History in First Person: Rev. Alfred Sawyer

I first heard of CMJ in May of 1978. A friend of mine asked me to interview Walter Barker who was then the General Director of CMJ. I was working at the time as the religion editor of the Lexington Herald Leader and, as a lifelong Episcopalian, had no idea that there was any such thing as a missionary society in the Anglican Communion, much less one that was specifically trying to reach the Jewish people with the Good News that Jesus is their Messiah! I had become a believer in the early 1970s through the Charismatic Renewal as did many other Episcopalians. One of the first things that happened to me after coming to faith was that I developed a voracious appetite for Scripture. I had never so much as opened the Bible during my years of growing up in the Episcopal Church. As I devoured the Scriptures, it became evident that God was not finished with the Jewish people and that they would eventually recognize Jesus of Nazareth as their promised Messiah.  

We had no plans to go to Israel and certainly no money to afford such a trip. By this time, we were living back in Georgia where I had assumed my duties as Vicar of St. Philip ’ s. Out of the blue , a clergy friend called me and said he was taking a tour to Israel in October and that he believed the Lord wanted Memory and me to join him. I told him there was no way we could go as it was too soon after our arrival in Hinesville to leave, and besides, we didn ’ t have the money.  This was in June of 1978. One morning in early August I was reading in 2 Kings 21: 7 and I saw these words: Jerusalem which I have chosen . It was as if they jumped out of the page. Then I heard a voice, which was not my own, speaking deep within me. Out of all the cities on the face of the earth I have chosen only one and I have chosen you to go there . I thought that was confirmation that Memory and I should take the trip with my friend in October. It never occurred to me that there was more to it than that.

The money came in miraculously for us to pay for the trip. In October of 1978 we found ourselves in Jerusalem. One day we visited the Garden Tomb and heard a lecture from Orde Dobbie, one of the wardens. Orde mentioned that there was going to be a prayer meeting that night at Christ Church just inside the Jaffa Gate. Orde invited us to come. It was then I remembered what Walter had said to me months before, “ If you ’ re ever in Jerusalem, visit our church. ”  

We returned to the States in the summer of 1991 . When I was appointed Director of CMJ USA, I quickly realized that selling the idea of ministry to the Jewish people was going to be difficult, to say the least, within the Episcopal Church. One of the ministries that we had developed in Israel was called Shoresh , the Hebrew word for root. It was designed to teach Gentile Christians about the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. We had seen numbers of very liberal and skeptical theological students become convinced of the veracity of the Bible simply by visiting the Land. I believed then and I believe now that one of the best ways for the Lord to demonstrate to Christians the importance of ministry to the Jewish people is to get them to visit Israel. So we renamed the ministry Shoresh USA in 1992.