Churches urged to back street pastors launch

The Norwich Street Pastors project has set a launch date and is inviting all city churches to get right behind it.

Representatives from every church in the area are invited to attend the Commissioning Service for the Street Pastors project which has set a launch date of March 16 to go out on the streets for the first time.

The service will be held at Chapelfield Road Methodist Church on Wednesday March 14 at 7.30pm. The Lord Mayor of Norwich, the Sheriff and the Norfolk Police will be present to offer their support.

Project co-ordinator, Val Dodsworth, said: “Our Street Pastors are now trained and ready for the service to which God has called them and will very soon be going out on the streets as ambassadors for Christ and representatives of the church in this area.

“They are experiencing a mixture of trepidation and excitement at this time and we very much want this service to be an event that both encourages them and makes them aware of the support and care of all the local churches. So, please put this date in your diary and support them on this occasion.

“We would like representatives from all the churches to be there as we are representing them on the streets of Norwich. We would like them to bless what we are doing on their behalf.”

Street Pastors Chairman, John Betts, said: “Street Pastors is an exciting new venture in the city and presents a great opportunity to serve the Body of Christ and the City of Norwich. We have found encouraging support from both the Police and City Hall. There are, to date, 17 pastors enrolled and a growing number of intercessors from many different church backgrounds.”

Anyone else wanting to be involved in this exciting project should contact Val Dodsworth on 01603 472753 or v.dodsworth@ntlworld.com

Feedback:

	Lyn Milns (Guest)	17/02/2007 06:36
5 years ago at the age of 53 the Lord laid on my heart the youth of Dereham out on the streets on a friday, usually 100+ in groups. When the Lord told me to go out to them, although scarey that first time, it was the most wonderful experience of my life. I am still out there every friday. What I really wanted to say to all your Street Pastors is this, you are following our Lords last commission and going OUT and the blessings from that work will be awesome. If only we could all grasp the Lords commission and go Out into our communities, wow! how we would see the kingdom grow. Can't remember the Bible saying get a nice building, sit in it and invite people in. Oops sorry guess you can see where my passion is, I am just so pleased to see Street Pastors ove the UK. God Bless
	Todd Bullis (Guest)	19/03/2007 16:35
I wanted to thank you guys for doing this and after reading this artical and a couple more my wife and i went out on St. Patricks day to the bars. Here is the quick story. Thanks again guys. God Bless Wow what a weekend. Saint Patrick’s day is about getting drunk, drinking green beer and pinching those who don’t have green on. Well that is what it is about these days but that is not how it always was. St. Patrick was born in Wales and kidnapped as a boy and served as a slave in Ireland, escaping back to Wales as a young adult. Soon after that he had a dream. The dream was the whole of Ireland’s people begging him to come back and share the gospel of Christ with them. This he did and converted the nation. St. Patrick’s day is a celebration of this mans life and the celebration of bringing Christ to Ireland to save it’s people from certain Hell. Today we mock this mans life by turning it into a drunken party. The other night I read this article in Christianity today. Street Pastors Debut in Norwich Street Pastors take the message of God's unconditional love to the streets of Norwich's clubbing district. http://www.christiantoday.com/article/street.pastors.debut.in.norwich/9983.htm I told my wife about it and she said, “well lets do it, we can spend our St. Patrick’s night in our bar district.” I said are you sure? She said yep. So after dinner we head out to the bar district of Ventura, its called old main street. Nice somewhat run down but it has lots of history and its cool. When we got there I prayed with my wife that God would bless our time and so on and than I asked God for protection for both of us. After I prayed my wife said, “why did you pray for protection? We have never had a problem” I told her you never know. Well the night went really well, drunk people are very open to taking Bible tracks and we had fun with quite a few of them. Than out side of one bar we see this big line of people waiting to get into the bar. My wife goes “look” we look at each other and smile and start heading over to the line. I grab the crowds attention by doing some magic trick and than after the quick show I give out one of the magic tricks and on the back of it is a Bible track. Simple right and all is going well. Then I look over for my wife and she is about 30’ away and I notice something is not right, she is up right next to this truck, kind of like she is being pulled in towards the driver of the truck. I rush over and the guy tosses the Bible track, (a billion dollar bill track) out of the truck. This guys is cursing up a storm and my wife now is standing about 14” away from him. I pull her back and ask her what the heck happen. This guy is still flipping her off and cursing up a storm. My wife begins to explain. “Well while you were working the crowd this group of guys pull up and start saying FXXX the Irish and that the Irish Suck and started saying how illegal aliens rule and Fxxx the Irish. So I say ok, not good so what did you do. She says “ well I thought for sure he needed a Bible track so I went up to give him one and he grabbed me and I told him to let me go and he did” at that point I gave him the Bible tact and he tossed it out the window and that is when I walked up. The guys drove off and that was the end of it. The 4 guys in the SUV were gang bangers and looking for a fight, they could have had guns in the car or who knows what. My wife someone who a year ago could not walk up to anyone and give them a Bible track can now walk up to a gangster and even after being accosted still gave him a Bible track. Wow I am so proud of her. I thank God that I prayed for protection that night. St. Patrick’s day will never be the same for us again and I can wait till next year. Todd Bullis Ventura California USA
	So how did it go? (Guest)	22/03/2007 14:22
We would like to know. Was anyone brought to repentance, were any seeds sown. Fill us in we want to hear about it.