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A Reason For Hope
The sermon text at Azusa's worship service that morning came from 1 Peter 3:15: "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." And Pastor Rivers, the street-hustler-turned-street-preacher, has reason to hope. Growing up in the streets of Philadelphia taught him the complexities of urban psychology and the ways in which these pathologies have not been successfully addressed. His Christian vision has informed a new ideology that he asserts and through which he and his fellow-laborers are attempting to redeem the streets of Boston's ghettos. His work at Azusa embodies his philosophy and fleshes out his commitment to reach the disfranchised urban poor.

Some detractors question Rivers's motivations and his accomplishments. What has he really done, they ask.

Well, he got Julian to church. And it's not so important that Julian know when it's appropriate to speak in church and when it's not, but what is important is getting Julian inside the church; getting him to ask for prayer for his Jewish neighbor; getting him to want to lead a congregational prayer to the Lord. That takes going out onto the streets where the Julians are and bringing them to church where they don't know how to behave.

So when Julian's prayer was completed that long Sunday morning at Azusa, and the worshipers had been dismissed (with Julian's blessing), Pastor Rivers took a few minutes to chat with worshipers. But his conversation was cut short. Someone from outside rushed in and interrupted him mid-sentence to tell him he was needed. With a quick good-bye, he was gone. As cars pulled away from the community center, Eugene Rivers could be seen on the sidewalk outside speaking intensively, trying to calm a young man. It was Julian. He needed his pastor.

This article originally appeared in the June 14, 1985, issue of Christianity Today. At the time, Wendy Murray Zoba was Associate Editor for the magazine.

Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Christianity Today's sister publication Books and Culture interviewed Rivers for "The Word on the Street."

Another Christianity Today sister publication Leadership Journal looked at River's methods for building a Christian community where it doesn't come easy.

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August (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45