A Missionary Insight

By Chris Sadowitz - Japan

We like cats. Cats #6 and #7 are currently residing at our abode. We don't name our animals readily because cats #1-5 did not last more than a few months. It's not that we were lax in our responsibilities towards them; on the contrary, we poured out time and money on the little critters. We found Cat #6 near death in a ravine. She quickly became a "former indoor" cat when we discovered three-foot-long tapeworms! Cat #7 was dumped in front of our house, and is suffering mildly from worms, malnutrition, and feline leukemia. The vet wants to give it interferon shots once a month (at 10 bucks a shot.) I tell you we only take the best animals around here. I only hope they live long enough to get names.

Unfortunately, I sometimes view people much the same way we view imperfect animals. Let's face it. If you're faced with the choice between a beautiful pedigree animal or a disease-ridden one, you'll take the clean, fluffy one every time. Similarly, people who look a certain way, or are dressed a certain way get preferential treatment.

I'm in Miyakonojo to plant a church, and to start a church-planting movement. I want to reach and train Japanese who will mightily impact their nation, and all of Asia, for Christ. I have great plans and an even greater vision. I keep praying that God will give me a promising contact, someone smart or rich or influential, someone who will take Christianity and make it flourish. The goal, of course, is giving God glory-or so I say. (Headline: "Read all about it. Sadowitz plants huge mega-church in previously resistant Japan.) In reality I've been viewing with a critical eye those whom the Lord has brought our way. I ask myself, "Lord, is this person really the future of our church planting effort?" My co-worker is crippled. The only Christian attending our fledgling church plant is a 42-year-old overweight deaf woman. Heading our list of prospective attendees is a 50-year-old stroke victim, a divorced heavy-drinking vet, a 24-year-old man who shakes and sweats with nervousness when you look in his direction, a 75-year-old blind man, and a woman who appears once every three months.

"Which one of these will we use to attain our goal of being successful church planters, Lord?" I think somewhere between the excitement of strategic planning and personal achievement I lost sight of an important rule in God's kingdom: God loves PEOPLE more than anything. Reading the parable of the great banquet in Luke 14:15-23, I am struck by these words, "Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind."

Jesus consistently looked past the color and condition of the crowds. He looked and saw sheep without a shepherd. That is the amazing thing about true Christianity: it binds together Jew and Gentile, men and woman, black and white, rich and poor. It continually breaks down the walls people erect between themselves and others. I lost sight of that for a while. I'm not here to feather my own nest. I am here to obey God and love His lambs, each one that God brings our way. By His strength and grace, we will not despise or turn away even those who spitefully use us.

Are we guilty of selective evangelism? The choice is much like that between a pet store beauty and a stray. What will your choice be?

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