Harvest Strategies: An Apostolic Gang

Nobody ever came knocking on Sonny Lara’s door to bring him the Good News. The first time he heard the Gospel he was behind prison bars.

Once the truth set him free, Lara traded his shiv for a sword and made it his mission to reach out to others like him who needed to know the love of Jesus. During his prison term, the Holy Spirit gave Lara a clear vision for his newfound ministry: prophesy to the valley of dry bones so the Lord can raise up a vast army, disciplined in truth and righteousness to seek out and save the lost. Upon his release from prison, Lara and his wife Linda founded Star of David Ministries in Modesto, California. Then the duo did something that most local church leaders in the region were not willing to do. They began to reap the vast harvest of lost and hurting souls hidden away in some of Northern California’s toughest neighborhoods; neighborhoods filled with violence, drugs and every evil thing. “We catch them, we equip them, and then we release them into team ministry in the prisons and on the streets,” says Sonny, a bearded and tattooed gang member-turned-apostle of Christ. “That’s our M.O. at Star of David Ministries.”

It all starts with the I.N.V.A.D.E.R.S. (Invading Now Various Areas Demolishing Every Restricting Stronghold) Ministry, an outreach that takes the Gospel out of the church and into communities within San Jose, Stockton and Modesto, where Star of David has established three local apostolic churches. With gang members shooting to kill one another on a regular basis, the I.N.V.A.D.E.R.S. have received support from the mayor, the police department and the local newspapers. I.N.V.A.D.E.R.S. outreaches target gang members, youth, children, battered women – and anybody else who needs to hear the salvation message. “Community leaders support our outreaches because they know we are in the trenches and on the front line,” says Sonny, who has been faithful to his God-given mandate to evangelize since the Lord sent him back to the streets 10 years ago. “We have the whole city and every neighborhood mapped out and we send out foot soldiers to strategic areas identified by the Holy Spirit during prayer meetings. We take teams because this work is too big for one man to do alone. The bigger the team the more we can do for God.”

Lara also uses TV, radio, newspaper and billboard advertising to get the word out about the ministry’s quarterly four-day outreaches. I.N.V.A.D.E.R.S. team members go door to door to hand out 45,000 flyers designed to draw unbelievers with free tickets to an event that includes a live concert, free barbecue for the hungry, free clothing for the poor, and free game booths for the kids. Of course, taking the Gospel to the streets costs money. Star of David’s March outreach “Save the Lost at Any Cost” ran up a tab of more than $20,000. Lara says the team always starts out with a goose egg in the bank, but God never fails to provide for the vision. Gospel rap and hip hop music, games, and the smell of barbecue chicken typically attract from 500 to 800 people a day to the outreaches, which are held in a park, on a cordoned-off city block, or in a public auditorium during the rainy season. In addition to the live music, games and food, life-changing testimonies get real – not religious – with onlookers who were curious enough to make their way to the outreach, if only to investigate the hoopla. “Everything we do is free for the people. We cook barbecue chicken because it takes a long time to cook and it smells good, but we don’t give nothing for nothing,” says Linda, a prophetess who also leads Star of David’s Women’s Ministry. “The people stay because they are hungry and the kids want toys, but first they have to hear the Gospel message. People get saved, delivered and set free, and then we plug them into one of our local churches.”

Lara knows it takes more than John 3:16 to get gang members – or anyone else for that matter – saved in today’s world. It takes mighty demonstrations of God’s miracle-working power. So I.N.V.A.D.E.R.S. team members minister the baptism of the Holy Ghost, with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, and sometimes even cast out devils right on the street corner. Before releasing the crowds, team members gather attendees’ contact information, hand out information packets about the ministry, and distribute the Gospel of John to reinforce the love of God to just-born-again believers. But I.N.V.A.D.E.R.S. doesn’t stop there. With five-fold ministers on staff at its trio of churches, the new believer’s regeneration process continues with a “Boot Camp” that disciples, develops and deploys them back into the harvest fields.

The Boot Camp curriculum is divided into three levels: basic, intermediate and advanced training. In Basic Training new believers are equipped with foundational truths in six courses designed to help baby Christians get rooted and grounded in Christ and dressed for battle. Intermediate Training challenges believers to renew their minds, develop the fruit of the spirit and become a servant. And Advanced Training focuses on order, leadership, gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit, and moving in the apostolic. The equipping process takes about two years to complete. “We want to get it down in their spirits that we are apostolic people so they understand that they are sent ones and not went ones,” says Linda. “Signs and wonders and miracles follow those who are sent. We do not send believers out into the bad neighborhoods until they are fully equipped because the devil would chew them up and eat them for breakfast.”

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