The Chart That Rocked My World

It’s not often that a graph changes the course of my life.

But this one did.

It’s the graph in the Perspectives and the PathWays to Global Understanding courses that show only 2 long-term cross-cultural field workers going to every million Muslims; 5 going to every million Hindus; and 6 going to every million Buddhists.

The numbers must be a bit higher now than fifteen years ago. But not much.

First, it struck me to the core that likely only 2 or 5 or 6 of us are taking on the IMPOSSIBLE task of sharing Jesus as the way to God with a million people! I just couldn’t believe it.

Second, if God’s heart is to reconcile all peoples to himself so they can worship him and be part of his family in his Kingdom forever—then that’s MY heart too.

Therefore, I couldn’t bear the thought that millions of people would die without the chance to be reconciled back to God—simply because not enough of us who hold the good news in our possession intentionally focused on reaching them.

Let’s look at this another way.

About 7 million people live in the state of Arizona, where I live. So that’s like saying that, if Arizonians were Muslim, only 14 people would have taken on the responsibility of sharing God’s good news with the entire state.

Unfathomable. And spiritually unfair.

This is the chart that changed the course of my life. I threw my lot, my energy, my time, with God’s guidance, into changing the number from 2 to 3.

Let’s look at a real example.

Do you know a state in India called Utter Pradesh? If you live in Western countries, you probably haven’t heard of it. But Utter Pradesh is almost a whole country in itself. About 230 million people live there. To compare, about 330 million people live in America.

Here’s the kicker: In Utter Pradesh, the majority of the population identify as Hindu and Muslim. Only about 0.1% people identify as Christians. Yes, that’s one tenth of one percent.

We can count in single digits the number of cross-cultural disciple-making movement workers who also live there, know the language fluently, and can communicate good news in a way Muslims and Hindus in Utter Pradesh can understand and receive it.

Okay, so how did this chart rock my world?

I looked around me, right in Arizona, and said to myself, I don’t even know any Muslims, or Hindus, or Buddhists.

I had surrounded myself with people who look like me, believe like me, and act like me.

Yes, I’m always going to offer Jesus to my neighbors, no matter who they are. But I realized there’s a lot of true Jesus followers living right around me that could and should keep doing that, as well as hundreds of wonderful churches they could go to if they wanted.

I decided to throw my lot, my time, my energy in with the VERY FEW that wanted to be more intentional with those groups of people who have, what I call, “least access”. They do not have access to the good news of the Kingdom of God.

So, I prayed, God, help me know and understand Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists, so I can share your wonderful ways, your truth, your love with them, that will give them joy, peace, and healing in their life now, and in the life to come.

I told God, If it makes any difference at all for one, ordinary, regular person like me to be all in, if you’re with me, I’m willing to change that number on that chart from 2 to 3 people trying to invite a million Muslims, with love and respect, to follow Jesus.

If you haven’t read my book yet, you can get the First Chapter Free and read about the first Muslim I ever met when I was 38-years old. Ayisha launched me on a spiritual adventure I could never have imagined that sent our family into relationships with Iraqi refugees coming to our city, and eventually launched us overseas to live in an unreached and unengaged people group in India.

God has given me so many wonderful friends who are Muslim now, and so many opportunities to BE GOOD NEWS.

We go where we know

Here’s the other number on that graph that make me say yes to investing my time, energy, and learning into welcoming, giving to, praying for, mobilizing for, and going to the least reached blocs of people in the world.

Every million people who already call themselves Christian have 700 people moving from another country to live with them, learning their language, living with them to share Jesus. Remember, Muslims had 2. Hindus had 5. Buddhists had 6. Christians, even though they may just be cultural Christians, had 700!

That seemed so unbalanced.

Yes, there’s good reason to also go to countries with nominal Christians who might not be true believers at all. We can mobilize them, or empower them to alleviate poverty or right social wrongs or serve underprivileged peoples.

But something else bothered me to the core of my being.

It seemed that Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists were getting the short end of the stick.

People who raised their hands and said, “Lord, please make me a “missionary” (or I call them “cross-cultural field worker” now), chose to go to people who already knew of Jesus Christ and the good news of the Kingdom of God—or at least already had other believers around them that could be good news to them.

Why, I wondered?

Well, people tend to go where they know. They go where they know someone, where there’s other cross-cultural workers already that invite them.

Even in your own city, you would have to really be intentional to put yourself in places where Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists live, work, and play. So we don’t tend to have much experience making friends with, and discipling Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists in our current location.

One of the callings on my life is to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.

So I want to speak for those with least access to the Gospel, to you who have the most access to the Gospel: Make friends with us! Love us! Live with us! Share your good news with us!

Will even one more ordinary, regular person be willing to change the chart that rocked my world, and move the number from 2 to 3; or 5 to 6; or 6 to 7?