Adamson’s friendship with Alan Dainton, portrayed alongside his photographs, raises the question of what we see when we walk past those who find themselves living on the streets. Do we see a vagrant, an addict, a social problem? Or do we see Christ?
Jesus says he will welcome into his kingdom those who have fed the hungry, clothed the naked and taken in the homeless. ‘Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me – you did it to me.’ (Matthew 25:40, The Message)
Many people have asked Adamson if the photo of Alan featured on our cover is of Christ. He responds: ‘That shot was the one in which I felt I’d really captured his inner soul; the innocent part of him that expresses what he could be, or could have been. It felt quite Christlike.’
There are no easy answers to the problem of substance addiction, which so often goes hand in hand with homelessness. But seeing pictures that remind us of the imago Dei that each of us bear, however broken, can at least begin to break down the hardness of heart that often causes us to speed up our steps when we walk past someone like Alan on the street.
The habits of our hearts are also the subject of Lucy Mills’ feature on spiritual disciplines, with practical suggestions for developing a God-focused life in an age of technological distraction. In practical
terms, churches are among the few places that can carve out space for people to think about their direction in life.
This month, the Premier Christianity team enjoyed hearing from a range of people who have seen lives transformed through a church course. From evangelistic prison ministries to the frustrated parents of teenagers, there are no limits to who we can become Christ towards.
Finally, if you’ve ever been confused by an obscure worship lyric, Martin Saunders has put together an essential guide to the theological pitfalls of some of the most popular songs in UK churches. I hope it makes you laugh as I did. It’s always good for Christians to ask themselves what an outsider would make of the things we do every week in our worship. And using the opportunity to not take ourselves too seriously isn’t a bad thing either.
