A Posture of Solidarity
A Feature Review of
Hope for the Mission: Getting It Right in the Call to End Homelessness
Kevin Nye
Paperback: Herald Press, 2026
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Reviewed by Pete Ford
Kevin Nye’s first book, Grace Can Lead Us Home, offers the Housing First model as an example of grace. His second book, Hope for the Mission, offers hope by highlighting stories of people working to end homelessness.
From the back cover copy, I was nervous that Hope for the Mission would be targeted at larger organizations. Thankfully, the target audience is local church congregations like yours and mine. Nye says, “Gospel rescue missions do not hold a monopoly on the church’s calling to the poor,” and he wants to show a variety of ways we can serve our unhoused neighbors.
The first two chapters outline the history and flawed theology of the “rescue mission” model. Nye shares the stories of some folk who were treated in patronizing and coercive ways by rescue missions, rather than extended a Christlike welcome. The rescue mission model often refuses to offer help until the guest “deserves it” by “accepting Jesus.” Nye argues that this assumes the culpability of those experiencing homelessness, largely ignoring systemic causes.
While some rescue missions have recently changed practices like mandatory chapel attendance, Nye argues that paternalism often remains under new terminology like “life-transformation” programs. This view is still alive and well, captured in recent articles with titles like “Housing Doesn’t Solve Homelessness.” In contrast, Nye offers the Housing First model to prioritize dignity and stability rather than point fingers of blame. Further, he undermines common assumptions by sharing stories of unhoused neighbors who already have faith in God prior to entering the rescue mission and therefore don’t need to be “evangelized.”
The remaining chapters are packed with a variety of ways that churches are involved in housing beyond the rescue mission model—from large-scale property development and policy reform to small acts of solidarity like advocacy and offering a church parking lot for safe parking. The “Go and do likewise” sections at the end of each chapter are more reflective than prescriptive—in fact, Nye calls the book “not a checklist, but rather a menu.” His encouragement is that you do not need to do all these things to solve homelessness—but that we need to do them.
Starting at housing development, Nye acknowledges uncertainty about “dechurching” trends and praises congregations that are “willing to live, even die, for the sake of others” as an example of Christ. I feel inspired by the stories of congregations leveraging their real estate to build housing, even as my own local church body has experienced the slow process of praying about opportunities that haven’t yet panned out.
He doesn’t use the term, but his focus is asset-based: “If it is true that ‘the church is not a building, but a people,’ then any congregation is able to effect positive change regardless of the physical resources they do or do not possess.” He also points to how each small step forms congregations and prepares us for the next opportunity. “In order to do the big thing, these folks had to be faithful in all of the small ways for years, even decades.”
On reflection, I appreciated that he didn’t order the projects from small to large—as if you should work your way up to larger projects that “really matter.” Rather, he inspired us with a few big projects, then pivoted to more accessible opportunities. In fact, churches without the resources to tackle longer-term housing supply or policy issues may be better suited to focus on the immediate needs of neighbors. Nye notes, “Smaller projects allow for attention to detail and decisiveness about dignity.” One example he shared follows the model of refugee settlement, where a case manager pairs someone in need with a support team of ordinary congregants—this is the Body of Christ being the Body!
Interestingly, the final chapter culminates in the story of a transformed rescue mission. Before, the programs at City Rescue Mission in Oklahoma City included mandatory chapel attendance, forced unpaid work at the mission, and a selective list of approved churches to attend. When a new director stepped in, the community had the momentum to make improvements that respect the dignity of program participants. The director set a goal to “keep people in instead of looking for ways to keep people out.” As followers of Jesus, may we become the social safety net that our neighbors—both believers and unbelievers—deserve.
Early in Hope for the Mission, Nye mentions that churches are uniquely positioned to deal with the issues of both house and home—and I wanted to hear more about the theological motivation for the work. Nye explained that this second book is putting hands on the theology of the first book. (Grace Can Lead Us Home applied the theological lens of grace to each topic—isolation, mental health, substance use, etc.) While his examples of ecumenical collaboration are inspiring, I wanted Hope for the Mission to say more about how followers of Jesus have a unique motivation to turn from NIMBYism to saying “Yes in God’s Backyard.”
While pointing out flaws in “evangelism-forward” gospel rescue missions, Nye is clear that we do not have to be ashamed that we are Christians who follow the pattern of Jesus. In contrast to mandatory chapel attendance at a rescue mission, ministries he highlighted like “Church at the Park, FedUp, and The Lamb Center don’t have to force attendance because what they offer meets the spiritual needs and desires of those who come.” Indeed, we can look for Jesus in the faces of our unhoused neighbors—both those who are sisters and brothers in Christ and those who aren’t. This is a posture of true solidarity rather than paternalism.
Pete Ford
Pete Ford is a stay-at-home dad as well as a digital marketer for Christian publishers and nonprofits. By night, he is a reader, focusing on topics including nonviolence, time, the built environment, and spiritual practices like Sabbath.
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