Church Grows From a Street Corner Among the Homeless

A church that started with no home now offers a home and hope to people of all backgrounds, economic statuses and life situations.

Hope Church in Tulsa, Okla., is just off of 49th Street in Tulsa not far from downtown, where Hope's pastor, Earl Krumsiek, first started worshiping with the city's homeless.

"We always say here at Hope, we love people where they are, we don't leave them where they are," Krumsiek said.

The beginning of what would one day be Hope happened in 2004, when Krumsiek was asked to preach at a street ministry on the curb outside the homeless shelter in downtown Tulsa.

After that day, for three years Krumsiek returned to that same corner to share the Gospel with homeless people and anyone who would listen. He played music, preached a sermon and even had an altar call, but eventually the man funding the ministry withdrew his support, bringing the homeless church ministry to a halt.

Shortly after, the Lord opened another door that led Krumsiek to a ministry that bussed the homeless to different churches where they would be presented the Gospel.

"We would have our normal street service, then we would bus them to the church afterwards, and we did that for about 13 years," Krumsiek recounted. "We were a church with no home. I never accepted the title 'pastor.' I'm not a pastor, but finally so many people said, 'You're my pastor,' so that's how I became a pastor."

"So many things that we needed to start our church just kept falling into our lap," Krumsiek said. "We needed a building, and we [were] offered one. We needed insurance, and the Lord provided again. The same [happened] with things like a refrigerator and a microwave. I literally had people call me out of the blue asking if I needed these things."

"God has really blessed us," Krumsiek said. "We run about 30 kids each Sunday and had our highest attendance of 72, and we have started a membership program where we receive commitments from people and then get them plugged into ministry."

Some Hope members have been with the church from the beginning when Krumsiek was on the corner preaching. Steve was homeless when Krumsiek first met him and was involved in a gang, struggling with alcohol abuse. At a low point when Steve's health was failing, he prayed that the Lord would deliver him, and he says the taste of drugs and alcohol were removed from his mouth. He was healed.

One woman said, "I lived a life full of drugs and alcohol, and I got tired of living for the devil. The Lord has given me mercy and grace."

(Howsden, “Church grows from a street corner among the homeless,” Baptist Press, 8/22/17).