Talk about thinking outside the box!Here's a very intense, directly-targeted ministry in England that is having a powerful corrective effect in several towns there, including a third of the boroughs of London.
The ministry is called Street Pastors and it takes church leaders and other members who want to make a difference in their community and puts them on the streets in groups of four from 10 at night to 4 in the morning. They are not auxiliary police; they aren't "crime patrollers" like NYC's Guardian Angels; they aren't street preachers. They are, rather, a street presence -- Christians willing to engage people "where they are," both in their philosophy of life and where they hang out.
They engage people and create friendships. They serve as a stable, protective force in the city darkness. They serve the social and spiritual needs of people on the streets, in the clubs, in the all-night shops. And they present the Church in a radically different light to the public.
Check it out right here. And then please say a prayer for their continued success in Great Britain. And then maybe say one more prayer for the creation of similar outreaches here in the States.
Thanks to Stuart Cunliffe, a friend and veteran pro-life colleague in England, for alerting me to this remarkable ministry. Stuart, as I've mentioned before, blogs at Diary of a WIP.