Following a launch last May to recruit more pastors, Aston Christian Centre in

Birmingham (UK), with a membership of approximately 400, now has 20 pastors.

And senior pastor at the church, Rev. Calvin Young, along with associate pastors,

Rev. Sandra Thomas and Rev. Michael Royal, hopes to expand the pastoral team even

further before long.

But why would a church of 400 members need all of 20 pastors? Why would it

still be on the lookout to recruit even more? And what on earth will all these pastors

be doing in one church? Quite a fair bit, in actual fact, and they have already been

doing it out on the streets of Aston, Lozells and Handsworth, to be more precise. They

are the street pastors, part of a growing team across the UK, who have literally been

taking the streets by storm in several cities where gun and drug related crimes have

set in with gangrenous effects. They patrol the streets from 10 o’clock at night to 3 or

4 o’clock in the morning on Fridays and Saturdays and get involved in anything from

simply smiling and saying hello, to praying for people, diffusing potential gang fights

or referring people to social service agencies that can assist with housing, drug

addiction problems, domestic violence issues, education and a host of other social

needs.

Street pastors typically go through a training course of 12 full Saturdays

stretched over six months. After the fourth week, they start going on the streets, while

they continue their training.

Seven street pastors graduated officially from the training programme at Aston

Christian Centre recently. It was the first batch from the centre and the remaining 11

are expected to fully complete their training at different times in the coming months.

But it is hard to tell the graduates apart from those still in training. They are all

clad in the distinctive blue shirt and coat with ‘street pastor’ emblazoned across the

backs. They are all bubbling over with an enthusiasm for what they do and they all

have amazing stories to tell of how God has used them to make differences in the

lives of countless people who would not normally attend regular church services.

Associate pastor, Rev. Michael Royal, himself one of the seven graduates, said

being a street pastor was about listening dialoguing, caring and being a visible

presence on the streets in troubled areas.

“Our fellowship became involved in the initiative in response to gang violence

and the gun culture here in Aston and the surrounding communities of Lozells and

Handsworth,” he said. “I was concerned personally and that’s why I became a street

pastor.

David Summers, another graduate, said he has been a street pastor since last

April. He recalled the incident when four girls from Birmingham were shot, two of

them fatally, and said he felt there was not enough being done to address the issues

that led up to the incident.

“I wanted to make a practical difference in my community.” he said, “That’s

why I decided to become a street pastor.”

David said being on the streets has been interesting and fulfilling. He also

recalled an incident where a girl rang the street pastors hotline for assistance,

subsequently started visiting the Aston Church and, along with several of her children,

eventually got baptized.

“She is still in fellowship here,” David said. “We are not aggressive in our

approach,” he continued. “Listening is key. Sometimes we go into pubs. Sometimes

we will just sit there and have a drink and people will often approach us. Depending

on what they say, we let the conversation flow from there.

“Many of the people we speak with are backsliders so we get opportunities to

encourage them. Sometimes people will ask us to pray for them. Once a girl stopped

us and asked us to pray for her. We did and we prayed for her during the week. The

following week we saw her again and she told us that she had derived comfort from

our prayers. We were able to refer her to the hotline for additional assistance.

“Jesus was the first ever street pastor. He went to the tax collectors and the

prostitutes. It’s all about meeting needs, not just banging on all the time about hell and

damnation.”

Street pastors have sometimes been mistaken for police informants. “That was

mainly when we first started going out,” said David. “They were wary of the uniform

and whenever we spoke to people, it’s like they’d look at the tag on our jackets and

say: ‘street patrol…that’s not how you spell patrol.’ Laughing, David scrunched up

his eyes and mimicked someone peering at a street pastor’s coat tag. “But it got better

once they got used to seeing us out there.”

Yvonne Richards agreed. “People were a bit sceptical when they saw us the first

week. Then they saw us again the second week and by the third week they began to

get a bit more comfortable seeing us out there. They would ask us what we’re doing

and once they knew, they’d say that more of us were needed. It’s about building

relationships and trust; about building a bridge between church goers and non church

goers.”

Yvonne, one of four women graduating from the programme, said she too was

concerned about what was happening in local communities and wanted to help.

“I’m never on the street late at night,” she said, “so I would never get to meet

many of the people who need our help since I don’t see them on the street during the

day. That’s why I decided to become a street pastor. It’s been eye opening to see how

the other half live.”

Jackie and Angella Lawrence, two sisters who also enlisted to become street

pastors, hope to graduate later this year.

“We’re here to support those graduating tonight,” Angella said. “It will be our

turn soon and I am looking forward to that.”

Angella is happy with the response they are receiving on the streets. “We give

out leaflets with our hotline number and other useful social service numbers on it.

Once a girl stopped me and asked me, ‘do you have any of the leaflets with the

numbers on it?’ It made me feel like we are doing something worthwhile and like we

are in fact making a difference.”

“Being at this graduation makes me feel confident,” added Jackie. “It gives me a

good feeling about all that is happening with street pastors.”

Many other stories abound of the work of the street pastors in different cities in

the UK. One night in Hackney, in London, a group of six street pastors were nearby

when a group of some 200 young people poured out of a nightclub. An altercation

was brewing; it seemed to be about a girl. The female street pastor, who was leading

the team, intervened before the fight broke out. Getting right in the middle of the fray,

she said, “There’s no fighting gonna take place here tonight!” For half an hour, they

negotiated with the swearing factions, picking out the ringleaders and concentrating

on them as trained to do. But before it ended, a car arrived on the scene with four men

armed with guns who had come to join in. The female leader of the street pastors went

over to them and said, “You’re big men. What are you doing? Get out of this place!

You should be ashamed of yourselves!” The men drove off and the street pastors

managed to eventually diffuse the situation completely. Before leaving the scene, one

of the young men approached her and said, “Thank you mommy street pastor.”

Another incident is reported in Brixton where a group of women were involved

in an altercation and about to fight. They were loudly threatening each other and

swearing. A street pastor approached and said, “Now, now, ladies, there’s going to be

no fighting.” The women paid no attention. Suddenly, she raised her voice and

shouted, “In the name of Jesus…” Everyone froze. The street pastor was then able to

lead the ringleader away and another major incident was averted.

In Peckham, too, Rev. Les Issacs himself, the founder of the street pastors

ministry in London, was involved in diffusing a situation between a group of about

twenty black youths and two Chinese youths over the sale of a faulty DVD. Bottles

were thrown. One of the Chinese youths had sustained injuries and Rev. Issacs and his

colleague spent time pacifying both groups: Rev. Issacs speaking to the black youths;

his colleague, who happened to be Chinese, speaking in Cantonese to the Chinese

youths. Before long, another group of Chinese men arrived on the scene, in a car, with

metal bars to join in. At the sight of them, the black youths fled and Rev. Issacs and

his colleague spent some more time trying to pacify the new arrivals. Their presence

was even more instrumental when shortly afterwards a black youth, unrelated to the

incident, got off a bus and the Chinese men mistook him for one of the group of

twenty, only agreeing to let him be at Rev. Issacs’ insistence that he was not one of

them.

Police statistics for Peckham and Camberwell, two notorious hotspot areas, have

shown a dramatic reduction in violent crimes since street pastors started working in

the areas. A comparison of the figures for 2003/04 and 2004/05 between October and

January, shows between 88% and 100% reduction in violent crimes on a weekly basis

in Peckham and between 32% and 90% reduction in Camberwell. The Camberwell

police called Janice Gittens, Strategic Planner for street pastors at Ascension Trust,

saying they had to check their figures three times. But the evidence was correct. Their

presence on the streets had made a tangible difference.

“Besides all of these incidents, people are also coming to Christ,” Rev. Issacs

reports. “Countless people have emailed or telephoned or come up to us at meetings

and said ‘thanks for what you and your team have done for me. I am now saved and

attending church and serving the Lord.’”

Rev. Issacs, Director of Ascension Trust, a mission organization based in

London, and the man responsible for pioneering the street pastors ministry in London

in 2003, delivered the main address at Aston’s graduation ceremony.

“We have missed opportunities to be relevant,” Rev. Issacs told those gathered.

“People know what the Church is against rather than what we are for. There is a need

for us to stand up and acknowledge that yes, we’re Christians; yes, we love people

and yes, we’re human. It’s been a challenge just for the Church just to let people

know that we’re human—more than just happy clappers and tambourine people—

people who are relevant to the needs out there.”

Rev. Issacs acknowledged that even though not everyone they helped would

come to faith, they still had a responsibility to love and to care for them. “We need to

remember,” he said, “that but for the grace of God, there go I and as Jesus said, the

least you do to these, you have done to me.”

As enthusiastic about missions as the graduates, Rev. Issacs said, “We can’t

afford just to have Sunday service for two hours. We have to go beyond that.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful for a thousand people to be on the streets on any one night

just bringing hope to those in need?”

The street pastors have been working in cooperation with many social service

and other charity organizations. Karen Fyffe, of Barnardos, a charity that works to

support vulnerable children and young people, was present at the ceremony to endorse

the initiative. Karen has worked closely with the graduates, providing support and

assistance during their training.

“This ministry is like an embryo that will grow into a child,” she told them. “But

don’t let it overwhelm you. Just let God continue to use you and take you to the next

level.”

Endorsement for the overall street pastors programme in the UK has come from

several sources since it was launched 2 years ago in London. Supt. Neil Wain of the

Greater Manchester Police, in a BBC news interview, said he was keen on the work

the street pastors were doing in Manchester and acknowledged that gang members do

have a certain respect for the Church. The police in several cities across the UK where

street pastors operate work in cooperation with them and likewise appreciate the work

they are doing.

Last year, leader of the UK’s Conservative Party, the Rt. Hon. Michael Howard,

enthralled by reports of the street pastors’ work in London, went out one night with

Rev. Issacs and one of the teams to see for himself what they were doing.

“I was very impressed by the work of the street pastors,” he had said, “and wish

them well in turning people away from crime.”

Drivers customarily show their support, the street pastors say, by tooting their

horns and giving the thumbs up. Regulars who interact with the pastors, like Steve, a

security guard at a London nightclub, welcome their presence. Steve refers to Rev.

Issacs as my pastor. Major media houses have picked up on the story and a slew of

press articles and television reports and features have been produced. Major mentions

have included the BBC, an article in a prominent glossy monthly, New Woman, and a

slot in the 2005 edition of Local Heroes, a government sponsored publication that

gives recognition to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to local

communities. Even a drunkard the street pastors met one night mustered up enough

sobriety to give his own brand of endorsement. He is reported to have said, “It’s about

f-ing time the Church got out here. What took you so f-ing long?”

But where did it all really begin? With Rev. Issacs who pioneered the work and

was behind the first street pastors who started in London in 2003? Or perhaps it really

started in Jamaica where, in 2001, Rev. Issacs on a visit with Pastor Bruce Fletcher of

Christian Life Fellowship in Kingston and Pastor Bobby Wilmot of Covenant

Community Church, also in Kingston, first noticed that these men had a good rapport

with gang members sitting on street corners. Perhaps it started with the white middle

class pensioners in Stockwell, a group of old ladies who heard about the street pastors

when they were featured on Songs of Praise and subsequently telephoned Rev. Issacs’

office to say they had been praying for something like this for some time. Or perhaps

it goes even further back to the prayers of Rev. Issacs’ mother, who prayed

ceaselessly for her angry teenager who, in the face of racism, had embraced

Rastafarianism and rejected the blue eyed, blonde haired god whose henchmen were

the perpetrators of injustice and hatred towards the black race.

One may not be able to pin it down precisely. But one thing is clear—the seeds

were sown. After meeting with an African Christian man, who shared truths with him

that he would have been unable to hear from a white Christian on account of racist

experiences and hurts, Les gave his life to Christ at the age of 18. He was concerned

about missions from early on and became known as an ‘on-fire’ young man in church

circles. He eventually pastured a church for a number of years and finally started

Ascension Trust to concentrate on missions work to involve many churches.

In 2001, after witnessing the rapport that Pastors Bruce Fletcher and Bobby

Wilmot in Jamaica had with young men on the streets of Kingston, he took the

inspiration back to the UK. From there, it germinated into a road show that toured the

UK’s major cities, holding discussions in each location to try to get to grips with the

crime and violence problems being witnessed. It was clear that no one had the

answers. But after looking at the problems and analysing where and when killings

were happening, it became evident that what was needed was some solution for what

was happening at nightclubs and parties and on the streets late at nights. The street

pastors initiative was birthed directly out of this analysis. And it was officially

launched on 20th

January, 2003 at Brixton Baptist Church, with the first ever street

pastors appearing on the streets of Lambeth and Hackney in April of that year and

officially becoming the first UK graduates in September of the same year.

The ministry is poised for expansion into Southend, where 30 applicants are

ready to start training; Waltham Forest; Leeds; Leicester, Chelmsford. And the

international arena is on the cards too: from as far as Bolivia, churches have been

phoning to say they want to have street pastors there too. The Caribbean and Africa

are also on the cards. And Jamaica, where Rev. Issacs first received the inspiration,

has since come to the UK to witness the mobilization of an idea which was loosely in

effect in its own backyard and has taken the observations back to develop them there.

If Rev. Issacs has his way, street pastors could become a common fixture on the

streets of major cities all over the world.

So, if you have your sights set on the pastorate and have been thinking of

putting yourself forward for consideration, broach it with your local pastor—you can

never tell, you could very well find yourself out on the street!

To contact the street pastors ministry in the UK, telephone Ascension Trust: 0207 771

9770

Email: ascensionswjp@yahoo.com

Website address: www.streetpastors.org.uk