SOS Monthly Newsletter - November 2007

The following is the message I gave on August 8 at the Jesus Movement Now Conference, which held at Promised Land Fellowship in San Francisco

Dear Christian friends,

I was a hippie. I first came to San Francisco in the summer of 1967 to be part of the summer of love in the Haight-Ashbury. I was saved in 1970 at a Christian commune near Portland, Oregon. I lived in Christian communes in several cities for 4 ½ years before returning to San Francisco in 1975. Since then, I have been working with other believers in an effort to mobilize the church to preach the gospel in the streets and parks of San Francisco and Berkeley.

What will it take to see a significant change in San Francisco, our nation, and our world? First, Christians need to get very serious about prayer. This is starting to happen. We are seeing the beginning of a wonderful new prayer movement. But we also need to get very serious about evangelism. That hasn’t happened yet. Very few Christians witness for Jesus on a regular basis. Until that happens, we will not see a significant change in our world.

Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, said that “successful witnessing is simply taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, leaving the results to God." What kind of evangelism is effective? I believe that all evangelism is effective as long as we are speaking the truth about Jesus in love.

Some Christians, quoting St. Francis, say that we can witness without using words. Jesus needed to use words. We do as well. Jesus preached loudly enough that thousands of people could hear him – and he didn’t even have a PA system.

What does it mean to “share Christ”? There are two parts to our message – repentance from sin and faith in Jesus. A person needs to see that he is a sinner, that his sin is serious because one day he will be judged by a holy God, and that he needs to turn from his sin. He needs to put his faith in Jesus Christ, trusting Him to forgive him and give him a new life centered on living for God instead of living for self.

I believe we should present the gospel message in the most tactful and loving way possible. However, we cannot avoid offending people. Many people will get upset when we tell them that they have sinned, or that they need to trust in Jesus in order to receive forgiveness. People got upset at Jesus. They crucified him. The apostles also suffered severe persecution, and most were put to death. We must not think that we are better than Jesus and the apostles – that somehow we can devise a way to preach the gospel without getting persecuted. “If only Jesus and the apostles had used our new 21st century evangelism method, they could have gotten lots of people saved without suffering persecution.” The only way we can avoid persecution is by not preaching the true gospel. Paul said, “All who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

I believe God has made us all unique, and He will lead us differently in terms of the methods and style of evangelism we use. The important thing is that we all make a serious effort to bring the gospel to those around us who don’t know Jesus and are headed for Hell. We need to overcome our fear of rejection and persecution, and speak God’s word in love, with great sensitivity, but also boldly and without compromise.

On the Streets

We didn’t have many helpers for our September 22 outreach at UN Plaza. Eric Baxter was preaching on the streets of New York. Larry DuBois was visiting friends in Washington State. May was in China visiting her family. Only Loi was left in our house to help me set up the sound system. We looked for a homeless person who would help us unload the sound board for a few dollars. A Christian man helped us, but didn’t want any money. After we set up everything, Loi went across the street to get some coffee. I felt quite vulnerable, since there was no way I could protect our equipment. A drunk man knocked over a microphone stand, apparently wanting some money for food. But God protected everything.

Right before noon, Paul and Noreen Coca arrived with Chuck Girard. They played music for most of the five-hour outreach. A few Christians arrived later and witnessed with us. Joshua and Alex, both about 20 years old, had originally come here with the Red Ryders team from the East Coast during the Summer of Love outreach. They decided to stay for a month and witness. Joshua has a vision of establishing a team of itinerant preachers, who will travel from city to city, living by faith. It was good to see some Christian youth who have a burden for evangelism

	Chuck Girard and Noreen Coca sing while Paul prays for a woman at UN Plaza on September 22
	Last Days Harvest ministers at Dolores Park
	Chuck Girard and Noreen sing while Paul and Joshua pray for people at UN Plaza
	Camille ministers to man at 16th St.and Valencia on Friday night

Coming Events

Note: Outreaches are subject to change. Call (510) 531-5325 or (510) 213-2584 (cell phone) to confirm outreaches or for more information.

Friday Nov. 2, 9, 16 7:30 - 10 PM Witnessing in San Francisco neighborhoods.

Sat. Nov. 3, 10, 17 San Francisco or Berkeley Evangelism Outreach. (Call Sat. morning after 9 AM for location.)

Ministry News and Needs

Thank you again for your prayers and financial support for this ministry. I am still suffering pain in my left knee that often makes it painful to walk. My doctor thinks it is arthritis. Please pray that God will heal my knee.

San Francisco has great weather for outdoor evangelism. It almost never rains between May and September. In the three wettest months, December, January and February, there is a 30% chance of rain on any given day. (In New York City, there is at least a 30% chance of rain on any given day every month of the year.) We almost never cancel an outreach because of rain. We have canopies that keep our sound equipment and musicians reasonably dry. On rainy Friday night, we usually witness at Powell and O’Farrell St., near Union Square, under a store canopy.

On Saturday, we usually witness in Berkeley on rainy days. However, because of problems with street vendors, we do not want to witness in Berkeley every week during the winter. Instead, once a month we get a second permit at UN Plaza in San Francisco. If the weather forecast on Saturday morning says rain is unlikely, we will witness in San Francisco. Otherwise, we witness in Berkeley. If you are planning to join us on Saturday, call me that morning after 9 AM and I will tell you where we will be witnessing.

We still have openings in our evangelism house in Oakland for Christians with a serious interest in evangelism. We are particularly looking for Christians in their 20’s or 30’s as all of us are 40 and over. We need to reach the younger generation for Jesus.

Our Tape of the Month is Use of the Arts in Evangelism by Gabriel Arosemena.

Yours in His love,

Larry Rosenbaum