Month: April 2010

 Is Anyone Called?

Dear Christian Friends,

For the past two months, I have been giving statistics that show, in a dramatic way, the spiritual decline that has taken place in the U.S., especially among youth who claim to be “born again” Christians. The majority of these youth, while claiming to be certain of going to Heaven because of a personal commitment to Jesus Christ, do not believe that Jesus lived a sinless life on this earth or that it is impossible to get to Heaven by good works. According to pollster George Barna, while 9% of Americans have a biblical worldview, less than ½ of 1% of Americans aged 18-23 have a biblical worldview.
This lack of a strong Biblical foundation in many Christians reflects itself in their attitudes towards evangelism. Every year, hundreds of thousands of Christian youth spend millions of dollars on “mission trips” that involve work projects and food distribution, but no mention of God’s plan of salvation. In the U.S., countless Christian youth are involved in giving out food to the homeless and similar “ministries” that don’t involve talking about Jesus. Many Christians, it seems, believe that people will be saved if we pray for them and live a good life in front of them. They think there is no need to share the gospel with unbelievers.

As our nation becomes increasingly hostile towards Christianity, Christians are looking for new methods of “evangelism” that will avoid any possibility of being rejected or persecuted. Perhaps, they think, if Jesus and the apostles had used our new “evangelism methods,” they would never have been persecuted. I often hear from Christians that not everyone is called to witness on the streets. Sometimes, however, I wonder if anyone is called or, rather, if anyone is responding to God’s call. I’m exaggerating, of course. There is a small group of Christians who faithfully witness with us. And there are other Christians witnessing throughout the country. But the laborers are indeed few, and they seem to get fewer each year.

Last April, in an attempt to recruit Christian youth to work with our ministry, I went on Facebook. Almost every day, I have been adding young Christians from Bible colleges and other Christian groups to be my “friend.” I now have over 7000 friends, most of whom are under 30. Occasionally, I let them know about our ministry house. Less than 10 have expressed interest, and, so far, none has moved in. I certainly did not expect all 7000 Christians to respond to my appeal. All we need are three or four Christian men to live in our house. But, so far, we have not found one. As far as I know, there is no other house like the one we have, where Christians can live with others who are interested in doing street evangelism. Most Christians who want to witness on the streets find it hard to get other Christians to join them. A few people may come one week; nobody the next week. Eventually, street witnessing teams tend to die because they lack consistent involvement from Christians. By having a core group of Christians who are committed to witnessing on the streets regularly, and who hold one another accountable to this commitment, we have been able to maintain a regular street outreach for over 30 years in San Francisco.

One reason that it is difficult to get Christians to do street evangelism is the hardness of many people’s hearts towards the gospel. If I could guarantee a Christian that every time he witnessed at least one person would be genuinely saved, we would have no lack of workers. There are witnessing “methods” that can get a lot of people to “say sinner’s prayers.” Unfortunately, when we try to follow-up on these people, we find that few who recite these prayers are truly converted.
It is far more satisfying to us to witness to a person who really wants to get saved, than to someone who is hardened to the gospel message. But are we witnessing to make ourselves happy or to obey God and reach the lost? It is hard for us to walk by faith and trust God to use our witness to work in people’s hearts. We want to see results, but we can’t see what God is doing in someone’s heart.

I haven’t given up on Facebook. It is a great way to let thousands of Christian youth know about our ministry and encourage them to witness for Jesus. In the past, I would call churches and Bible colleges, and try to set up meetings to share about evangelism and about our ministry. Almost all would turn us down. A few times, I have had an opportunity to speak to Christians at a Bible college chapel. The Christians who attended, it seems, soon forgot about us. We saw no response from any of these meetings. With Facebook, I can invite almost every Christian in a Bible college to be my friend, and continue to share with them about our ministry, and about evangelism. But it seems that the task of finding a few Christian youth to join our ministry will be harder than I originally thought. Please pray for us that God will give us guidance in this matter, and meet our need.

On The Streets
I realize we won’t get much sympathy from those who have been hit by record snowfalls in the East. Our only problem in the winter is rain. Almost every weekend, I look at the weather forecast and try to decide where to witness, depending on whether I think it is going to rain. On Friday nights, we go to Powell and O’Farrell on rainy nights. This location, a block from Union Square, has a big awning. Lots of people pass by, but it is hard to get them to stop. So far, we have only needed to come here twice this season.

In the winter, we get permits both in Berkeley and at Fisherman’s Wharf on Saturdays. The Wharf permits involve attending a six-hour long monthly meeting. Fortunately, right now, another performer has agreed to get permits for us. Please pray that this continues. Lots of people are at Fisherman’s Wharf on nice days, but very few on rainy days. When we expect rain, we witness in Berkeley. We try not to witness there every week, because vendors get upset with us.

We were able to witness at the Wharf on February 13 and 20. On February 27, there was a 40% chance of rain so we went to Berkeley. We put up our canopies to protect our equipment. As often happens, the forecast was wrong and we had a nice, sunny day.

While I was preaching, I said that if anyone had a good reason for not believing in Jesus, I wanted to hear it. A young man, probably a college student, approached me. I gave him the microphone. He said that he did not believe because he saw a movie called Religulous which stated that Christianity was merely copied from pagan religions. I had not seen the movie but had heard of it. Bill Maher, a political comedian, made this movie to mock all religions, especially Christianity. He interviewed various people like truck drivers and an actor who plays Jesus at a Christian theme park, and edited the interviews to make them look ridiculous.

After this young man spoke, I asked him specifically what evidence in the movie made him not believe in Jesus. He could not think of anything. But one idea that was in the movie was that the major ideas in Christianity, such as the virgin birth and the resurrection, were copied from pagan religions. Later, I looked into the matter and learned that the similarities between Christianity and pagan religions are quite superficial and don’t prove anything.

Dan offered tracts to four teenagers. Three of them took one, but the fourth said he didn’t need it. They crossed the street on a red light. As I preached, the fourth teenager looked at me and yelled “Go Satan.” As he did, he came within inches of being hit by a car.

 

 

 

 

Coming Events
Note: Outreaches are subject to change. Call (510) 761-6120 to confirm outreaches or for more information.
Friday April 2, 9, May 7 Witnessing in San Francisco neighborhoods. 7:30 – 10 PM (Call for location.)
Saturday April 3, 10, May 8 San Francisco or Berkeley Evangelism Outreach (outreach location depends on weather. Call Sat. from 8-10 AM for location.)

July 16-24 SOS-San Francisco 31st year. Please consider taking time off work so you can attend this important outreach.

Ministry Needs
Thank you again for your prayers and financial support for this ministry. We still have three openings in our Oakland ministry house. We are looking for men in their 20’s or 30’s who are spiritually strong and are committed to evangelism. We need to train younger believers in evangelism – to reach a new generation and help us continue this work of evangelizing San Francisco and Berkeley. We are also open to having older Christian men live in this house. Please pray that God will bring the right people for our house. It is very difficult to do these outreaches with such a small outreach team.

Please pray for those we have ministered to and those who have written us in response to tracts, including Joel (a backslidden SF City College student whose parents are missionaries), Adam and Erin (Berkeley), Sean (Israel), and Lonnie (Tecumseh, NE prison). Please pray that we will get our San Francisco park permits for this year. I applied for the permits in January but have still not heard from the park department. Also, please pray that we will find a church to host our SOS-San Francisco outreach.

Yours in His Love,

Larry Rosenbaum