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Coming Events
Note: Outreaches are subject to change. Call (510) 282-5629 to confirm outreaches or for more information.
Friday May 9, 16, 23, 30 6 – 9 PM Witnessing in San Francisco neighborhoods.
Sat. May 10 12-5 PM UN Plaza 7th St. and Market SF
Sat. May 17 12:30-4:30 PM Berkeley outreach. Telegraph and Haste St.
Sat. May 24 1-5 PM Dolores Park 19th St. and Dolores SF
Sat. May 31 11 AM – 1 PM Fisherman’s Wharf 3-5 PM Union Square Post St. near Powell
August 6-9 SOS-San Francisco 35th year!
Using Gospel Tracts
Dear Christian friends,
Passing out gospel tracts is one of the easiest, yet most effective, ways to evangelize. It takes skill to be a good conversationalist – to start a conversation about Christ, to explain the gospel message clearly, to help a person see his need for salvation, to deal with objections. Friendship evangelism also involves skill – developing a friendship, bringing your conversation around to spiritual things, and sharing the gospel lovingly but without compromise.
Some Christians are good at engaging strangers in conversations. Some are good at friendship evangelism. Many of us have a hard time witnessing either to strangers or to friends. Our skills in these areas can improve with training and practice. And every Christian can pass out gospel tracts – both to friends and to strangers.
This past month, a team from Eureka, CA joined our outreach. One member of that team, Robin Anderson, first started witnessing with us in the 1980’s. Robin not only preaches but passes out gospel tracts. Robin is blind. If Robin can pass out gospel tracts, anyone can.
So what stands in our way? Mostly, it is fear of people’s reactions to us and the sense that what we are doing is unnatural or somehow wrong. If I needed a job, and the only one I could get was passing out fliers for a restaurant, I would do it. It is an honorable job. If there is nothing wrong with passing out restaurant fliers, why would it be wrong to pass out gospel literature? Certainly, every Christian believes that people will benefit more from a gospel tract than from a restaurant flier.
I’ve heard the objections: “You can’t put the gospel on a piece of paper.” The Bible is printed on paper. “You need to make friends with someone before you can share the gospel.” Where is that in the Bible? “It’s too impersonal or mechanical.” Who says? You can certainly be friendly and personable while giving out tracts. You can also be ready to engage interested people in a conversation. But a good gospel tract can be effective regardless of our personal shortcomings — and we all have shortcomings.
One of the best things about gospel tracts is that you can’t argue with them. How do you argue with a piece of paper? If I give someone a tract that clearly explains the gospel, the recipient can either read the tract, throw it away, or put it in his pocket to read later. Regardless, I have given him an opportunity to hear the gospel and respond.
I would like to see every Christian become more skillful in witnessing both to strangers and friends. But, for many of us, the easiest yet most effective thing we can do is give well-written gospel literature to people. And it is even easier to leave gospel tracts in public places — like tables, literature stands, and public restrooms.
During our SOS outreaches, a person walking down the street may hear only a brief excerpt of our preaching or music. They probably will read our signs, but they don’t present the whole gospel message. A few are willing to stop and talk with us, but most do not. But many people will take a gospel tract and read it. That is why we use gospel tracts that are written in an intelligent way to relate to the people of the San Francisco area, and that explain the gospel clearly. They also contain our contact information and a coupon people can mail in to get more information.
Every year, we sow many thousands of gospel seeds on the streets. These seeds need to be “watered” and eventually some will bear fruit in that a person will be saved. We sow in faith, trusting God to work in people’s lives and save some. Most of the fruit of our labors we will not see until we are in Heaven. “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase” 1 Cor. 3:6,7. We need to be content to take the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, leaving the results to God. We walk by faith, not by sight, and trust that God is working in people’s lives, regardless of what we see or don’t see.
Berkeley Blitz
The University of California at Berkeley has about 36,000 students. Perhaps 3000 of these are Christians. Most of the Christians are Asian, mainly from China and South Korea. There are a number of campus Christian groups, but there is very little open evangelism. There seems to be more interest in social justice causes than in evangelism.
Occasionally, street preachers would go to Berkeley, but many of them alienated Christian students with their angry, condemning preaching.
We have done evangelism in Berkeley for about 30 years, mostly on Telegraph Ave. For a few years during the 1980’s, we worked with a small student group to preach on campus at Sproul Plaza. We also did a few concerts there. Since that time, we have been unable to find a student group that was willing to work with us in evangelizing the campus.
Last month, I mentioned that Roy Spears has been staying at our house. He has been evangelizing daily on campus, working with Larry DuBois and Dave St. Marie from our house. Roy and Larry D. planned an event they called the Berkeley Blitz from March 5 to 22. The outreach has been very successful, with much interest from campus Christians as well as from non-Christians. Several Christian students have begun open air preaching for the first time. Others have started witnessing to other students. As many as four teams of Christians have been preaching the gospel on campus simultaneously. Roy decided to stay another month and is considering moving here from Arizona.
The response from non-Christians has been better than they had expected. Quite a few students were willing to engage in long conversations with them about Christ. They have gotten to know some of the students, and see them repeatedly. They may start a Bible study for interested students.
On March 19, about 500 Christians gathered at Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza for a rally called Reverberate. Larry D. and I passed out fliers about our ministry and July internship and spoke with campus Christians. Last night, a leader of one student group, whom I had spoken with two years ago, called me and asked if we were still interested in preaching on Sproul Plaza with them. I told him we were, and he is pursuing it.
On the Streets
On Friday March 7, we witnessed at the Sony Metreon. Dave witnessed to Stephanie, a Catholic art student from Texas who was filming Larry’s preaching. He witnessed to Gabriel, also Catholic. Both were quite receptive to the gospel. He also ministered to Joel, a backslidden Christian, and prayed with him. Mike witnessed to Bobby, a nominal Catholic who had been a drug addict, but had stopped using drugs.
The next day, we witnessed at 5th St. and Market, in downtown San Francisco. Dave witnessed to Maloma, who is from Spain. I witnessed to Hashem and three other students from West Texas University. All four are secularized Muslims from Dubai. I was able to share the gospel with them. Tim Moon played music on both Friday night and Saturday afternoon.
On Sat. March 15, we witnessed at Fisherman’s Wharf. Paul and Noreen Coca played music. They had invited a youth group from Sunrise Christian Fellowship in Modesto. Ten adults and youth joined us that afternoon. Alex, the youth leader, and Chris, one of the youth, spoke over the microphone. The others joined us in worship and passed out gospel of John booklets.
On Friday April 4 we witnessed at Powell and Market St. A team of eight Christians from Harvest Church in Eureka, CA, joined us both Friday and Saturday. They sang, passed out tracts, and witnessed to people. Dave witnessed to Michel, a Muslim student from Saudi Arabia. He also witnessed to three young women, Ashley, Mary Ann and Angela, and two young men, Melik and Keenan. They were all receptive to the gospel.
On Saturday, we witnessed at Fisherman’s Wharf. Richard Griffin and Dave May played music. Dave St. Marie witnessed to Kumar, a Hare Krishna whom I had witnessed to before. When he was giving an illustration about Jesus paying a fine for someone who had embezzled something, Kumar’s face turned white and he left abruptly. Perhaps the illustration hit too close to home.
Ministry Needs
A large part of our ministry is distributing gospel tracts. We write and print our own tracts, which explain the gospel clearly and give people a street address, phone number, and email address to contact us for more information. Several people contact us each month from our tracts.
Our tract supply is getting very low and we need to print some more tracts. It will cost us about $1200 to print 60,000 tracts. I appreciate whatever you can do to help us with this need.
I hope some of you will join one of our outreaches this next month.
Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum
