Pray for Japan! Reaching the Unreached.

In 1974 missiologist Ralph Winter presented a paper at the first Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization that revolutionized missions. Rather than looking at the world with geo-political boundaries, Winter encouraged missionaries to gain an awareness People Groups. Theologically and practically speaking, it was a huge oversight.

Source: Flickr

There are over 10,000 people groups in the world. What was so revolutionary about what Ralph presented at Lausanne was that he made the bold suggestion that we should be investing our resources in reaching those who had the least access to the Gospel--that is, "unreached people groups."Since 1974, entire missions organizations have been founded with this pursuit in mind--other existing organizations and denominational mission boards have refocused their efforts on reaching the least evangelized peoples.

Japan, while being a geo-political nation-state is also the home of over 128 million Japanese--of whom less than 1% know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Japan is not entirely homogenous--it is the home of substantial minorities of Korean, Brazilian and Chinese diaspora. There are also indigenous minorities like the Ainu, Ryukyuans and Burakumin (similar to the untouchable caste in India). Often there are more Christians among these minorities per-capita than among the Japanese.

Around the world more and more of these unreached people groups are being reached with the Gospel. Amazing work is being done to translate the bible into languages that have never been put in writing before. God is doing astounding things in places that many people thought impossible to do ministry.

With all that being said, Japan continues to be a difficult and demanding mission field. In spite of over one-hundred years of Protestant mission work in Japan, less than one-percent of the Japanese have responded to the Gospel. There are many reasons for this--both spiritual and social reasons. However, something very few people are aware of is that the church is actually losing ground in Japan.

This year more churches closed than opened, less people attended a church or a sunday school--statistics across the board show a decline in the Japanese church. Pastors are retiring, churches are closing, older Christians are entering eternity. One of the most difficult realities to face is that less and less missionaries are going to Japan--even if they are called, often the financial and cultural hurdles of serving in Japan are just too high. Pray for Japan! Pray for a revival among Japanese Christians. Pray for more Christians to answer the call to missions among the Japanese. Pray for more churches and individuals to see the need and support missionaries with prayer and finances.

Reflections: The Value of Friendship

The end of the year is closing in, and as the new year approaches I have been reflecting on the events of the past twelve months. So much has changed in such a short period of time, and I thought it would be helpful to me, and maybe interesting to you to collect a few of the significant lessons that the Lord has taught me over the past year here on my blog.

In the beginning of March I moved from Chicago to South Korea. I had been invited to visit Juhyang Community Church in January and while I was there they offered me the opportunity to return and help them begin an English ministry. In addition to serving at the church, opportunities opened for me to serve with a campus group and a missionary training school. I had few expectations about what my experience in Chuncheon would be like, but God wanted to use my time there to teach me a valuable lesson that I didn't expect.

Within a couple of months in Chuncheon I was experiencing some significant culture-shock. I had attempted to set my expectations low, but there were many experiences that left me feeling jaded. During the first three months in Chuncheon I had spent my time exclusively with Koreans--many of whom had little or no English ability. My Korean was getting much better, but the lack of a shared language often led to miscommunication and misunderstanding. I felt like the rug was being pulled out from under my feet. Many times God uses hardship and suffering to get us to reflect on what is really valuable.

At the end of June I went on a three week long trip to Japan and the USA. Just before leaving for the trip a couple of visitors attended the English worship service at Juhyang Community Church. They were Pastor Eric Beck and Pastor James Lee of Harvest Time Community Church. After the service we went out to eat jjajangmyeon. I learned from them that there was already an English language international church being planted in Chuncheon, and they already had a well established core of people. It occurred to me that rather than I could much more fruitful partnered together with what they were already doing than I had been on my own. Henry Blackaby's maxim comes to mind; if you want to experience God, discover where God is working and join Him.

Eric and I post shabu-shabu. Nice haircut 'eh.

After returning in July I began attending Harvest Time and participating in their outreach to international students at Kangwon National University. It turns out that we had both been partnered with different people from the same organization doing virtually the same thing--like ships passing in the night. I started to spend a lot of time together with Eric. In addition to the time spent together in prayer and outreach, I found that he had a heart with a great passion for the Lord, and we leaned on each other as each of us sought to serve the Lord in Chuncheon. We also ate a lot of great food, watched movies, played board games and screen golf.

One thing that I hadn't considered before going to Chuncheon was just how much a strong friendship could affect the whole of my ministry in a place. I found that a lot of the things that I had been struggling with were suddenly much easier to bear. My bitterness and disappointment were replaced with joy and excitement. I feel that God even helped our friendship to be contagious. There is a great community at Harvest Time and it only seemed to get better week to week! I am so grateful for the time I got to spend there, because the Holy Spirit is so clearly at work in that community of believers.

Sometimes it takes a life experience for us to understand the Bible better--I had never had such a strong and encouraging friendship with another guy since coming to faith in Christ. The first thing that comes to mind is Jonathan and David--God knit our hearts together with a common vision and passion in a very short time. It was extremely difficult to leave Chuncheon in spite of the excitement I had about the opportunity God had given me to begin support raising to go to Japan with Converge Worldwide.

Even Iron Man is better with a friend.

God doesn't want us to serve him alone. We are better together than we are individually. The body is made up of many different parts and we need each other. I understand much better why Jesus sent out his disciples two-by-two. I am really grateful for the friendship I found with Eric Beck in Chuncheon. God used him to minister to me and help me to realize how much I needed community and fellowship with the body of Christ--it moved beyond a conceptual understanding to a real experience.

I would appreciate it if you would pray for Eric as he faithfully serves with Harvest Time International Church as the Outreach Pastor! He holds weekly Bible studies for international students at Kangwon National University and Hallym University. He is also responsible for weekly bible studies and men's fellowship at Harvest Time. Eric, his wife Elizabeth and daughter Clara live in Chuncheon by faith. He has a home in Joplin Missouri that he has been trying to sell from a distance. Please pray that they would find a buyer for their home as this would help them greatly with their finances.

Eric serves bi-vocationally and his wife Elizabeth works full time as an English teacher. Their time is very precious, but they give it away so generously. Pray that God would bless them and their family during this Christmas season!

Missions 101: Defining Missions

Reconciliation by Cindy Alsop 

A few Sundays ago I had the opportunity to speak on missions in a youth meeting at Shiloh Hills Fellowship in Spokane Washington. I was asked to speak on missions in a way that would be compelling for the youth. I only had a short time to prepare, and an even shorter time to present--but I liked the challenge.

There were so many things that I could have said--missions isn't simply a subtopic within theology, as the theologian Martin Kähler (1835-1912) once said, "Missions is the mother of all theology." That actually complicates the matter quite a bit. It's like being told, 'sum up the bible in twenty minutes.'

Never one to back down from a challenge I dived head in. Thankfully the Holy Spirit used me to articulate what I actually felt afterwards was something that might be beneficial to share with my readers here on JoyField (all three of you, thanks mom!).

I began by asking the youth if they could give me a definition for 'Missions.' I got a lot of great answers. The youth understood that it meant going to another place and sharing a message, that it included danger, but also excitement. There was some vagueness about the specifics, but there was a general consensus that it was important.

The word Mission actually comes into the English language from the Latin word missio, which means 'to send,' or 'to be sent.' This word was used to translate another very important Greek word from which we get the word Apostle, that is, one who is sent. One of the most important ways to understand missions is that it is the imitation of Christ in his incarnation and ministry of reconciliation.

Jesus was sent by the Father, and He sends us.

Missions is rooted theologically in the incarnation of Jesus. In John 20:19-21 Jesus appears to to His disciples after His resurrection from the dead. "On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”"

In Jesus' parable in Luke 14, He compares heaven with a banquet--unable to get the invited guests to come, the host sends his servants out into the roads and country lanes to invite in whomever they can find to experience the festivities. This is just one of numerous references to being sent in the New Testament, but it is a story that illustrates the very heart of missions. We have been commissioned by Jesus to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that Jesus taught (Matt 28:18-20).

This commission is a high calling--and one that is given to the entire body of Christ. It is not limited to a select group of highly trained religious professionals. Instead, as we see in the New Testament it was to be accomplished by fishermen, tax collectors, tent makers, soldiers, slaves, linen dyers, medical doctors, farmers--in short, everyone who belongs to Christ is given this command.

The great commission is a recommissioning of Adam's commission given in Genesis 1:27-28--to fill the world with image bearers. We participate in the mission of God both individually and corporately as the Holy Spirit works to restore the image of God in us.

In the book of Revelations we get to see the end of the story--all the treasures of the nations being brought into the heavenly city. Jesus' blood "has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation."(Rev 5:9) Jesus will be the center of the new heavens and earth--the glory of His face will be the source of its light, "The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it." (Rev 21:24)

Jesus' incarnation and ministry of reconciliation are the blueprint for missions.

There is very little disagreement in regards to the 'going' of missions, but there is great contention as to what the content of missions is supposed to be. Thankfully Paul gives us a good reminder:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor 5:17-21)

God has entrusted us with this ministry of reconciliation--to reconcile people to their creator. He invites us to be part of this very exciting rescue mission. We join together with Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit to reconcile the world to the Father. Jesus crossed over the greatest  cultural divide when he became incarnate as a man, and He did it in obedience to His Father who sent Him. He came on a mission of redemtion, to go to the cross and defeat death and Satan through his suffering on the cross. He rose again from the dead victorious and invites us to partner with him in reconciling and restoring all the nations to God the Father.

Converge: A History Lesson with Significance for Today

While visiting Shiloh Hills Fellowship in Spokane two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to fellowship with Bud Malmsten, a retired pastor with Converge Worldwide. Bud's grandfather had actually been a founding member of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis in 1871. His father Rev. H. Wyman Malmsten (memorial) served with distinction on the staff of Bethel University. Bud helped me to understand the rich heritage of Converge Worldwide (aka the Baptist General Conference, formerly the Swedish Baptists).

First Swedish Baptist Seattle, now a parking lot.

Bud regaled me with many stories about his family, ministry and the history of Converge, but one of these tales stood out in my mind. He shared how, prior to the second World War, the Swedish Baptists sent their missionaries overseas under the leadership of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society of the Northern Baptist Convention.

At the time it was becoming common for smaller ethnic Baptist denominations to formally join the Northern Baptists (now known as the American Baptist Churches USA) or work in close partnership with them when it came to missions. In fact, according to Bud, the Swedish Baptists were very close to merging with the Northern Baptists as the Danish and Norwegian Baptists had for the most part already done. Wikipedia says, "Swedish Baptists had maintained an alliance with the American Baptist Publication Society, American Baptist home and foreign missions... Some Swedish Baptists expected to merge with that body."

That was until the 1940's when a major schism in the Northern Baptist Convention occurred. Concerned with the growing influence of liberal criticism of the bible, a movement began within the denomination to make sure that any missionaries being sent out with the ABFMS were consistent on their understandings of the fundamentals of the Christian faith. The disagreement over liberal theology eventually tore the denomination apart, and in 1943 a new denomination was founded called the Conservative Baptist Association.

According to Bud, this split had a profound effect on the Swedish Baptists. Different voices within the denomination suggested merging with the American Baptists or one of the splinter groups. However, at an annual meeting, Bud's own grandfather Wyman Malmsten promoted a vision for what he thought might help set a new direction for the denomination. The idea was called "52 by 52."

With the Northern Baptist Convention coming apart at the seams, the Baptist General Conference had begun sending their own missionaries in 1944. At the time the number was very small, but the feeling was that if there were a significant number of foreign missionaries being supported by the BGC, then that would warrant their continuation as an independent and separate denomination. Wyman was instrumental in putting forth the vision of sending fifty-two missionaries by 1952 (which happened to be the centennial anniversary of the founding of the denomination). This would be the litmus test of their resolve to trust God and be faithful to the Great Commission.

The number seemed outrageous at the time that it was first proposed, but by 1950 they had already sent out more than fifty-two missionaries! Wyman's calculated gamble paid off and the denomination rallied around their missionaries. The missionaries sent out became the glue that held the denomination together. Wikipedia's less sensational version corroborates the story, "The conservative Swedish Baptists pulled back from growing liberalism of the Northern Baptists, and in 1944 formed their own Board of Foreign Missions. This moved them toward independent existence, which they have maintained to the present."

In a book published by the denomination entitled, "Fifteen eventful years: A survey of the Baptist General Conference of America: 1945-1960" it says:

In June, 1944, the Swedish Baptist General Conference took one of the most momentous steps in its history... it adopted a series of resolutions which led ultimately to the creation of an independent Board of Foreign Missions. Until that time the official missionary program of the denomination had been carried on largely through the agencies of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. The year 1944 holds special importance for Conference Baptists, for it marks the beginning of an independent program of foreign missionary endeavor. 

The significance of this step in the history of the Conference was very great indeed. The decision represented a new-found confidence in the future of the denomination and a determination to discover a distinctive role for Conference Baptists within American Christianity and in the world mission of the church... the new foreign work had special importance as a rallying point for Conference Baptists, and the launching of the new program contributed immeasurably to the change from pessimism about the future of the denomination to optimism. (p. 63)

Two quite different kinds of motivation lay behind the decision to create an independent foreign mission society. Some leaders were motivated primarily by a concern for the theological integrity of the Conference missionary participation. Some others were motivated primarily by a concern to promote denominational unity and loyalty through a vigorous world-wide outreach. The reasons for the Advance were summarized in an official publication of the Board of Foreign Missions in 1950:  

Two reasons for this new action were: First, our churches wanted to be sure they were supporting only missionaries who were true to the Word of God and who were under the direction of a board that was faithful to the Bible; second, since God had kept our churches together as a Conference fellowship, showing us that He had continued work for us to do, we were convinced that we must accept as our own the obligation of going with the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. (p. 70-71)

In 1945 a six-year plan for the development of the new work was adopted. The plan called for the appointment of at least three missionary families and one single worker each year. It was hoped that by 1952, the year of the denominational centennial, there would be fifty-two Conference missionaries under appointment.

... Five mission fields were opened in the first six years: China in 1945, the North Bank of Assam, India, in 1946, Japan in 1948, the Philippine Islands in 1949, and Ethiopia in 1950.  (p.72)

I already liked many things about Converge Worldwide, but learning this history has made me even more excited to serve as one of their missionaries. After establishing the separate mission board in 1944, they opened up five new fields in 1948--one of these was Japan. Next year will be the sixty-fifth year of Converge missions in Japan! This is a denomination with a serious commitment to missions, and one that has made missions part of its DNA. It is also a reminder that as I visit different churches I am serving to link them together with other churches in the body of Christ as we work together to advance the Kingdom of God!

Pray for Japan! The Silent Tsunami

The words 'Pray for Japan' flooded twitter and facebook feeds in March of 2011. As waves engulfed the coastal cities of northeastern Japan, the world's focus affixed upon the land of the rising sun--but as with most natural disasters, attention spans were short. Soon the news media found other stories to cover.

Some students at Wheaton College had already been holding a weekly prayer meeting for Japan long before the disaster took place. This event only intensified their intercession for the island nation and its people. Their prayers for Japan were the result of an even greater disaster occurring in Japan every day, invisible to the naked eye.

There is a Silent Tsunami that affects all of Japan. Each and every week more Japanese die without a saving faith in Jesus Christ than died in the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

Image: Reuters

Less than one percent of Japanese people have responded to the message of the Gospel, making the Japanese one of the largest 'unreached people groups' in the world. Because of the size of the Japanese population the task of reaching them is immense.

There are approximately 128 million people who call Japan their home. According to the census data about 1.146 million Japanese people died in 2009. That is about 22,000 people each week. That is quite shocking considering that only 15,870 people died in the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

Considering that only about 0.5 percent of Japanese people have been reconciled to God through faith in Jesus, that means that over 20,000 Japanese people are entering a Christless eternity each week.

Few people are aware of this silent tsunami but I pray that you would join me and truly begin to 'Pray for Japan.' Does it take a natural disaster to drive us to our knees in prayer for the Japanese?

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

Source flickr: Leaf Image

The more things change, the more they stay the same. With the changing seasons, I am reminded that some things never change.

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to preach on Colossians chapter three. While preparing for the sermon I outlined the book of Colossians and studied several commentaries about the epistle. One of the commentaries quoted a big chunk of one of the earliest Christian writings (circa A.D. 200) outside of the bible, entitled, the 'Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus.' While not inspired, chapter five and six of Mathetes caught my attention because of its missiological significance. I would encourage you to read the following quotation from Mathetes in light of the current state of Christianity in the West and also because today many Christians in the United States will be heading to the polls to vote.

For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. 

The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. 

They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. 

They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.

To sum up all in one word— what the soul is in the body, that are Christians in the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians are scattered through all the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, yet is not of the body; and Christians dwell in the world, yet are not of the world.

The author of this early Christian writing is an evangelist writing to a non-Christian. This context helps us to appreciate the previous quotation even more! Ideally, Christians are only distinguishable from those they live among by the life of Christ living through them--they are salt and light living in the midst of a dark world. They are the preserving agent; or as this writer has put it, the soul of the people they are living among. As much as things in the broader culture change, Christians have a call to live in the midst of their communities as ambassadors of a heavenly Kingdom!

A few days ago I posted this same quote on facebook, and upon re-reading it, I found it was even more relevant to our current circumstances than at the first reading. One sentence stood out: "They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed." This quote reminds me that Christianity started in a context where infanticide (the Greco-Roman alternative to abortion) and sexual immorality were the norm. The issues of human dignity and traditional marriage have been at the forefront of American politics for the past several decades. Despite the appearance of losing ground, it is actually a return to the status quo.

The more things change, the more things stay the same--one of the things I have been reminded is that humans are still in rebellion against God. Christians cannot change this fact by legislating morality. In fact, as the apologist Mathetes illustrates in his epistle to Diognetus, the Christian church is supposed to live differently in the midst of the world--not by wearing different cloths or eating different foods, but by living holy lives.

One Step Forward...

Today I saw Guy Fieri and his red muscle-car in Olympia, my home town. He seemed to be filming a segment for his show 'Diners, Drive-ins and Dives' at a local restaurant called Darby's. I was actually on my way to meet with the pastor of a local church who I had connected with by e-mail. I stopped to get a picture of Guy with his car and then went to the church. 

I am still getting the hang of meeting Pastors and sharing about my future ministry in Japan. I want to be honest and vulnerable about my weaknesses and past failures in ministry--but I also want them to have the impression that I am knowledgeable and experienced; it is an interesting balancing act, and one I haven't quite figured out yet. 

Guy finished by filming a commercial segment in which he shared that his restaurants would be giving fifty percent of their proceeds to help with the disaster recovery in the Northeast. Whatever you think about Guy Fieri, he is a master publicist and appears at home in front of the camera. That is not how I felt meeting with the Pastor later--I feel out of my element. 

I have already had several churches and pastors tell me that they will not be supporting me (or are incapable of supporting me). It has been discouraging each time. Some churches and individuals that I thought would be most excited about the opportunity to join together in the vision that God has given me have been the quickest to turn me down. 

That being said, I have had some very encouraging encounters as well--and some that even though they may not be open doors now, may become so later. Please pray for me that I will not be too discouraged, but that I will continue to plant seeds and share about this opportunity with passion and clarity.