Getting our Priorities Right
Dear Christian friends,
As I was walking through our neighborhood yesterday, I encountered a Jehovah’s Witness man with his two children going door to door. It seems that they come through our neighborhood about once a month. I have seen mothers bringing their infants in baby carriages. I have learned from a former Jehovah’s Witness that the average active J.W. witnesses about 4 hours a week. At that rate, it takes about 16 years to gain one convert. Also, they spend many hours at their church meetings practicing how to witness, using role-playing to go over various questions they might be asked, and how to respond.
Every time I see them I marvel at their dedication to a false cause. They work secular jobs and support their families. They spend time with their families and participate in the activities at the Kingdom Hall. Yet they all spend time going door to door spreading their message. Why can’t we Christians, who have the truth, do as much?
Why do we say we have no time to witness? Because we must spend time with our families and church activities and working, we say we have no time for witnessing. Also, we say witnessing is ineffective because we don’t lead someone to Christ every time we go out. Yet the J.W.’s will patiently go door-to-door, facing one rejection after another, for 3200 hours to get one convert!
The only explanation I have is that Satan opposes our witnessing, but not theirs. Satan has given us a variety of excuses not to witness, and we have believed him. It has become accepted by missions experts that only a tiny percentage of Christians will ever witness. 2000 years ago, our Lord Jesus Christ said that “the harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers.”
Today, there is much more evangelism taking place than there has been through most of church history, but not nearly what there should be. We in SOS Ministries see that our responsibility is to encourage and train Christians to become more involved in evangelism–on the streets, to friends and relatives, at work, on the foreign mission field, and in praying for the work of evangelism. We also want to help those who are called to be evangelists to become more effective in their personal ministries and in equipping the church to witness.
Outreach Reports
About 40 Christians, some driving up to 4 hours, joined us for our San Francisco Worship Rally on January 20. Hundreds of people stood around to listen to the worship led by “Forever Grateful” and many productive conversations were going on all afternoon. We gave out all the New Testaments we brought, about 100. After the outreach, I received a letter from a brother in Santa Rosa who attended the outreach. Here is an excerpt:
My wife and I and our two girls, both 11 years old, were at last Saturday’s outreach. After we got home, we realized that we had neither talked to you nor to anyone else in the ministry! My only regret is that you folks may not have even known that we were there and therefore may have missed the encouragement of knowing that people do respond to the newsletters that you send out.
I gave a tract to a young man who was himself a Christian from a Vineyard church. He had not come for the outreach but had rather stumbled upon it by accident. I shared a little with him about what we were doing. A little later I observed him engaged in serious witnessing to a Chinese man who was visiting this country. It turns out this brother spoke some Chinese as well, and was able to really share with this man.
One man I spoke to was from Burma. He was very well educated at a university in his country and spoke nearly perfect English. He was captivated by what he saw and felt in the Spirit, but had no understanding of what it was all about. He was Buddhist, had never been in this country and had never heard the name of Jesus. He listened in amazement as I shared with him about the virgin birth, the miracles of Jesus, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the judgement seat of Christ. I was not only able to give him a Bible, but to explain each book to him. The man’s last words to me were, “You have given me many important things to think about. Yes, many things to think about.”
A tall young man took a tract from me in all seriousness, being captivated by the worship and the Spirit of God in the plaza. I had noticed him watching intently from the sidelines for about 20 minutes. He read the tract from cover to cover, put it in his shirt pocket, and watched with tears filling his eyes. He removed the tract from his pocket and read it again. His eyes again filled with tears. He put it away, only to remove it 10 minutes later and read it again!
I walked up to him and started talking. He said he was a sailor who was docked here for a few days, and was a Christian but hadn’t been walking close to God. We prayed together, and he gently wept and recommitted his life to Jesus.
A young woman named Julie was sitting on the bench watching and listening intently. She said, “I know about Jesus, and had some of this stuff as a child, but I really don’t know what I feel about it now.” Thirty minutes later, she had a Bible in her hands and was beginning to realize God’s love for her. She told me that she believed in God, but was afraid to give Him her life because she had been told that God was a cruel taskmaster and would take from her rather than give. All she was fed told her how hard it would be to become a Christian, how much she would have to give up, how many rules she would have to follow, and that she would have to become a religious fanatic.
Under the cover of worship and the Holy Spirit, she was for the first time able to see the love, the sacrifice, the giving nature of her Father in heaven. As we parted, she hugged me and sincerely thanked me for the time we shared. I challenged her to get alone in her prayer closet and ask God to reveal Himself to her. I believe she will be doing this.
I share all this so that you and your people will be encouraged. You really know so little of what is really happening out there. So much of the fruit of that type of ministry is born in secret, invisible to men’s eyes. So many seeds planted go on to produce fruit long after the outreach is over.
When the outreach ended, a brother brought a young man to me who had just arrived in town and needed a job. Shannon is 18 and had been in town less than an hour. As I talked with him, I sensed he was ready to come to Christ. He had been in rebellion since the age of 14 and was tired of it, and felt guilty about the way he had lived. I told him he could stay with us and we would help him find work. That night, we went to a pizza parlor with the worship group and he asked me if I would pray with him to receive Jesus. Shannon has since moved into our house, and has been growing steadily in the Lord, a real encouragement to all of us.
About 50 Christians, including a drama group (New Life Drama Company) from Tennessee and some brethren from Oregon, joined us for our annual Chinese New Year Parade Outreach. The newspaper estimated the crowd at 400,000. There was no way we could reach such a vast crowd but we did what we could. We gave out about 10,000 special Chinese/English tracts and thousands of other tracts, including about 1000 special tracts to children.
At last year’s parade, police security was so heavy that we were unable to march at the end of the parade as we had in previous years. This year, we assumed we would be unable to march in the parade and made no effort to get into it. However, as the parade ended, the police began opening the barricades and we were perfectly situated to follow it with our banner and amplifier. We were able to carry our 20 foot banner that reads “Jesus Christ is Lord” and preach through the entire parade route. We had no problem from any of the police.
Afterwards, we worshipped and preached on Broadway Street. We had many good conversations and prayed with several people. One couple who joined us, Pat and Windy Caspary, had recently returned from missionary work in China, and taught us a few Chinese expressions to say to people, gave us some posters written in Chinese, and were able to witness to several people who spoke only Chinese.
Easter Outreaches
We have scheduled two special Easter outreaches on April 7 and 14, which are the days before Palm Sunday and Easter. On Saturday April 7, we will have a worship rally with Forever Grateful. On Saturday April 14, the Vineyard Christian Fellowship will have a special Easter service featuring the music of Graham Kendrick, who has led worship rallies in England involving thousands of Christians. Both rallies are from 2:30-6 PM at the Powell St. BART station, Market and Powell St., in San Francisco.
Ministry Needs
A few days after I sent out the last newsletter, a woman called offering to help with the office work one day a week. Two days later, another woman called to offer help. This is a real answer to prayer, as it will free me up to do other ministry work. Also, with Shannon moving into our house, it is nearly full but we still have one opening for a man.
Please continue to pray for us that we will be able to make all the preparations for SOS-San Francisco and get the tracts printed. Also, pray that we will be able to get liability insurance so we can get permits for outdoor rallies. So far, we have not found a company that will give us this insurance.
Our Tape of the Month is the “New Age Movement” by Brooks Alexander and Tal Brooke. Brooks is Founder of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project (S.C.P.) in Berkeley, a ministry to research cults and new religions. Tal is current Director of S.C.P. and the author of many books, including the current bestseller When the World Will Be as One. The teaching was from the 1988 SOS-San Francisco outreach, and is very instructive in understanding how to witness to the many people influenced by New Age philosophy.
God bless you all. Remember to pray for us. I hope to see you at one of our Easter outreaches, April 7 and 14.
Yours in His Love,
Larry Rosenbaum
