Newsletter November 1999

Church Growth

“Don’t  ever use the `E’ word with pastors,” I was advised  by  a

prominent  Christian leader. “Evangelism is a dirty word  in  the

church.  Use  the  `C’ word. Pastors like to  hear  about  Church

Growth.”  During the past decade, a lot of pastors read books  on

Church  Growth, attended seminars, and even hired consultants  to

help  their  church to grow. Some advice was  helpful.  Some  was

unscriptural. For example, they were told that churches that are

“racially and economically homogeneous” grow best. Many  church­

es,  following  this advice instead of James  chapter  2,  became

comfortable social clubs for rich white people.

I was very interested when two experts on Church Growth  appeared

on  the  700 Club TV show as part of a discussion  of  the

current  state of the church in America. Here are  excerpts  from

their discussion:

C. Peter Wagner: “I think it is pretty obvious from the last election

that some of the things the church was praying for and desiring did

not happen in our society. The decade of the 80’s was a decade of

a great flowering of the church growth movement with books and conferences

and much interest….[It was] even featured in Time magazine. But

yet at the end of the decade, church attendance was the same and Protestant

church membership had decreased….Even the churches that had grown

were shown to grow through transfer growth not through conversion

growth. We haven’t seen large numbers of unsaved people come to Jesus

Christ in America since the Jesus Movement. And I think it’s time

that we move out and do what’s necessary to see unsaved people come

to Christ….The only the way we are going to change the face of the

church in America is to free the lay people, to get the lay people

ministering.”

Ken Hemphill, Baptist Center for Church Growth: “From 1960 to 1990

church membership rose by 28% but at the same time population increased

by 39% and thus we would have had to have 12 million more Christians

today to keep even….There are churches that are reaching large numbers

of unsaved people but by and large any growth that occurs is largely

a transfer, what I term the reshuffling of the evangelical deck and

it seems that every time we reshuffle the cards we drop some of them.”

I was amazed to hear two prominent experts on Church Growth say that

despite all the books, seminars and interest in Church Growth over

the past decade, church growth is not even keeping up with the population

growth in our nation. And the growth we are seeing is pretty much

people moving from one church to another. Wagner said that the last

time we saw large numbers of unsaved people coming to Christ was during

the Jesus Movement and that what we needed was to get the lay people

ministering.

The Jesus Movement took place from about 1967 to 1975. During this

time, large numbers of people involved in the drug counter culture

were saved and were actively witnessing to others in this lifestyle.

Most were saved through street evangelism, through coffeehouses and

concerts, and through new converts witnessing to their friends.

I was saved in 1970 as part of the Jesus Movement. We met in crowded

living rooms and storefront churches, not worrying about comfortable

chairs or parking lots. We didn’t read books on church growth, but

we did read and obey the Bible. Jesus, Peter, Paul and the other

apostles went to the streets and public places to preach the gospel,

so that’s what we did. We also witnessed to our family and friends, anyone we could. As a result, a lot of people got saved.

During the 1980’s, a lot of Christians who had been saved during

the Jesus Movement stopped witnessing. They were busy making money,

raising their families, and had a lot of excuses for not witnessing.

Perhaps they thought that church growth experts and TV and radio ministries

could do the job for them so they wouldn’t have to face possible rejection

in witnessing to people. It didn’t work.

We  need to become disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Following

Jesus  involves obeying His command to take the Gospel  into  all

the  world.  We need to sacrifice our money, our  time,  and  our

pride. The hardest sacrifice is our pride. We need to be  willing

to face rejection and opposition when we confront unsaved  people

with their lost condition and need of a Savior.

Coming  Events

Note:  All outreaches are subject to change. Call (510)  531-5325

the day before to confirm outreaches or for more information.

Friday  November  5, 12, 19 7:15 PM. Witnessing in  various  S.F.

neighborhoods. (Call us for meeting location and directions.)

Sat.  November 6 and 20. San Francisco Worship Rallies.  12-1  PM

Powell and Market St. 2:30-4:30 PM Union Square (Powell and Geary

St.)

Sat. November 13 Berkeley Outreach. 1:30 – 5:30 PM. Telegraph and

Haste St.

Internet Evangelism

I  don’t  know how many of you are connected to the  internet.  I

have  found it to be a great source of information on just  about

anything.  It  is also a convenient way to shop.  There  are  web

sites  that allow you to compare prices from many merchants on  a

single  item. Often, you can save $100 or more on a  single  pur­

chase by shopping around.

Over a million people are now “online” and the number is  growing

rapidly.  The  “Heaven’s Gate” cult recruited  members  from  the

internet.  Of course, it can also be used to bring the  Truth  to

many people. One way is through an evangelistic web site. Another

way  is through use of chat rooms. A good book on the subject  is

E-vangelism:  Sharing the Gospel in Cyberspace. It  is  available

for  $10  at  (318) 237-7049. On the internet, there  is  a  free

Online  Guide  to Web Evangelism at www.brigada.org. We  hope  to

have our own website up and running soon. Happy surfing.

On the Streets

Because  our  permit times have been restricted so  severely,  we

have  been holding more than one outreach on Saturday  afternoon.

We are allowed permits at Powell and Market only from 12 to 1  PM

and  5 to 6 PM. We are allowed permits at Union Square  for  only

two  hours. On October 2 we tried to make the best of the  situa­

tion. We held a one hour outreach from noon to 1 PM at Powell and

Market.  Then  we moved our PA system to Union Square,  where  we

held  an  outreach from 2 to 4 PM. Finally, we set up  our  sound

system  a  third time at Powell and Market for a 5 to 6  PM  out­

reach.

The experience was quite exhausting, especially for Eric, who had

to set up the sound system three times that afternoon. Meanwhile,

the engine in our old van overheated so Eric’s wife Cammie had to

rescue us in their truck.

Still,  we were able to minister to thousands of  people  through music,  preaching, and personal witnessing that afternoon.  Union

Square is a great location for larger church worship groups,  and

we  have had some wonderfully anointed  groups  recently–Calvary

Chapel (San Mateo), Father’s House (Vacaville) and Shiloh  Chris­

tian Fellowship (Oakland).

On  Friday night, we ministered on Castro Street, the  Tenderloin

and  Haight  Street in September. Most of our  Friday  outreaches

have been small, and we certainly need some help.

We continue to receive many responses from people who were minis­

tered  to  during the SOS outreach. Andre, who came  out  of  the

Mormon church, is now attending Glad Tidings Church. He witnessed

with  us at two of our Saturday outreaches this past month.  Last

month,  I  spoke with two people I have been ministering  to  for

twenty years–Shannon and John. Both have AIDS, but have now made

a  commitment to Christ. Please pray for them. Also, please  pray

for those who have written us this past month, including  Lorene,

Charles,  Amy, Cynthia, Timothy, Enetra, and Calvin  (SF),  Peggy

(Oakland), Kevin (Daly City), Pablo (Reprisa CA prison), and Qing

(Louisville, KY).

Ministry Needs

Last  month,  we  purchased a new generator.  Our  old  generator

weighed  100 pounds and required a sound-muffling board  weighing

about  80  pounds. The new generator weighs only  30  pounds  and

doesn’t need to be muffled. It cost $700 but is well worth it. We

would  like  to get two new speakers that are  lighter  than  our

present speakers. They also cost about $700.

We  also got a new radiator for our 1973 van, but the  engine  is

not working well. Please pray that it will keep running, or  that

God will provide a new van.

Please  pray that we will have more workers to help us on  Friday

night and Saturday afternoon. We also need one man to live in our

ministry house in Oakland. We are looking for a mature  Christian

with  a calling in evangelism.

Our  Tape of the Month is Effective Jail and Prison  Ministry  by

Johnny Moffitt. Over a million Americans are currently in jail or

prison.  Many of them are hungry to know Jesus. They  (and  their

families) are a great mission field.

Yours in His love,

Larry Rosenbaum