The outcasts. The disillusioned. The weary travels. The wounded Evangelists desperate for the lost, yet confused why the church sees no urgency. Our hearts break for the things that God’s heart breaks for, and we can’t seem to figure out why the other 97% of the church does not feel the same way.
We like to joke that ALTARED is the French Foreign Legion of churches (or “Ecclesia Excommunicado”), and that being kicked out of your former church is a rite of passage, or minimum requirement, to join ALTARED. That’s obviously not the case, but it does seem to be the trend that most Evangelist have some sort of tragic, super-hero-esque origins story of severe church hurt.
The Bible does not support being a rebellious, unsubmitted lone-wolf, out in the darkness doing whatever we see as right in our own eyes. But this creates a problem for the Evangelist. When we submit to the headship of a traditional church, they tend to abuse their authority over us by telling us to sit down and shut up, because they are intimidated by the brutality of street warfare. And so we either silently watch the world burn, while begging the church to help, or we are pushed out of the church as a result of competing with their authority.
Then there is the awkward middle ground of just becoming the “weird” guy at church who street preaches, which begins to isolate you from them, causing you to become bitter, lonely and cynical over the years.
We have had no place to lay our heads, attacked from both sides and left for dead by the brothers and sisters supposedly supporting us. There’s no rest, no support and no funding from the “big 8” church, which we feel has become a country club that doesn’t “get us”. All while funding goes to larger ministries whose missionaries open cookie bakeries in foreign countries to “build a presence”.
We have in us a complete unwillingness to shut up and sit down while we let the world burn from our pews. We have become the Special Forces of the church, willing to accept a literal martyr’s death if the Kingdom requires it. And we keep trying to partner with churches who lack this passion and drive. As such, they disavow our actions, tactics and intensity, lest it affect their funding. As this world winds down, we few have made the decision to lay down our lives, livelihood and reputations… that some might be saved.
There is an entire community of us who feel this way. There are thousands of us. So let’s form our own church. The Street Preacher’s Church: ALTARED.
Finally, the weary Evangelist has a place to lay his head. Welcome home.