This week Keith Drury talks about the current US economic turmoil and asks the question What will happen in the church if we enter a recession or depression? I thought he raised some really good points, and it brought to the front of my mind a lot of stuff I’ve been thinking about lately regarding how it might affect those of us in world missions. Here are the thoughts I posted in the comments section on Drury’s blog:

While it won’t be easy, if we go through a recession/depression, it might end up for the greater good. Would it hurt for us to learn to live below our means? Would it be a bad thing if we were less materialistic? Western culture (and some parts of the east, too, like here in Japan) has become way too consumeristic; we’re spoiled rotten. Maybe we need to learn the hard way…

On the other hand, as a missionary I wonder what it would mean for the future of missions. With less income, churches and individual Christians are less likely to support missionaries. Would we end up sending out less missionaries, or would we change the way we fund missions? Or would missionaries have to learn to live on a LOT less — like missionaries of past generations did, to the point of suffering?

This is so long I should just post it to my own blog… But one more thought: If any non-Americans (like me) reading this think that this won’t affect us if it happens, I disagree. With the world economy being what it is, and America being such a huge part of it, we are ALL in for a rough ride.

As Keith Drury would say, so what do you think?

And yes, I just block-quoted myself. I know.

Interesting post about how to communicate the Gospel in Japan: N.T. Wright and Mitsuo Fukuda, at Irreligious Life. I may have to follow up with some thoughts of my own… sometime.

A couple of months (or so) ago, I was interviewed, via email for GP’s newsletter/magazine GP Worldview. I thought I’d share it here on the blog for those of you who haven’t read it. It was edited for space in the mag, so I’ll include some of the stuff that was cut out.

Tell me about your call to missions, especially to Japan.

I was “finished school” and working full-time as a graphic designer when I first started sensing God call me into ministry. I didn’t know where that would lead me ultimately, but it started with going back to school, where I received my Youth Ministry degree from Bethany Bible College.

After Bible College I still had no plans to go overseas as a missionary. I was a youth major, after all, and had a passion for worship leading. So I pursued various potential opportunities in youth and music ministry. But in all my searching for just the right ministry position, nothing I pursued worked out. For months, it seemed like every door I tried was closed. Then, through the internet, an opportunity came my way completely unexpectedly: a one-year position teaching English and doing ministry in Japan, at a little place in Sayama City, Osaka, called Grace English School.

After a lot of prayer and thinking, I really sensed that God was leading me to accept the offer. So in the summer of 2002 I left Canada for a year in Japan. It will be a great experience — an adventure, I thought, and besides, it’s only for a year, right?

That year changed my life. It was an adventure, yes. But it changed me in ways I didn’t ever realize at the time. It changed the way I looked at the world, the way I looked at missions, the way I looked at life in general, and the way I looked at myself. I fell in love with Japan and, seeing the great spiritual need, have been carrying a burden for the Japanese ever since.

I know this isn’t your first time in Japan. Tell a little bit about your first or past times there.

As I mentioned, my first experience with Japan was the year I spent in Osaka. My day-to-day life consisted mainly of teaching English, but since the English school I worked at was owned and operated by Believers, there was quite a bit of opportunity for ministry as well. We did a weekly event called “International Fellowship”, which was a time of sharing about culture, and a time for people to practice their English, but also a time of worship and Bible study. I played guitar and lead worship almost every week, and had the opportunity to do the Bible study on several occasions as well.

One thing that stood out to me about Japanese society was their ability to embrace modern ideas and technology while at the same time holding on to their distinctive culture and traditions. It’s a fascinating mix of the ancient and ultra-modern. But what I came to love most about Japan was the people.

How is the language learning process coming along? Are you able to communicate in Japanese?

I suppose that depends on how you define “communicate”! For a native speaking, talking to me in Japanese is probably like talking to a two-year old! On the other hand, that’s better than a few months ago. I have certainly made a lot of progress in my first couple of months of formal studies, but language learning is a slow and difficult process.

What cultural practices are the most challenging to adjust to?

In Japan, everything matters. There’s a rule and a right way to do everything. When you’re not from here, that of course means a you face a huge learning curve. Also, communication is often indirect, so you need to learn to read between the lines. And the language barrier just makes all of this learning all the more slow.

I know you have only been in Japan since the end of December, but so far what has been your high point?

It’s been a few years coming, so for me just being back in Japan feels great. But recently I had the opportunity, along with a new Japanese friend, to sing and play a duet during a Sunday afternoon outreach service. We sang a bilingual version of “The Love of God”. I also gave a brief introduction in Japanese. It was an amazing experience to be able to minster in this way in Japanese — even if (to be honest) I didn’t understand every word I said, and had to read the whole thing! One of my dreams is to be able to lead worship completely in Japanese, and this was a small step in that direction.

What will your ministry be?

During this term, my main focus is on learning Japanese. However, I will be involved at Immanuel Nagoya Church by doing some English teaching and helping with their youth ministry. I also recently began giving one-on-one English lessons to a young Japanese guy in exchange for his help with my Japanese. He’s not a Christian, but is open to studying the Bible, so we’re going to be going through the book of Mark together.

Do the Japanese know anything about Jesus? How do you go about sharing the gospel with them?

Japan is basically 99% unreached. That means the average person not only isn’t a Believer, but probably doesn’t even know who Jesus really is. With this being a group-oriented culture, where indirect communication is the norm, aggressive or confrontational forms of evangelism aren’t the way to go. Which is fine by me, since I’m not aggressive or confrontational. I think relationships are the key. That’s one of the reasons English teaching is such a great ministry tool here. As a native English speaker, this is a service I can offer the church as a way to help them to connect with people outside the church. And this is something I can do even while the language barrier keeps me from other areas of service.

What is your vision for the Japanese people?

I think there’s a great openness to the Gospel among today’s youth. I think the opportunity and possibility of reaching Japan may be greater now than ever before. My dream is to see Japanese Believers of this generation seize the opportunity to reach their generation with the love of Christ.

What has God taught you personally on this journey so far?

Patience! Maybe I should say he’s teaching me patience. Learning another language takes a lot of discipline and hard work. And with or without language and cultural barriers, ministry in Japan is a slow process of building relationships, planting seeds and trusting God to bring the harvest.

I just realized that as of yesterday I’ve been back in Japan for FIVE months now! Time flies… Remember when you were a kid and you thought adults were weird when they talked about how time speeds up the older you get? Now that I’m grown-up I know what they meant…

I think about the future a lot. This is partly because my current missionary term is as an “intern”, meaning I’m here to learn and figure out where I fit so that I can have a more effective ministry in the long run. Recently, when thinking about the future I’ve come to realize something about my vision for ministry in Japan:

My vision is now both clearer and less clear at the same time.

I know that seems like a contradiction. Or at least paradox. So let me explain. My vision seems clearer in that I feel very strongly that I will be in Japan for the long-haul. There is such a great need, as well as so much opportunity, that how could I ever think of leaving? On the other hand, my vision is less clear in the specifics. There are so many different directions my life and ministry could take, so many opportunities to pursue and needs to address, that the questions of “what’s next?” and “what’s my role in Japan?” don’t have answers yet.

Funny how the same reasons — the needs and opportunity — lead to both clarity and lack of clarity.

I hesitated to share this story because I don’t want to come across as culturally insensitive or religiously intolerant. So first let me say that I do respect people of other religions (here in Japan it’s Buddhism and Shinto), whether I agree with them (or even understand them), or not. I would never purposely do anything to offend someone. I would never enter a typical Japanese person’s home as a guest and start criticizing them for having a family shrine or Buddhist altar in their house. If I visit a public temple or shrine I try to be quiet and respectful and to not disturb people.

On the other hand, I will celebrate for and with someone who leaves all that behind and embraces Jesus Christ.

And now that I’ve gotten that disclaimer out of the way…

Last night I had the rare privilege of helping the assistant pastor destroy a couple of Buddhist shrines. And it felt really, really, really good.

An elderly lady from the church had them from before she became a Christian. Actually, she came to Christ several years ago but her husband, who died back in November, became a Christian more recently, about a year before passing away. She couldn’t bring herself to destroy them, either for fear (in Japan, religion seems to be more about fear and superstition than anything) or because of the family connection, or both. So she brought them to the church for us to take care of, and for some reason the pastors thought it would be a good experience for me.

What they didn’t know is how much I enjoy breaking stuff.

Unfortunately we live in the city so burning them was out of the question for safety reasons. Plus the neighbors might complain. But we did have some good hammers. And boy, we wrecked those shrines and everything in them — real good. I mean, Buddha’s head just went flying. There was broken wood, nails (I almost impaled myself at least once) torn paper, dust, incense and other wreckage everywhere. It took about a half hour to dismantle everything, and another 10 minutes or so to clean up after ourselves.

Good times.

Seriously, though, it really was a good experience. I’d never seen such literal, tangible idolatry before I came to Japan. Being a part of someone’s deliverance from that felt good (even though I had nothing to do with these people coming to Christ, just laying the physical symbols of that past to rest). It was like something out of the Old Testament during one Israel’s times of turning back to God. It was a symbolic breaking away from the past. It was an outward, visible sign of a changed life. It meant freedom from the past, from superstition, from false gods, from evil spirits.

For Japanese people, making that kind of break is difficult. Not just the getting rid of physical symbols of the past, but actually breaking away from generations of family and community and society tradition in a homogenous, conformist, group-oriented society.

What I saw last night, for me, symbolized what I’d like to see more of. Changed lives. That’s why I’m here.

I was thinking about ministry, time management, routine, and getting things done. The nature of ministry is such that a lot of stuff that’s actually part of our job doesn’t feel like work, because it’s relational. On the other hand, there are some things that really feel like work but don’t feel like ministry, but still need to be done because they’re part of our job. And then how do you measure success? Or what will your supporters think if you can’t show them any concrete results? And how do you even measure results in this business anyway?

Then I read this article — On someone else’s dime — and just had to share it. Any thoughts?

A missionary friend included these quotes in her email this week.  I thought they were worth remembering — and sharing here as well.

“When I get to China, I will have no claim on any one for anything. My claim will be alone in God and I must learn before I leave England to move men through God by prayer alone” – J. Hudson Taylor 

“If you are sick, fast and pray; if the language is hard to learn, fast and pray; if the people will not hear you, fast and pray, if you have nothing to eat, fast and pray.”  - Frederick Franson

Over the next little while, I thought I’d share some stories and thoughts from my past experiences in Japan. As many readers probably already know, I spent a year in Osaka, teaching English at Grace English School. I was there from August 2002 until August 2003, and maintained a website where I posted photos and writings on what I was experiencing. The following is one of those journal entries…

Sunday, December 1, 2002: Thoughts on Culture and Ministry

Sometimes when teaching English it is hard to explain simple concepts like when to use “a” and when to use “the”, or the difference between “this” and “that”. It is difficult because I don’t know Japanese and the students don’t know enough English.

A similar problem is found, too, when trying to communicate the gospel. The language barrier is always a factor, of course. But even without language barriers, there are always cultural differences to take into account; things that are different between those from the east and those from the west, those that are churched and those that are unchurched, and so on. These differences can lead to misunderstandings and barriers to sharing ideas.

My fellow teacher and missionary, Samuel, is doing his thesis on this very idea – how to contextualize the Gospel, interpreting and theologizing in such a way that a person will understand and relate to, given their particular background. When ministering in a country like Japan, where Christians make up about 1% of the population (if that), Christians need to overcome the misperception that Christianity is a foreign religion. So those of us ministering here (and in other places where the Gospel seems foreign) need to drop our theological jargon, learn who it is we are trying to reach, and speak to them on their level.

So we need to know how the people we are ministering to think. But we also need to know their hearts. In Japan, ministry is very relational; you need to get to know a person before you can share your beliefs with them. Having said that, I believe that that is true in most cultures. Other methods may work to an extent, but the Gospel – which is all about our relationship with God – is best spread through relationships. If you want to share the love of Jesus with someone, you’d better be ready to share your own love too.

So this is the bottom line of I am trying to express: As Christians, wherever we come from, whatever culture we are in, and whatever the background of those we are trying to reach, we need to speak the truth in love and in a way that our hearers can understand and relate to. And we really need God’s help to do so.

I just finished KP Yonanna’s Revolution in World Missions tonight. KP is the founder of Gospel for Asia, a missions organization whose policy is sending native missionaries to reach people in their own countries, regions and cultures. As a non-native missionary, it reminds me of some things I’ve been mulling over anyway:

First, it reminds me of the importance of presenting the Gospel in a way that is culturally relevant to the people I’m trying to reach. We need to “speak their language” both literally and figuratively.

I’ve also been thinking about the importance of discipleship. Ultimately it’s the Japanese who are going to reach the Japanese. My vision is to not only share God’s love with those who don’t know Christ, but also to disciple Believers to the point where they will be motivated, prepared and mobilized to minister to their fellow-Japanese.

Here’s some other stuff that stood out to me:

“When the Holy Spirit moves and does His work, we become restless because we want to control it. It is an inherent weakness of the flesh.”

“The life of the missionary is the medium of his message.”

“The only ones who can win others to Christ are men and women who are so lost in Jesus that they are like Him.”

Lord, make me like Jesus!