HOW SOS MINISTRIES GOT STARTED – PART 8
Division
Coming Events
(Outreaches subject to change. Call (510) 282-5629 a few hours before the outreach to confirm)
Friday December 6, 13 5-8 PM Witnessing in San Francisco neighborhoods.
Sat. December 7 12 – 4 PM Berkeley outreach (Shattuck and Center St.) Tim Moon.
Sat. December 14 12 – 4 PM 5th and Market St. S.F. Paul and Noreen Coca.
Dear Christian friends,
“Barnabas … wanted to take along John Mark. But Paul disagreed strongly, since John Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in their work. Their disagreement was so sharp that they separated. Barnabas took John Mark with him and sailed for Cyprus.” Acts 15:37-39
Initially, SOS Ministries operated under a non-profit corporation founded by Ron Woodruff called Shama Sound Ministries. When I met Ron, he was operating a sound system at various Christian events. He was also organizing Christian evangelistic concerts in the East Bay and Christian roller skating events. When I started getting permits for evangelistic concerts in San Francisco, Ron offered to use his sound system. Before long, we were working together closely in starting SOS Ministries. In 1980, a Christian man donated a 3-unit house on Sycamore St. in San Francisco (near 18th St. and Mission) to our ministry.
In 1984, Ron and Gary Linden met Oscar Anderson, who agreed to donate two houses in Oakland to a new ministry called American Christian Enterprises. That ministry would operate discipleship houses for new believers. One of these houses (on Dakota St.) served as a discipleship house for about a year, but then closed.
In my view, Ron and I had a great partnership. We were very different people, and had different gifts. It seemed that each of us was strong in areas where the other was not as strong. However, Ron did not see things that way.
After Ron married his wife Jennifer, they increasingly believed they could no longer work with me as co-leaders of SOS Ministries. In 1986, our ministry
Board of Directors met to decide what to do. They decided that Ron would stay at the SOS house on Sycamore Street in San Francisco and operate SOS Ministries. I would move to one of the houses in Oakland and start a new ministry to Berkeley. Since we had no funds, SOS Ministries would continue to help fund our ministry.
I reluctantly agreed to this arrangement. In 1986, I had just finished writing a book: You Shall Be My Witnesses: How to Reach Your City for Christ. The book gives the early history of SOS Ministries and contains teachings on various kinds of evangelism and on how to start an evangelism outreach. We printed 5000 copies of this 150 page book and quickly sold or gave away about 4000 of them. (You can read the book for free by going to our website: sosmin.com. My biography is on the right side of the first page and contains a link to the book.) I was also working with the International Street Ministries Association and speaking at regional evangelism conferences.
In addition to all this, I moved to the Dakota Street house in Oakland and started a new ministry, called Bay Area Outreach Ministries. From 1986-1989, we held three outreaches a week on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, on Wed afternoon, Friday night and Saturday afternoon. We also organized monthly outreaches to other cities, including Stockton, Santa Rosa, Sausalito, Santa Cruz and Carmel. I started a new ministry house in Oakland, but we had difficulty finding people to live in our house. During this time, there were only 3-6 people in this house. Often, we only had 3 people at our outreaches.
Ron Woodruff continued to lead SOS Ministries in San Francisco. However, in 1990, he and the others in his ministry felt that God was leading them to sell the Sycamore St. house and purchase a sail boat in order to preach the gospel in Pacific Ocean islands. They thought it was time to “shake the dust off their feet” in San Francisco and bring the gospel elsewhere. I was no longer on their Board of Directors, but their Board agreed to allow them to do this. They renamed their ministry Land and Sea, sold the house and purchased a boat. Over the next 10 years, they spent the rest of their funds trying to repair the boat and ran out of money. The boat never went on a mission. Eventually they sold the boat. Today, Ron leads Land and Sea Missions of God, a ministry that supports missionaries, mostly in the Philippines.
When Ron decided to stop doing outreaches in San Francisco, I asked to be allowed to keep the name SOS Ministries, and continue doing outreaches there. They gave me permission to do this. I continued to operate a ministry house in Oakland and we began once again to witness in San Francisco on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons, and witnessed once a month in Berkeley. We also continued to organize the SOS-San Francisco outreach each summer.
How SOS Ministries Got Started
Part 1: 1975-1979
http://www.sosmin.com/?m=201903
Part 2: 1980
http://www.sosmin.com/?m=201904
Part 3: Leadership
http://www.sosmin.com/?m=201905
Part 4: 1981
http://www.sosmin.com/?m=201906
Part 5: 1984-1985
http://www.sosmin.com/?m=201908
Part 6: Discipleship Houses
http://www.sosmin.com/?m=201910
Part 7: The Laborers are Fewer
http://www.sosmin.com/?m=201911
On the Streets
On Sat. July 20, we held our first outreach of the year in Dolores Park. This is the busiest park in the city, and there were thousands of people in the park. The Park Department reluctantly gave us two permits per year here after the Pacific Justice Institute got involved. About 20 Christians joined us for the outreach. Paul and Noreen Coca played music. By alternating music and preaching, we kept complaints to a minimum. Hugo and I ministered to Michael, a 20 year old Christian who was not attending church. Dave witnessed to Andrew, 24, whose step-father was a pastor. He was not saved, but was open to the gospel and prayed with Dave.
That night, many of us attended the opening rally for the Love-San Francisco outreach at Dolores Park Church. Paul and Noreen, Scott, and I all shared briefly and prayed for the city. Over 30 local pastors and ministry leaders spoke at this meeting. The following Tuesday we also participated in a panel discussion regarding evangelism and revival hosted by the same church.
On Friday July 26, we again witnessed at Fisherman’s Wharf. Dave witnessed to Shane, a Mormon who was listening to our preaching. He did not know if his sins were forgiven. Dave shared with him about salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. Dave also witnessed to Roger, a 7th Day Adventist who did not understand about salvation by faith. Finally, he ministered to Scott, a Christian who had been part of Gospel Outreach in the Jesus Movement but was not in fellowship with believers.
Scott and I spoke with Kyle, who is a doctoral student in religious studies at the University of Toronto. He is spending a year in Oakland working on a thesis on street evangelism and particularly a 1960’s street preacher named “Holy Hubert.” Both Scott and I had known Hubert, who preached on the Berkeley campus and was beat up over 150 times in his first year of preaching there. I saw him preach before I was saved, and also near the end of his life. Kyle has my book, and said he wanted to get together with me later. He is an agnostic. A few weeks later, he came over to our house and we spoke. I shared my testimony with him.
The next day was the closing rally for Love-San Francisco at UN Plaza. The event featured cotton candy and popcorn for the children and a prayer tent, as well as music and preaching. We provided the permit and the PA system for the event. In the middle of the outreach, our large generator broke down. Alex witnessed to Rue, who was on heroin. He listened to the gospel and took a New Testament. He also witnessed to Nathan, 23, who listened to his testimony and prayed with him. Dave witnessed to Michael, a Chinese high school student. He took a gospel of John. He also witnessed to Melissa, a Catholic from Mexico. As he shared the gospel, tears came down her face. Finally, he witnessed to Victor, a nephew of Paul Coca. Victor was raised in a Christian church, but was not saved and had been suicidal. After Dave presented the gospel to him, he said, “I have never heard it shared like that before.”
Love-San Francisco reported that over 300 Christians attended their meetings and over 100 went out on the streets during their outreach, July 20-27. Over 2400 people heard the gospel and over 500 received prayer. 24 people either received Christ or rededicated their lives to Christ.
Ministry Needs
Thank you for your prayers and financial support for this ministry. We were able to purchase two powered speakers to add to our sound system. This has allowed us to reach more people in San Francisco parks. We also use one of the speakers when we witness at Powell and Market on Friday night. This area is very noisy and we need a larger speaker so people can hear us.
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 do want to wish each of you a blessed Christmas and New Year. Christmas is a great time to share the gospel, as we can remind people of why Jesus came to this world. I pray God will give you wisdom to share the gospel with your family and friends, as well as with strangers, and that some of you will join us for an outreach this next month.
Joy to the World. The Lord has come. Let earth receive her king! Let every heart prepare Him room…
I hope many of you will join us for an outreach this next month.