On a cold night in 1985, the Rev. Charles Strobel, then pastor at Holy Name Catholic Church in East Nashville, invited the people who were trying to sleep in the parking lot to come inside. This gesture, which he already knew might alter the course of his life, eventually grew into a citywide program known as Room In The Inn, now comprising 200 congregations, offering shelter and warm meals to those in need. It has become a national model, and the city’s first permanent supportive housing facility, Strobel House, bears his name.

Charlie, as most knew him, passed away in August 2023. Three years earlier, he sat down with his friend John Spragens for an interview. The Banner‘s Demetria Kalodimos was behind one of the cameras as Charlie shared some of the major influences on his life: an encampment of unhoused men who befriended him as a child; attending school in Washington, D.C., during the height of anti-war protests there; a professor who read the Sermon on the Mount every day. This special episode draws from that interview.

Listen to the Interview here.

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