Joe Mathews

Joseph Mathews calls himself a child of God, ambassador of the Almighty. Now, in his sixties, he preaches in the community room of the Frye Apartments, pastor to the residents. He feels he is supposed to be leading a church in this low income building, that it is God’s will.

Minister Mathews says God put him through homelessness so he could understand the hurting, lost, downtrodden souls of the street. Before that, he says, he was a womanizer and drinker, too prideful to understand his purpose.

But he believes that ministry is in action, not words, and that his new flock needed testimony from someone living lives like theirs. Saying there is “no shame in my game”, he says he is most proud when a congregant calls him “one of us.”

The people he ministers to have given up hope, caught in a culture of stress. Mathews has seen death and despair in the apartment building he serves. A woman he “saved” jumped to her death from the ninth floor during one of his services.

He says the building is full of demonic spirits of drugs and suicide. But, he says, he has seen people in the building healed by the hand of God as they turned their lives around.

KNOWING THE CULTURE: “I had to really prove myself, because they’d been preached to death. But they needed to see somebody that’s really living the life that they talk about.”

Joe is blessed with a gift for music, an accomplished singer, pianist and songwriter. Calling hatred a strong discord, and embracing love and caring, pastor Mathews says we are all brothers

nd sisters. He worries if he is doing enough for them.

Mathews calls the less fortunate, who have been beat up and beat down, warriors and survivors. To those more fortunate, or those with stony hearts, Mathews reminds them, “There but for the grace of God go I.”

PURPOSE IN LIFE: “I think everybody in this world were put here to love somebody and make a difference in this world. You’re blessed to be a blessing. That’s my attitude.”