The following post is written by my friend and fellow writer Kevin D. Hendricks.

I asked Matthew to help promote my new book and he threw it back to me, asking me to write a guest post. So here I am, guest posting on Jesus Needs New PR. I feel a bit like I shouldn’t be here because I’m going to be all serious and talk about homelessness.

I guess at the least I can throw you a cheesy Jesus picture:

Homeless Jesus or hungry indie rocker?

The title of this blog is Jesus Needs New PR and I can’t think of better PR for Jesus than homeless advocate Mark Horvath.

In 2008 Mark Horvath was unemployed, couldn’t find work and was facing homelessness for the second time in his life. So he launched InvisiblePeople.tv where he shares raw, unedited videos of homeless people. He gives them a voice and a face and a name—like Drew or pregnant Jennifer or the 15-month-old Natasha. His work opens our eyes to the reality of homelessness. And it’s hard to look away.

Last week I launched a book inspired by Mark Horvath. It’s called Open Our Eyes: Seeing the Invisible People of Homelessness. It profiles 35 homeless people and shares their hopes and struggles. It also includes reflections from 24 wide-ranging experts—folks like Trust Agent author Chris Brogan, mom blogger Jessica Gottlieb and pastor Scott Williams—who have been inspired by Mark’s work using social media to help homeless people.

It’s a manual to motivate action and all the proceeds go to Mark’s nonprofit InvisiblePeople.tv.

Much like Jesus stormed into the temple and overturned tables, Mark is fed up with Christians who talk about helping but do little to actually help. “Stop talking and start loving,” he said in a recent interview on Church Marketing Sucks.

If we want to give Jesus new PR, we need to stop talking and start doing. Follow Mark Horvath to learn more about homelessness. Buy a copy of the book to support InvisiblePeople.tv.

And then go do something.

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Please check out Kevin’s and Chris’s book at Amazon!

  • Real stories: It features gritty stories from 35 homeless people sharing what it’s really like.
  • Big names: It includes contributions from two dozen experts, including folks like Trust Agent author Chris Brogan, mom blogger Jessica Gottlieb and Ford’s social media guru Scott Monty.
  • Good cause: All proceeds go to homeless advocate Mark Horvath and his nonprofit InvisiblePeople.tv.
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