Legal Update
You may have heard about the permit granted to the “Sisters of
Perpetual Indulgence” for a street closing in San Francisco on
Easter Sunday. The Catholic Church had opposed them, since this
group, consisting of homosexual men dressed as nuns, mocks Chris
tianity and the Catholic church. Twenty years ago, this group
often appeared at our outreaches, ridiculing our beliefs.
The story made national news. San Francisco gay supervisor Mark
Leno appeared on one show. He said that the purpose of the First
Amendment is to protect unpopular groups. The “Sisters” are not
an “unpopular group” but part of San Francisco’s politically
powerful homosexual community. Meanwhile, the city continues to
trample on the rights of Christians.
During Easter week, we spent two days at a hearing at which we
were trying to prove that the city was prosecuting me for laws
that don’t apply to any other group. By the second day, it seemed
that Judge Mason was totally on our side. She asked the District
Attorney, “So what you are saying is that Mr. Rosenbaum had a
lawfully permitted activity and that one person complained about
it?” He had to admit that this is what their whole case was
about.
However, Judge Mason didn’t want to take the time to go through
all our videotaped evidence. She asked us to write down every
thing we claim is proved by these tapes. Then the prosecution can
try to refute our claims. This process will take a month and will
delay the end of this matter and the return of our sound system.
The hearing will continue on May 6. Please pray that Judge Mason
will dismiss the charges against me and that she will rule that
the sound ordinance is being enforced in a discriminatory manner,
and therefore is unconstitutional.
More Persecution
Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse, they did. On
Saturday March 27, after our outreach at Powell and Market, we
moved up a block to Powell and Ellis. We had been there several
times using our 9 watt amplifiers, with no problems from the
police. According to the San Francisco noise ordinance, amplifi
ers 10 watts and under do not require a permit. But Captain
Mannheimer told us we couldn’t use our amplifiers without a
permit. We preached and sang the rest of the afternoon without
amplification.
When I got home, the following message was on our answering
machine: “I just want to thank you for your brochure. it’s the
best thing that’s ever been handed to me. Thank you for your good
work.”
The following Saturday, the day before Easter, we had another
permit to hold a one-and-a-half hour outreach at Powell and
Market. At the beginning of the outreach, somebody stole our
large banner that reads “Open your heart to Jesus” and “Only one
way to God: Jesus.” It was our best banner. One musician’s car
broke down on Market Street. This delayed our outreach. Another
musician’s voice gave out while he was singing. One outreach
worker’s car window was broken during the outreach. Another
worker had a pipe break at his house. He had to go home to fix
it.
Shortly after we began, a police officer approached us. He said that Captain Mannheimer had told him we need an “entertainment
permit” to use our amplifier. We showed him our loudspeaker
permit but he said this was the wrong permit. He ordered us to
shut down our sound system. He said if he came back and we were
using the system he would cite us.
After all our legal problems, I really try to obey police orders
and avoid arrests. But this was too much. This officer was tell
ing me to shut down because I didn’t have a nonexistent permit.
We continued our outreach and the officer didn’t cite us.
We had planned to use a 9 watt amplifier at Powell and Market the
rest of the afternoon, but we couldn’t do this because of the
officer’s threat. Instead, we went to Fisherman’s Wharf. As we
drove down Jefferson Street, we saw four bands using full sound
systems without a permit, in violation of the law. “Surely the
police will not bother us here,” I thought.
We set up our 9 watt amplifier on the same block. Immediately, we
were attacked by street vendors. They started screaming at us.
One threatened to use his sorcery against us. Another vendor got
his motorcycle and tried to drown out my preaching with its
noise. All they did was draw a huge crowd.
We didn’t want to upset the vendors, but this seems to be the
only place we can go where the police will leave us alone. And
we’d rather disturb the vendors than get arrested. The vendors
didn’t mind the other four bands on the block, but they couldn’t
stand our gospel preaching and music.
Unleashing the Church
Frank Tillipaugh is (or was) pastor of Bear Valley Baptist Church
in Denver, a church of over 1000 meeting in a sanctuary that
seats 275. Instead of building a big, expensive facility in the
suburbs that would be full only on Sunday morning, they chose to
hold multiple services and spend their resources on outreach.
They hired several full-time ministers to lead outreaches in
various communities–such as to international students, refugees,
and street people. Tillipaugh’s experiences are related in a book
he wrote: Unleashing the Church: Getting People out of the For
tress and into Ministry.
“The fortress church puts up its building, starts its programs
and concentrates primarily within its walls….In the church
unleashed an individual’s primary ministry may be within one of
many traditional church programs such as Sunday School. But there
is an equal chance that his ministry may be in a prison or work
ing with a foreign student.” In the fortress church, most members
participate only as spectators on Sunday morning.
According to Tillapaugh, since the 1930’s there has been a shift
in which most outreach ministry is now done by “parachurch”
organizations like Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and Campus
Crusade. In 1982, Campus Crusade had over 11,000 overseas staff,
compared to 3,000 for the largest denomination (the Southern
Baptist Convention). In contrast, the local church has concen
trated on ministering almost exclusively to the middle-class
family. But most Americans no longer belong to “middle class
families.” Tillapaugh is not opposed to parachurch ministries,
but believes that the local church should also be involved in a
variety of outreach ministries.
“Any Bible-believing church can have an effective ministry in the city.” But “the biggest obstacle to unleashing the church
is…the senior pastor.” If he wants to release church members to
minister, the church will develop effective outreaches. If he
wants to control everything, the church will remain a fortress.
“I believe that if he is really committed to the concept of the
church unleashed, he can see it happen within five years.”
March for Jesus
Saturday May 22
Every year, millions of Christians from around the world unite to
take the joy of knowing Jesus into the streets with prayer,
praise, and proclamation of the gospel. This year’s March is
scheduled for May 22. The San Francisco march will begin at 9 AM
at the Embarcadero. We will be marching to Civic Center. For more
information about the San Francisco march, call Pastor Carlos at
Glad Tidings Church, (415) 346-1111. For marches in other cities,
call (512) 416-0066.
Coming Events
Note: All outreaches are subject to change. Call (510) 531-5325 the
day before to confirm outreaches or for more information.
Friday May 7, May 21, June 4 7:15 PM. Witnessing in various S.F.
neighborhoods. Meet at City View Church, 884 Rhode Island near
20th St., SF. (Call us for directions.)
Sat. May 1 and May 8 San Francisco Outreach. 12-5 PM Meet at Pow
ell and Market. We will be moving to another location at 1:30 PM.
Sat. May 22 March for Jesus (see information above).
August 13-21 SOS-San Francisco. Set aside this week to join us
for our 20th annual outreach to the people of San Francisco.
Ministry Needs
Again, we thank you for your prayers and financial support for this
ministry. Pray that God will bring a quick end to our legal struggles
and give us victory so we can get loudspeaker permits for 5
hours at Powell and Market and at other locations, and can
minister without fear of arrest. Pray for us as we plan our SOS-
San Francisco outreach, that many Christians and church
groups would join us and that many will be saved.
Enclosed is an SOS-San Francisco flier. Please plan to join us
for this outreach and tell your pastor and Christian friends
about it. Please pray for those who wrote us or prayed with us
this past month, including Ben (Brussels, Belgium), Marvin,
Naran, and Kathleen (SF), James (Oakland), Lorna (Berkeley),
Larry (Fernley, NV), and Bobby (Childress, TX prison).
We need many more Christians to join our outreaches on
Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. Over 100,000 Chris
tians live in the San Francisco area. Surely, there are many
that God is calling to witness with us, and who are resisting
that call. We also need one spiritually-mature Christian with a
calling in evangelism to live in our ministry house.
Our Tape of the Month is Open Air Preaching by Scott Crawford.
Jesus was a street preacher. We can follow his example. I hope
many of you will join us for an outreach this month. We need your
Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum
