Ken, one of our Trustees, writes about the cost of being a Street Pastor, in part 1 of our “Cost of a Street Pastor” series of articles. This week, the cost is time.

What is the cost of being a street pastor? In Chester, the monetary cost of becoming a Street Pastor is nothing, although some other Street Pastor initiatives do ask their volunteers to cover the cost of uniforms and initial training. We in Chester have always managed to find funding to cover these costs from our supporters.

So, the main cost is time, usually a Street Pastor will do one patrol per month based on our present numbers (obviously the more Street Pastors we have the the fewer times we need to go out). A typical patrol is from 10pm until 3am – so five hours a month. Over and above that, we have training evenings regularly and all Street Pastors are expected to attend at least three sessions per year. Like many other ministries or volunteering opportunities, you can always choose to get more involved. In my case after, about a year as a Street Pastor an opportunity to become a Team Leader came up, and I felt it right to respond in a positive manor to the opportunity.

Later I was invited to join the trustees and become a member of the management team which involves more meetings and more time, and like all things, you can always find more to do if you want to. The best thing about being a Street Pastor is seeing the difference our work makes to people in our community we regularly are stopped by people who have been helped by Street Pastors in the past, this shows how we are appreciated by people out there.

If you would like any more information, or to get involved, click here.