In keeping with our American roots, our family will be celebrating Thanksgiving with some friends this week. This makes my American heart so happy! Unusually, the kids have Thursday and Friday off from school, so it really feels like a Thanksgiving Holiday to me this year. (In the first years of my life here in Japan, I thought I had to give up on the idea of celebrating Thanksgiving for the rest of my life as there was no way to get hold of a turkey!)
Jude and I had an amazing trip back to the States. We spent a wonderful week with my family, and then flew from Kansas to Houston to spend a week being hosted by Dwelling Place Church for their annual 10C Conference. I was especially thankful that Jude was with me and could experience the presence of God in this kind of environment. I know it was powerful and significant for him. It was also the first time I have ever attended a conference outside of Japan with friends and allies from Japan. Pastors Bungo and Hisae Kubota and a team from their church, Kingdom Seekers here in Tokyo, attended as well. I actually translated for Pastor Bungo on the last day of the conference. If you are interested, you can watch it here at the 2:00 mark. We were introduced to the people of Dwelling Place Church and 10C at their conference in Tokyo earlier this year, and there was an immediate connection in the Spirit. Bungo and Hisae were among the ones we felt God lead us to connect with when we asked Him to highlight ones that He had already placed in this city. This relationship has been a real blessing for me and Kumi, as well as our children on many levels.
If you have heard us share very much at all, you have heard us say that one of our great desires is to see the Body of Christ in Japan rise up to maturity and take its place in the global Body of Christ. Our heart is to help call out and see the unique expression of the beauty of Jesus expressed in the destiny and call of this nation. This desire has only increased in this season for us, and God continues to show us keys to focus on both in prayer and activities. For this reason, the connection with Kingdom Seekers has been exciting for us as we feel that there is something precious God is birthing through them that is representative of what He is doing in this nation. We have been joining them for their corporate worship, and we sense God’s pleasure on them as pure worship is offered up to Him. It is interesting how well our own children respond to things in their meetings too, which shows us that what God is doing among them is for the coming generations.
If you view the current state of the church in Japan, especially through the lens of metrics and statistics, it can be really discouraging. The church overall is aging and in decline. A friend of mine who keeps up with the statics for the Japanese church told me recently that the number of born again believers in Japan is somewhere around 880,000, and the number of believers age 30 and under is most likely under 50,000. He explained that we could probably take every born again believer 30 and under from all over Japan and fit them all in one of the larger stadiums in Tokyo. I have been sharing more examples like this when talking to ministers from overseas who express interest in ministry in Japan. Ministries from overseas view Japan from an international standpoint and see its potential, but they don’t know that the church here is not positioned to seize that potential. The reality is that local evangelism has a high hurdle, and there are issues domestically with which the church struggles. There has been a disconnect when it comes to discipling new believers to maturity and to live with an authentic Kingdom mindset, and often we see how cultural mindsets, behaviors, and expectations have not really changed in people on a deeper level, even in those who have been believers for long time. Kumi and I both had thought that these things simply needed to be removed and replaced in order to see real transformation, but recently I have felt the Holy Spirit making a shift in my thinking. It is a shift from thinking of these hurdles to evangelism and discipleship as obstacles to be broken through into things that need to be engaged with and utilized strategically in the wisdom of the Spirit. Our conviction is that the expression of the beauty of the church of Japan will be weaved out of the ingredients that are already in the people and culture. And we are expectant that the expressions of the five-fold ministry and the beauty of the Church that God raises up here will even serve as models to the West. This is an exciting season when God is uncovering more of His secrets, things that have been hidden from us until now. May we all continue to go after the things in His heart!
We are beginning to look for another physical location to minister to the Lord in the heart of Tokyo. We imagine it to be like a prayer tower, like how Tokyo tower was built to receive and release things in the airwaves, only for a spiritual purpose. We also continue to dream and believe for a physical place of God’s glory resting continually, where people can come and experience the tangible presence of God. We need both: a place to minister to the Lord, and a place to minister to the people. Please be believing with us on this. Actually, we are dreaming of a third place too, which will be more for several day long, life changing event. It is more clear than ever to us, even from Jude’s experience this month, that we must contend for the real experience of God’s presence. This is vital for the next generation. A recent comment by one of our spiritual fathers stuck in our heart. He said that it is simply not an option for our children to be in a dead (church) environment without the presence of God. This is so true. It is the only thing that will capture their hearts.
-Jeremy