transformation, and Education. The first two are pretty intuitive: Evangelization is our Outreach program, and Transformation is primarily the work of our Ministry Center. Education, though, is not as intuitive because we’re not educating our men; we’re educating the Church.
We created Education as a co-equal ministry area for two reasons: first, because of our clear sense that most people know almost nothing about our men or their plight; and second, because Christians are called to share the message of God’s life-transforming love, but they can’t do that without some understanding of who these men are. Our Ministry of Education is primarily about equipping the Body of Christ to love our men and respond to their physical and spiritual needs.
This sometimes involves calling attention to uncomfortable things (like male prostitution) that people would rather not think about. Yet Jesus called us to go into all the world and make disciples, and that doesn’t stop with people we are comfortable with. It means everyone.
We have many opportunities for you to answer this call. You can volunteer with us in the Ministry Center or on Outreach. You can intern with us or serve in our Kaio Community (a year of voluntary service living and working with Emmaus). If you’re not ready to take that plunge, though, we have other great opportunities to learn more about what reaching out to everyone looks like.
You come to us
We offer an interactive learning experience, called an Immersion Night, that involves spending an evening in Chicago, meeting and learning from people in their territory. Many people who participate call it one of the most impactful evenings of their lives, because the interactions with people they would normally never meet challenge their fears and preconceptions.
If you can’t spare an entire evening, we offer an hour-long Site Visit for groups, which includes a tour of the ministry, a presentation, and a question-and-answer session.
We come to you
You can bring Emmaus to you by hosting Stories from the Streets at your church, school, or small group. Stories from the Streets tells the stories of our men through song and dramatic monologue.
If you’d rather hear us talk than sing, Emmaus staff are available to speak at churches, small groups, classrooms, and workshops. We share at dozens of such events every year.
To learn more about any of these opportunities, please email edmin@streets.org or call 773-334-6063.