Perth Street Pastors, having been one of the first in Scotland, continues as most groups to expand and we are about to have our THIRD commissioning service for another 9 Street Pastors making our number at May 09 up to 29.

In reviewing our first years activities we reflect on the changes that have occurred in our being on the streets of Perth from 10pm on Saturday night until 3am on Sunday morning.

The main differences we found was that the questions we were being asked and the depth and the time of the questions was changing. As people got to know us better they dispensed with the usual banter that takes place and with a couple of drinks on them they went straight to the chase and ask us about deeply theological matters, which we try to answer. Overall it indicates to us that we are genuinely becoming the Church out there on the street.

The punter is not the least bit interested in which denomination we come from. No, he just wants to follow up his latent interest in spirituality or Christianity – out there on the street – you can forget your church at this point, just answer his query.

These new type of queries take much longer to answer and a Street Pastor could quite easily be involved for 20 minutes in a conversation which is deep and real and involved.

Prayer is figuring higher than in the early days with folk asking us to pray with them and for them regularly and this also indicates our maturity on the streets and our acceptance and again how we really have become the Church on the streets for the people who we meet and come across at night.

We have a couple of folk who are getting into the whole Scottish scene of Street Pastors and we are interested in what they tell us about a 10 fold increase in Street Pastor groups from all round the country getting involved. We were told recently about a visit where there were 20 churches involved from the Brethren to the Catholics and we thought that this was truly God inspired.

And what has God got in mind from this burgeoning Street Pastor movement? Now he has not told me yet - probably because I would blurt it out to you all.     Hallelujah.

Michael A Archibald - Coordinator