STREET PASTORS: Taking Kindness And Love To The Streets
This book is about the birth and growth of the Street Pastors initiative in the UK
Britain’s late-night street stories are familiar to all: binge drinking, loneliness, gang culture, knife and gun crime, violence and fear. Barely a week goes by without another incident breaking on the news. But that’s not the whole story. Since 2003 a new breed of help has been on hand to dispel the tension and bring some desperately needed hope back to our urban communities. These are the Street Pastors, and the brand new book from Les Isaac tells their story from the man at the heart of it all.
It was back in 2003, against a background of sensational headlines and increasing fear, that Les Isaac was part of a group of eighteen concerned individuals who decided to do something about the chaos, setting up the country’s first street pastor’s scheme in Brixton, London. Six years later there are over 125 Street Pastors teams at work around the country, with more than 3,000 Christians involved.
According to the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, this is a significant book: ‘Les Isaac’s story of how he founded and developed Street Pastors is an example of faith in action and emblematic of building up the kingdom of god. ‘Street Pastors’ works because it recognises both our common humanity and common responsibility in bringing hope to the communities we share. This story should serve as a source of inspiration for all who work to restore society, to raise the fallen and to help our young people know the warmth of God’s love and welcome.’
Starting with the events and experiences that shaped Les’s thinking, the book narrates the story in detail, but also introduces the challenge facing the Church throughout the UK: how can we be distinctively Christian at the same time as developing partnerships outside of the Church? Les Isaac is convinced that this is not only possible, but vitally important. Over the past seven years he has witnessed tremendous unity as teams of Christians have put aside theological differences and committed themselves to sacrificial help of our communities.
Further information on Street Pastors is available at the website:
www.streetpastors.co.uk/
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Archive Article: Christian Today
Rev Les Isaac, founder of Street Pastors,
Black Christians across the denominational spectrum have been told they must play a greater role in stemming youth killings and violence and bringing peace in their communities,
The call comes from Rev Les Isaac, founder of Street Pastors, the initiative set up five years ago to combat gangs, drugs, guns and anti-social behaviour in inner cities.
He commented, “I was inspired to set up Street Pastors five years ago following the shooting of four teenage girls outside a hairdressers in Aston, Birmingham on New Years Day in 2003, because I strongly believed that having trained Christians patrolling the streets late at night who provided prayer, support and protection to young people would play a part in stemming youth violence and it has.”
“Our Street Pastors have stopped fights, gang wars, advised and prayed with young people who want to leave behind their life of crime, as well as provided support, assistance and a listening ear to members of the public who just want to speak to someone.”
He continued, “There have already been over 11 youth murders in London this year and Black Christians concerned about the violent behaviour of our youth should consider becoming Street Pastors.
“We also need believers of all races and cultures to ask God what role they can play to help combat the epidemic of violence that is greatly impacting the lives of young people.”
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Street Pastors is holding its first ever Practitioners Conference aimed at church leaders, heads of church departments and lay members interested in impacting their communities with social initiatives that meet local needs.
The Speakers
Speakers include the Archbishop of York, the Rt Rev Dr John Sentamu, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, Rod Jarman, the Deputy Assistant Commission of the Metropolitan Police, Criminologist, Professor John Pitts, Rev David Shosanya, co-founder of Street Pastors and Oliver Nyumbu, Chief Executive of CARET.
Rev Les Isaac
The Street Pastors Practitioners Conference is the brainchild of Rev Les Isaac, CEO of the Ascension Trust and co founder of Street Pastors. He said, “We’ve decided to hold a Practitioners Conference because during the six years of leading and developing Street Pastors we’ve learnt much about what it takes to set up and run social initiatives which impact local communities.”
- Speaker Boris Johnson
He continued, “We aim to use this conference to share what we’ve learnt so that we can inspire more church leaders and lay members to engage with their local communities and show them how they can do so.”
Workshops
The conference will comprise of keynote speeches and workshops on various subjects including Effective Fundraising, Serving the Community, The Government, Faith and Community Cohesion, Policing, Gangs, Good Practise and Prayer.
“I believe people who attend this conference will leave with information that will enable them to establish social initiatives and projects that have the potential to touch and transform the lives of people within their communities.”
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