Rev. Stephen "Soul Man" Martin

Forty years. A lot of roads. One calling: GO.

For more than four decades, I’ve taken ministry beyond church walls and into the places where people actually live.

My road began in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve Infantry before taking me into street ministry with Yonge Street Mission and Sanctuary Ministries in Toronto.

Since then, I’ve served in Toronto, Woodstock, Ingersoll, Goderich, Stratford and rural Ontario, and travelled north to Mayo, Pelly Crossing and Keno City in the Yukon, and Inuvik and Sachs Harbour in the Northwest Territories.

Along the way, I’ve worked among people experiencing homelessness, street-involved youth, women affected by sexual exploitation, Indigenous communities, Elders, bikers, veterans, military personnel, families in crisis, hospital and hospice patients, and people simply trying to make it through another day.

I’ve served on streets and backroads, in shelters and warming centres, hospitals and nursing homes, First Nations communities, biker circles, coffee shops, parking lots and around the tailgate of a truck.

And forty years has taught me this:

Ministry isn't always about having the right words.

Sometimes it's simply showing up.

Listening.

Sharing a coffee.

Walking beside someone through the hard stuff.

And staying long enough for them to know you mean it.

In 2023, I started Church on the Street Ontario to keep doing what I’ve always believed the Church is called to do:

GO WHERE PEOPLE ARE.

Those forty years on the road have become the foundation of The Missional Way.

It isn't another church program.

It's a call to get out of the building and put your faith on the pavement.

GO. LISTEN. LOVE. STAY.

Put your boots on.
Open the door.
Cross the street.

The mission field isn't somewhere far away.

It's right outside your door.

GO.