When I was a young man attending church, I heard about "rice Christians" in China. Spoken of exclusively in pejorative terms, rice Christians were those starving Chinese who would come to the missionaries for food and, eagerly or insincerely, stay to hear the gospel. The well-fed missionaries addressing well-fed congregations would imply that these Chinese who confessed Christ were suspect since they always came back for more rice. Now I realize that the missionaries were the ones who were suspect. Ambassadors of the narrow gospel of their times, they were blind to the need of the Chinese for self-support and self-respect. To rise above begging was essential for the Chinese, if they were to freely embrace Christianity. Similarly, to rise above stealing or selling drugs is pivotal for gang members. Otherwise, in both situations, I believe it would be unlikely to find any sincere Christians among them. Hungry people think about food, not God, and are desperate enough to do just about anything to get fed.

When asked about our Biblical model for ministry, I point to the Feeding of the Five Thousand (Matthew 14:13-21) by our Lord and the disciples. When the physical need of hunger arose among the crowd, Jesus did not say, "All those who believe in me, come forward for food distribution. Those of you who don't believe in me, go into town and buy your own food." Jesus fed them all, and continued to preach the Word to them. Those who believed were as welcome to eat as those who didn't. All were well fed...

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