ISEMA Newsletters
1988 NATIONAL STREET MINISTRIES CONFERENCE REPORT
(From the Scott Hinkle Outreach Ministries Newsletter)
From 32 states, Canada and West Germany came Christian workers, leaders and believers, coming together for one purpose…to see the Good News be preached on the streets throughout the world.
Each of the general session speakers brought a powerful and at times prophetic word. Many of the themes, such as integrity of heart, new leaders being raised up for this generation, believing God for the miraculous, and holiness, kept reoccurring. God brought choice vessels, among them were Larry Tomczak, Winkie Pratney, Chuck Girard, John Dawson, and Arthur Blessitt. The daytime workshop sessions covered the practical side of taking Jesus to the streets.
On Friday afternoon, over 500 of those participating in the N.S.M.C. invated downtown Dallas. They shared Jesus throughout the downtown area, praying with many, and then gathered back at the John F. Kennedy Memorial to worship the Lord and intercede for the city and America.
ROCKIN’ ROLLEN, A FAN ONLY OF GOD, TAKES A MESSAGE TO EVERY GAME
(From People Magazine)
In the beginning there was the rainbow wig and sometimes a fake- fur loincloth. With these, Rockin’ Rollen Stewart would travel to all the biggest sporting events, get in front of a TV camera, make a spectacle of himself and, as he puts it, “revel in the adulation.” In this way he came to be famous, or at least noticed, in millions of homes…and even got an Anheuser-Busch beer commercial. Then eight years ago last week, Rockin’ Rollen went to the Super Bowl in Pasadena…and his world fell apart….”I could have held a thousand women in my arms that day, and yet I walked out of there sad. It was the shallowness. I was being seen all over the world, but never as myself.” Back in his hotel room, he chanced to turn on a Christian TV station. “I saw immediately I could take the word of God to the world,” he recalls. “I fell to my knees there in that room and allowed Jesus to take control of my life.”
Since then he has been spreading the gospel by planting himself behind home plate at the World Series, sitting behind the goalposts at Super Bowls…roaming the stands at NBA championships and insinuating himself near the runway of the Miss America pageant….He also also has a wife and a partner, who…drape John 3:16 bedsheets over railings. The message of the Gospel according to St. John, chapter 3, verse 16 is, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
“We are evangelists,” boasts Rollen, 42, “who want to get everyone to read the Book, and we reach millions….I know I’m a strange and unusual vessel. But we’re sincere about this….We are on Satan’s airwaves…on his time and his dime.”
Editor’s note: Rollen’s approach provides a way to reach millions of people in a single day with at least a brief gospel message. Some of you may want to try it. Use brief messages like “Jesus is Lord” or “Read the Bible.”
FANTASY FESTIVAL OUTREACH, KEY WEST, FLORIDA
(From Streetwise Newsletter, Bobby Chance Director)
“Key West boasts more bars than churches” the Florida travel brochure claimed….As our friend, Jeff Haase, continued to study the history of the island and help Mel Rolls, Denny Nissley and I discern the principalities and powers over it, we discovered that it is widely believed that the ruling god of Key West is the ancient Greek god, “Pan.” (Our word “panic” is derived from this god, “Pan.) We began to pray, intercede…and celebrate that Jesus had sent us to Key West to tell the people not to panic…because we came with Good News….
We had begun our…outreach washing one another’s feet. We had spent time on our faces before God. Because we believed that the Lord wanted us to, we gathered at Mallory Square pier (where hundreds of people gather each day to watch the sunset). We stood our cross up, prayed together and then began to praise and worship the Lord….A huge crowd had gathered around us….We continued every night on the pier, and by Halloween night, we had about 250 Christians worshipping with us….We announced to the people that Halloween had been canceled and we were replacing it with a Jesus Celebration!
Since the main thrust of the Fantasy Festival was the Parade, we decided to enter the parade, along with about 70 other “floats.” The flavor of the parade was Halloween style, with a lot of entries that mocked and ridiculed the Church. We entered the parade…with Denny’s Cadillac hearse which he drove down from Chicago….On the windows, decorative signs declared “Don’t Be Caught Dead Without Jesus,” and “Eternity Will Be Hell Without Jesus”…As we reached the reviewing stand and the TV cameras, the pallbearers opened the top of the casket, and one of the young street preachers on our team, Scott Durrance (also dressed in a black suit), “raised from the dead” and stood before the crowd with PA microphone in hand. For a brief moment, the crowd…thought we too were going to be blasphemous.
“I’ve just taken a ride in a hearse,” he began. “But I lived to tell about it. Standing before the judges’ stand reminds me that the Bible says, someday we will all stand before The Judge, and give account for our lives!” In less than two minutes, he shared how Jesus is our hope and we must turn our lives over to Him.
IT’S TIME TO RENEW YOUR ISEMA MEMBERSHIP!
IMPACT ATLANTA ’88
(From the Scott Hinkle Outreach Ministries Newsletter)
Fifteen months in the “prayer and planning incubator” saw a Gideon-like army take the message of Jesus to Democratic Convention delegates, city residents, prostitutes, children and street people alike! Well over 300 people took an active part in Impact Atlanta ’88….More than 150 people prayed to receive Christ as Savior….There were special teams ministering to children in some of Atlanta’s worst housing projects….
Through a court ruling, the city of Atlanta sought to bar used a spirit-filled Jewish attorney, Jay Sekulow, to challenge the city and have the way paved for us to preach the Gospel in the city with complete freedom and liberty. We were granted a permit to hold a “prayer, praise and preaching” rally on the steps of the state capitol building with the complete blessing of the governor (who wrote a proclamation officially welcoming us). CHRISTIAN RESOURCE DIRECTORY IN PRINT
After many years of work, the first edition of the Christian Resource Directory is now printed and available at many Christian bookstores. If you ever wanted a listing of available resources on alcoholism, homosexuality, Mormonism, or 400 other topics (20,000 listings in all), it’s now available in one place in the Christian Resource Directory by Jonathan Gainsbrugh. This massive book is published by Fleming Revell. If you can’t find it in your bookstore, ask them to order it or you can get it for $24.95 including postage from Worldshakers for Christ, Box P-1, Felton, CA 95018. Jonathan suggests that this would make an excellent gift for your pastor or a church that supports your ministry.
Jonathan also wanted us to let you know that he has received a letter from the Zig Zag company asking people to take their logo off his “High Times” tract. If you are using this tract, Jonathan suggests you put the pot leaf on the front and back instead. If you would like a free sample of the “High Times” tract in the new format, write him at Box P-1, Felton, CA 95018.
ACTS INTERNATIONAL
I received a letter from Dick Innes, International Director of ACTS International, along with samples of some tracts they have printed. These are full color glossy brochures that are well written presentations of the gospel. “Encounter brochures are unique because the different titles keep on reaching people at all levels and help raise their level of… gospel awareness. And they appeal to non-church people because they speak to the interests and needs they feel–the most effective way to gain a hearing of any message.” For more information and prices, contact Dick Innes at P O Box 157, Claremont, CA 91711, (714) 625-8090.
BAY AREA OUTREACH MINISTRIES
After serving as Director of SOS Ministries for eight years, Larry Rosenbaum has begun a new ministry to help reach other cities in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. Bay Area Outreach Ministries now operates a house for evangelism workers in Oakland (which also serves as the ISEMA office) and is involved in outreaches three times weekly to Berkeley and other Bay Area cities. They are also contacting Bay Area churches to help them start outreaches to their own communities.
For the past two years, they have been preaching on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, sometimes drawing as many as 500 people to hear the gospel. In their preaching, they present skeptical students with reasons for faith, often relating current events to Bible prophesy. They challenge them to read the New Testament and honestly examine Christianity before rejecting it. Often, hecklers will come to ridicule them and the resulting controversy will draw a large crowd, which stands around for hours to hear the gospel.
A few Berkeley residents have complained to the police, who have continually harrassed the Christians, even though they have a permit. They were cited several times and on September 18, Larry Rosenbaum was put in jail for 12 hours under a citizen’s arrest for disturbing the peace. They have obtained a Christian lawyer and are receiving help from the Rutherford Institute, one of the largest Christian legal organizations. For more information about Bay Area Outreach Ministries and this court case, contact Larry at the ISEMA address.
IT’S TIME TO RENEW YOUR ISEMA MEMBERSHIP!
Some of you have received our first ISEMA news update. We try to send out this letter to all our members and supporters each month with news items, coming events, and other information we need to get to you before the next quarterly newsletter is sent out. You can help us with both newsletters by sending us outreach reports from your area. Let us know the problems you are having as well as the victories you have seen. Let us know about upcoming events several months in advance so we can put them in our schedule. Also, we have enclosed with this newsletter an application form for including your ministry in the new International Street and Evangelism Ministry Directory. We have extended the deadline for receiving your application to February 1.
We have often used the scripture from Ecclesiastes, “Two are better than one… and a threefold cord is not easily broken.” We urge you to become a member of ISEMA if you have not already done so, linking up with other evangelism ministries and Christians who believe in the Great Commission. If you are already an ISEMA member, now is the time to renew your membership. We who are in leadership in ISEMA are doing all we can to bring together evangelism ministries, but we can’t do it without your help. As an association of street and evangelism ministries, ISEMA depends on your active involvement.
ISEMA operates on a minimal budget. It costs money to print and mail out this newsletter, to put on evangelism conferences, and provide other services to our members. Our desire is to see a dramatic increase in the funds available for evangelism ministry. This will only happen as God’s people get a vision for what we are doing, and see the importance of giving to evangelism ministries. One of the purposes of ISEMA is to help God’s people get this vision, and we believe all evangelism ministries will benefit as a result. Most of our bills, like yours, come due every month. Please consider supporting us on a monthly basis.
This summer, Scott Crawford is planning a five month trip to visit street ministries around the country. He wants to get to know you and help you however he can. If you would like him to visit you, contact him at 234 Alice Dr., Willits CA 95490, (707) 459-9588.
TAPE OF THE MONTH
Each month, we want to make available to you some of the best teaching resources we have. This month, we are offering two excellent teaching tapes–“Starting a Street Ministry from Scratch” by Jonathan Gainsbrugh and “Witnessing to Homosexuals” by Frank Worthen, Director of Love in Action, a Christian ministry to homosexuals. We are also continuing to offer the four cassette tape series by Chuck Girard, “The Army of God, A Vision for End Times Evangelism.”
