Social Action
President Bush’s proposal to fund “faith-based initiatives” has created a lot of controversy in the evangelical community. While many Christians agree with the President that Christian ministries are often more effective than secular groups in helping the poor, they are concerned about government regulations that would hinder these ministries from preaching the gospel to those they help.
They have good reason to be concerned. Even without government pressure, many Christian ministries that once combined social action with evangelism are today only involved in social action. In the 19th century, the Salvation Army was a powerful ministry that helped the poor and preached the gospel on the streets. Millions were saved and discipled through this ministry. Today, while many Salvation Army churches are still “evangelical,” this denomination is mainly known for its thrift shops and social action programs that involve little or no evangelism. Likewise, the Methodist Church was once a powerful evangelistic movement under John Wesley. Today, many Methodist Churches have totally replaced the Christian gospel with social action. During times of spiritual revival, God moves upon Christians to preach the gospel and to help the poor. As revival fades, the social action programs tend to continue without evangelism.
Each year, thousands of churches in the U.S. send youth groups on “mission trips.” These youth go to poor villages in other nations, or to inner-city locations in the U.S. While some do evangelism through drama and other means, most are involved exclusively in work projects such as building churches and feeding the poor.
Today, I spoke with a staff member of an evangelical ministry that sends about 10,000 church youth on mission trips in the U.S. each year. This summer, they are bringing about 600 youth to San Francisco. She told me that they would not bring a team to work with our SOS outreach because we preach the gospel. She said she did not know how many of the youth were even Christians. Also, she thought that many of the youth leaders they work with do not believe in preaching the gospel.
While they don’t preach the gospel to those they “minister to,” she said they do preach the gospel to those who go on the missions trip. Apparently, the purpose of the missions trip is to evangelize the “missionaries.” While I hope many of these youth get saved, this certainly is a strange concept of “missions.”
The real tragedy is that so many “evangelical” youth leaders don’t believe in evangelism. They have been deceived by the world’s concept that we “shouldn’t force our beliefs on others” and rejected Jesus’ commandment to bring the gospel to the whole world.
On the Streets
Last week, I attended a planning meeting for the Business Men’s Fellowship national convention. It will be held in San Francisco June 28-30. They will bring a group to minister with us during SOS on Friday June 29. Today, I attended a permit hearing and got the last of our San Francisco permits for the SOS outreach. I was concerned about the permit at Haight and Masonic, but we had no problem getting it. I also did a phone interview on SOS for the Christian Times newspaper and will be a guest on KFAX radio’s Lifeline program.
I received this letter from Brenda Dunn from Redding about last year’s SOS outreach: “I only brought one girl to help me this year named Priscilla….She has always been cripplingly shy. She could not even speak at school for fear of rejection….When she went with us to the SOS ministry she learned how to really talk to people….She continues to give out tracts here in Redding and wants to go back next year….We also saw many people touched and saved….Michelle still needs a home church in Oakland. I called Kirwin today to follow-up and he gave his life to Christ. He has an 8 month old baby….The girl friend goes to church and has been trying to reach him. He has gone to her church and is reading the Bible and trying to understand it.”
This past month, we were blessed to work with Jews for Jesus as part of their “Operation Behold Your God” evangelism campaign. Their outreach featured an extensive media campaign—newspaper ads (including one in a “gay” paper), billboards, etc. They gave out about 400,000 gospel tracts, including one I wrote over 20 years ago called “I Want Proof.” They got several hundred names and addresses of people interested in learning more about Jesus. They also put together a worship band that joined us on the streets every Friday and Saturday this past month. Over the next five years, they intend to take this outreach to 50 cities around the world.
On Saturday May 19 we ministered at Powell and Market St. for one hour. (We can’t get a longer permit.) Afterwards, we moved our sound system two blocks to United Nations Plaza. The Jews for Jesus worship band, Scheer Energy, and Yielded Vessels (a youth mime and dance group) ministered that afternoon. We were also blessed to have Jews for Jesus Director David Brickner join us on May 18 and 19.
Coming Events
Note: All outreaches are subject to change. Call (510) 531‑5325 or (510) 616-0712 ( pager) to confirm outreaches or for more information.
Friday July 13, 20, 27 7:30-10 PM Witnessing in various S.F. neighborhoods. (Call for meeting location.)
Sat. July 14 San Francisco “Church on the Street” worship rallies. 12-1 PM. Powell and Market St. 1:30-5 PM. United Nations Plaza (7th St. and Market) (Last Days Harvest Church, Sacramento)
Sat. July 21 Berkeley Outreach. 12:30‑4:30 PM. Telegraph & Haste St.
Sat. July 28 San Francisco worship rallies. 12-1 PM Powell and Market St. 2-5 PM.. Washington Square (Columbus and Union St.)
Ministry Needs
Thank you for your prayers and financial support for this ministry. If you get this letter before June 30, please join us for SOS-San Francisco. We meet every day at 9 AM and 6 PM at Temple Baptist Church, 3355 19th Ave. (near Ocean), San Francisco.
We have been getting email responses from people all over the world, Christian and non-Christian, who have visited our web site: www.sosmin.com. Christina wrote us from Malasia: “I would like to keep in touch with you. Over here I am doing street evangelism also. I am from Revival City Street Church. Every Saturday I go to the street in a team and give them food and introduce Jesus Christ to the street people and invite them to my church.” Shanna Atkinson, who used worked in our ministry for many years, is now married (now Shanna George) and living in New York. She invites you to check out her web site: www.geocities.com/giftofgod4u.
Our Tape of the Month is Organizing a City-Wide Outreach by Ray Jablonski. Ray is Director of Heart-Fire Ministries in Milwaukee. He organizes an annual city-wide outreach in Milwaukee.
God bless you all. Please continue to pray for us. I hope you will join one of our outreaches this next month.
Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum
