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Coming Events
(Outreaches subject to change. Call (510) 282-5629 on day before outreach to confirm.)
Friday Nov. 2, 9,16 5 – 8 PM Witnessing in San Francisco neighborhoods.
Sat. Nov. 3 Fisherman’s Wharf (Jefferson St. near Mason) SF 11 AM – 4 PM.
Sat. Nov. 10 Berkeley outreach 12:30 – 4:30 PM Shattuck and Center St.
Sat. Nov. 17 5th St. and Market 12-4 PM.
MULTIPLYING YOUR MINISTRY
Dear Christian friends,
When I first came to San Francisco in 1975, I knew only that God had called me to witness to the people of that city. I rented a room, got a part-time job to support myself, and went witnessing on the streets at every spare moment. I started attending a local church that was known for being evangelistic. They had a full-time minister of evangelism and most of the people in that church had completed an extensive evangelism training program. As I met people in church, I would invite them to go witnessing with me. Usually they would agree, and we would set a time and meeting place. Almost every time, the person wouldn’t show up. Finally, I realized that most of these Christians, even though they had received a lot of teaching on evangelism, had virtually no experience witnessing to strangers and were terribly afraid to do this.
I continued witnessing on the streets, mostly by myself, but my real desire was to see more Christians involved in evangelism. I read in Ephesians 4 that the job of the evangelist was to equip the church to do the work of the ministry, not to try to do it all himself. I knew Jesus had told us to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into the harvest field, so I continued to pray for laborers.
Over the next few years, God began to answer this prayer in an amazing way. I can’t tell you everything that happened in this short article, but first God showed me to start doing outside evangelistic concerts in downtown San Francisco. We had a wonderful response from unbelievers and many Christians expressed an interest in this kind of outreach. Several pastors wanted to bring groups from their church. Before long, we were doing outreaches every six weeks with 100-200 Christians. In January, 1980, twenty pastors and evangelists met to plan the first SOS- San Francisco outreach for August 16-24. About 1500 Christians participated in this outreach. Every day and night we sent teams of Christians throughout the city to witness. We had major rallies every day in a downtown park or plaza. We gave out almost half a million tracts. Everywhere people went that week in San Francisco, they were likely to run into Christians who would witness to them about Jesus.
When I came to San Francisco, I had no concept of starting a street ministry. I just wanted to see the city reached with the gospel and I knew I couldn’t do very much by myself. I want to challenge you to multiply your ministry. Pray for laborers. Look for ways to get other Christians involved in evangelism. Start with your own church. You’ll get a lot of rejection but don’t give in to discouragement. Your ministry may involve discipling one believer at a time in evangelism or it may involve groups of believers. Be consistent — set aside a regular time and place for outreach and go out whether anyone else comes or not, rain or shine. God honors faithfulness. “Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not” Gal. 6:9.
The importance of community: Sometimes Christians ask me how we were able to keep a street evangelism team going for over 40 years. I do not know of any other street witnessing team anywhere in the world that has lasted that long. For one thing, we have always had a Christian ministry house that has formed the core of our outreach team. Those who have lived in that house have always committed themselves to participating in our regular weekly evangelism outreaches.
I have known many Christians who have tried to start a street witnessing team in their city. Perhaps one week they will get 5 people to come. The next week, perhaps nobody comes. After a few weeks, the Christian will give up and the outreach ends. Without a core group of Christians who have committed themselves to participate in an outreach regularly, a street witnessing team will not continue. The best way I have found to put together such a group is by opening a ministry house. Over the years, we have had Christians who do not live in our house who nonetheless participate regularly in our outreaches. Unfortunately, such people are rare. Without a ministry house, our street evangelism team would not have survived for 40 years.
Increasingly, Christians are learning about our ministry through the internet. For years, if someone did an internet search on Google for “San Francisco evangelism” or something like that, our website was at the top. (67% of all internet searches are on Google.) This does not surprise me, since there are not a lot of evangelism ministries in San Francisco.
This past month, however, I did a search on Google for the words “street witnessing” (leaving out the words “San Francisco”). It turns out that my street witnessing book is result #1 out of 19 million search results! A friend suggested that perhaps the reason was that Google knew my location and gave me results near to me. So using a VPN in Vienna Austria (this causes Google to think I am searching from that location) I did the same search. This time, my street witnessing book was result #4, still on page one. This really surprised me, and left me with mixed feelings: 1. I am very happy that our ministry is so prominent on the internet. 2. Where are all the other street ministries around the world? Why are they less prominent on the internet? 3. Where are the younger Christians, who should be much more proficient than me at maximizing search results on the internet? Are none of them interested in street witnessing?
On the Streets
On Friday June 22, we had planned to witness on Haight St. We picked up a lot of food from City Impact to give out to the homeless kids there. However, when we arrived, the place was empty. Instead, we went to 16th St. and Mission. We gave out all our food there, along with gospel tracts, and people were quite appreciative. Matt witnessed to Steve, a liberal Jew who had lived in Israel for 7 years. Dave witnessed to “Z” from Burma. He had witnessed to him before and gave him a “One Way” tract that explains the gospel in a simple way.
The next day, we witnessed at 5th St. and Market. It was the day before the “gay parade,” which drew many people wearing strange costumes. Mike and James witnessed to Don and Mike, two brothers from Germany who were raised Catholic. They listened respectfully and took a gospel of John. Matt witnessed to Abdul, a Muslim from Oman. Dave witnessed to Sarah, whom he had witnessed to on June 2 at Union Square. She said, “I’ve been thinking about what you told me.”
On Friday June 29, we witnessed at 24th St. and Mission. As often happens in the Mission district, a Christian was preaching in Spanish across the street from us. Mike shared his testimony with Rosbyn, a man from Cuba. He also bought some food for a man from Mongolia who was hungry. He shared the gospel with him and invited him to City Impact. Dave witnessed to Sassi and Charles, both from India. Both went to Catholic school and were receptive to the gospel. He also witnessed to Zoe, from China, who took a Chinese tract.
The next day, we witnessed at Fisherman’s Wharf. “Takin’ it to the Streetz” Ministries from Sacramento joined us. They brought about 30 Christians, most of whom shared their testimony over the microphone. Several of them sang and one did rap. Dave witnessed to Anthony and Katie, both teenagers, who were receptive to the gospel. He witnessed to Paul, a Sikh, and two Mormons, Nathan and Tyler. He also witnessed to Michael, who had been married to a Christian, but was now very bitter against God and the church. James and Mike witnessed to a group of five teenagers. One said he was an atheist. After Mike shared some apologetic arguments with him, he took a gospel of John. The Sacramento team prayed with several backslidden Christians who wanted to get right with God.
Ministry Needs
Thank you again for your prayers and financial support for this ministry.
We finally received a response from the San Francisco Park Department about why we are being denied permits at Dolores Park and Washington Square. They said they were concerned about noise, trash and damage to park property, so they decided to give permits only to certain large events, like the annual “Dyke March.” This makes no sense, since large events are more likely to create noise, trash and damage property than small events. In reality, they give permits to large groups because they have more political clout! Please pray that God will direct us regarding any legal steps we should take.
We have an opening in our ministry house for a Christian who is serious about evangelism. Please pray that God will bring the right person.
Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum