Coming Events
(Outreaches subject to change. Call (510) 282-5629 a few hours before the outreach to confirm)
Friday November 1, 8, 22 5-8 PM Witnessing in San Francisco neighborhoods.
Sat. November 2, 23 12 – 4 PM 5th and Market St. S.F.
Sat. November 9 12 – 4 PM Berkeley outreach (Shattuck and Center St.)
HOW SOS MINISTRIES GOT STARTED – PART 7
The Laborers are Fewer
Dear Christian friends,
Our first SOS-San Francisco outreach drew about 1500 Christians. About 1000 Christians participated in each of our two Saturday Union Square outreaches. In 1981, because of the opposition from the homosexual community, only about 500 Christians participated in each of the two Union Square outreaches. In 1984, about 1000 Christians joined each of our two rallies at the Moscone Center during the Democratic National Convention. We were getting about 300 Christians to join us for the entire week of each SOS outreach from 1980 to 1991.
In 1991, 150 Christians from Youth With a Mission joined our outreach for the entire week. In 1992, we joined with the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International Convention. About 500 Christians participated in at least one day of outreach that year. In 1993, Ray Comfort spoke at our outreach and about 250 Christians participated. We also joined the March for Jesus, which drew about 2000 Christians. In 1994 and 1995, about 400 Christians participated in the SOS outreach, with about 50 joining us the whole week. In 1996, 300 Christians participated, and about 40 joined us for the week.
In 1997, we joined with the San Francisco Vineyard for the 30th anniversary of the Summer of Love. About 1500 Christians attended the closing event at Golden Gate Park, featuring the reggae band Christafari and singers Barry McGuire and Terry Talbot. In 1998, 300 Christians participated in the outreach with about 100 for the whole week. Many were from a church in Canada. In 1999, Arthur Blessitt and Mario Murillo both spoke at the outreach. In 2001, 300 Christians participated with about 40-100 joining us each day. In 2002, we had 4 youth groups with us for the outreach. In 2003, 200 participated during the week, 75 each day. In 2004, 200 participated during the week, 50 each day.
2007 was the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love. 300 Christians from The Cause in Nashville joined us for the outreach, which ended with 1500 Christians gathered in a prayer rally at “Hippie Hill” in Golden Gate Park. This was our last big SOS outreach. Our numbers decreased from 2008-2010. In 2011 we reduced our outreach to 5 days. In 2012, for the first time, we did not have a church where we could hold meetings or house workers and we reduced our SOS outreach to 4 days, Wednesday to Saturday. Since that time, we have usually only had 10 – 30 workers each day of our SOS outreaches.
I realize this is a lot of numbers. What I am trying to do is document the decline in laborers in our SOS outreaches over the years, and understand why this is happening. From 1980 – 1991, we had about 300 Christians participating in outreaches each day for the entire week. By 1994, only about 50 joined us for the week, dropping to 40 in 1996 and about 15-20 in 2011. Despite this, we held some large events in 1997 and 2007 for the Summer of Love anniversaries.
When we had a ministry booth at Jesus West Coast in Santa Rosa from 1980-1983, an event that drew about 3000 Christians, several hundred people from the event would participate in SOS each year. When we had a ministry booth at Spirit West Coast in Monterey in 1999, an event that drew about 25,000 Christians, only one or two people from the event would participate in SOS. That’s quite a change.
So what happened? SOS-San Francisco began in 1980, at the end of the Jesus Movement. Most of those involved and many of the youth leaders who brought teams to the outreach had been saved or influenced by the Jesus Movement. However, over the next few decades, the evangelistic fire of the Jesus Movement declined in the church. Increasingly, pastors and Christian leaders were teaching that street evangelism was not effective. Some even taught that “confrontational evangelism” was turning people away from God. Instead, they taught that Christians should make friends with neighbors and co-workers, and invite them to church. There they could hear the gospel and possibly get saved. Some were using a mis-quote from St. Francis of Assisi to argue that the gospel could be preached through our lifestyle without using words. They taught we should focus on loving people and helping the needy, and not talk about sin or repentance. And many prominent “evangelical” pastors and teachers tried to reach out to the homosexual community by teaching that homosexual behavior was not sinful, or refusing to take a stand on the issue.
As I mentioned in the July, 2019 newsletter, a recent Barna survey found that 47% of evangelical Millennials (age 23-38) “agree at least somewhat that it is wrong to share one’s personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith.”
These are perilous times we are living in. “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matt. 9: 37-38.
On the Streets
On Friday June 21, we witnessed at 16th and Valencia. Alex witnessed to Nate, a street musician, who listened to the gospel and took a pocket New Testament. He also witnessed to Paul and Brad, both homosexuals, who said they appreciated the fact that we were not condemning homosexuals, but rather offering them hope.
The next day, we witnessed at 5th and Market. Alex witnessed to Chase, 25, who asked for prayer. He wanted to be friends and they exchanged phone numbers. He also witnessed to Michael, whom he had previously spoken to on Castro Street. He said “God is working in me.” Mike witnessed to John, 35, a Chinese doctor who took a gospel of John. He also ministered to Sidney, whom he had met two years ago and kept in touch with on Facebook. Sidney had been a believer, but now says he has given up on Christianity. He is addicted to drugs, and thought he could not come back to God.
Dave witnessed to Shivas, from India, who had attended Catholic school. He thanked Dave for sharing the gospel with him. He also witnessed to Abel, 20, who wants to be a fashion designer. Dave told him about Cain and Abel. He said he was reading a book on death and dying. Cal witnessed to Daniel, 31, who grew up in church but is an atheist. They spoke about some problems he had with the Bible, including slavery and homosexuality. Esther spoke with Peggy, a homeless woman. She said she wanted to get saved, so Esther prayed with her to receive Christ.
On Sat. June 29, we witnessed in downtown Berkeley. It was the day of the “Dyke March” in San Francisco, and we saw many young people at the BART station on the way to that event. Alex spoke with two teenage girls who were headed to that event. He asked them if they believed in an afterlife. They said they didn’t have time to think about it. He also witnessed to Barbara, who said she had been hurt a lot by the church and was homeless. Alex bought her some food and she was thankful. Esther, Mike and Alex all witnessed to Manny, from India. He said that, as a child, he had been possessed with 7 demons. He claimed to believe in Jesus but did not understand the gospel. Dave and I spoke with Bob, who claimed to be saved but was married to a man. He thought that was OK since they did not have sex with each other. I told him that in the Bible, marriage is always between a man and woman.
On Fri. July 19, we witnessed at Fisherman’s Wharf. Alex witnessed to David, who asked “Was Jesus black?” Alex explained that we should not focus on Jesus’ skin color, but the reason Jesus came to earth: to save us from our sins. David listened to the gospel and took Alex’s phone number. He also let Alex pray for him. Dave St. Marie witnessed to Joel, who was raised in the Church of Christ but was not saved. Dave shared the gospel message to him, and he agreed with it. Dave also ministered to Kayla and Matt. Both grew up in Christian families. Kayla was saved, but Matt was not saved.
Ministry Needs
Thank you for your prayers and financial support for this ministry. As I write this, over a million people in California are without electricity. PG&E has turned off power because they fear another fire like last year, which destroyed the city of Paradise and killed many people. Right now, power is off less than a mile from our house, so I don’t know if it will go off while I am writing this newsletter. (Update: we didn’t lose power.)
On October 10-16, a team of 14 Christians from World Changers for Christ ministry in Denver came to San Francisco to witness on the streets. They joined us for our outreaches on Oct 11 and 12 and Scott Crawford ministered with them the other days.
We still have room for two men in our ministry house. We are looking for spiritually mature Christians who are seriously interested in doing street evangelism. We are also looking for younger Christians, as our desire is to see this ministry continue for many decades.
I hope many of you will join us for an outreach this next month.
Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum
