Japan
Evangelical
Association

Japan Update

Autumn 2022 Number 83

A typical Japanese landscape showing a mixture of nature and human technology

Ministry possibilities using
information technology
Tadayuki
Hasegawa
InsideMinistry possibilities using
information technology

1

COVID-19 as a practice
exercise2

Providing ibasho andtamariba for Japanese
Christian youth

Extending God's Word into
all places

4

5News and Notes

6&7

Prayer/Editorial

8

Pastor, Sakaiminato
Christ Church,
Japan Assemblies
of GodI pastor a church in Sakaiminato
City, a small bay town in Tottori Prefecture. For the past 13 years I also
have been preaching at a pastorlessmission church in Tottori City, 100
kilometers away. In the beginning, I
drove to Tottori to conduct evening
worship services, but it takes a minimum of four hours one way. As you
can imagine, I soon got exhausted.
I wondered what to do, but then I
found a way to use the internet forlive broadcasts between Sakaiminato
and Tottori. Although I had someknowledge of personal computers,
no one near me was working withremote technology. So I tackled thischallenge without having any answers.
I made a lot of mistakes in the beginning, but gradually I learned how
to handle it. Eventually I was able toapply this solution not only to worship services but also to gospel classes. Then I began to think about how
to make fuller use of this technology.
Looking around, I recognized there
were people who were not able tocome to worship services because
they were caring for children or elderly family members, were sick, or
had mental problems that made them
panic in a large group.
Since the explosion of the COVID-19
pandemic, remote technology using
unfamiliar equipment such as cameras and personal computers has been
rapidly adopted by churches for theirworship services. In other words,
worship styles have greatly changed
as a result of COVID-19.
This change of worship styleshould not be wasted by viewing it
as simply a temporary way to get

http://jeanet.org/(continued on page 3)

Interview

COVID-19 as a practice exercise
Koji Yoshida

Pastor, Atsubetsu Evangelical Christ Church
Pastor Koji Yoshida of Atsubetsu Evangelical
Christ Church in Sapporo City, Hokkaido Prefecture, comes from a unique background as a publichealth physician. When COVID-19 cases began
to increase in Japan in early 2020, Hokkaido
was the first prefecture to declare a state of emergency. Pastor Yoshida shared with Japan Update
how he has been able to draw on his expertise asa scientist throughout the pandemic period. Excerpts follow.
Japan Update (JU): Please tell us how the pandemic has affected, or not affected, your church.
Koji Yoshida (KY): In short, we never stopped
gathering in person for Sunday worship. We madesome changes, of course, such as not serving
communion.
JU: How and why did you decide to continue
meeting?
KY: Two things. First, a conviction based on
Scripture, namely Hebrews 10:25. This verse
came to my mind just before the worship service
on March 1, 2020, the first Sunday after Hokkaido had declared the state of emergency. During
the extraordinary church board meeting following
the worship service on that day, I shared my desire to not give up meeting together all the morein such times as these. It turned out that one of
the board members, a young lady, had also been
pondering the same Scripture verse. That felt likea divine affirmation to me, and had a uniting effect on the church board.
The second rationale was my intuition based on
science. As a public health physician who used towork for a healthcare center, I did some statistical math. In the early stages of the COVID-19
pandemic, the average number of positive casesin Hokkaido soon reached 50 per day. I estimatedthe actual number of positive cases was ten times
as high, i.e., 500 per day. With a population of
5.8 million in Hokkaido, that would translate intoroughly one positive case per 10,000 people perday.
Given an average worship attendance of 30 in
our church, the estimated number of positive persons was 0.003. Thus, the probability of having a
positive person on a given Sunday was extremely
low. In addition, people who had some symptoms
and/or who were close contacts with a patient2

would not come to church. This would further reduce the probability. Therefore, with a reasonablelevel of effective infection prevention measuresin place, I deduced that it was highly unlikely for
COVID-19 to spread through people attending
the worship service.
JU: I see God used your background! Whatother blessings has your church been enjoying?
KY: The greatest was that we were able tocontinue gathering for worship and greet eachother in person Sunday after Sunday. We wereblessed financially also, even with all the equipment we had to invest in, such as air purifiers, airconditioners, and things needed for streaming ourmeetings.
JU: Any challenges?
KY: A few members have not returned to inperson church attendance for a variety of reasons.
We now email the sermon manuscript to church
members. We also stream the Sunday worshipservice on Facebook. I try to keep in touch witheveryone.
JU: We are entering the stage where churches
must live with the coronavirus. Do you have anysuggestions about how to do church from nowon?
(continued on page 3)

Pastor Koji YoshidaInterview
Ministry possibilities (continued from page 1)

through this crisis. I strongly hope that this big
change will increase the number of churches that
seriously try to distribute the gospel to people
who have not been receiving it. I think this shouldbe the basic attitude of churches, just like thepeople who brought the paralytic patient on astretcher to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I believe information technology can help us
complete our mission to reach out to people whoare not able to come to church services for various reasons, to support churches that are without
pastors, and to fulfill our mission to bring people
to the Lord. I really hope these technologies will
be shared broadly among churches, and push themission in Japan forward in both tenderness andpower.
Translated by Tomoko Kato

COVID-19 as a practice exercise (continued from page 2)

KY: From the very
beginning, our churchsought ways to live withthe coronavirus. While
we still are not in a position to resume churchwide events involving ameal, we did have small
group fellowships withmeals together during the2021 Christmas season.
Groups of five to eightchurch members were
each given a subsidy of
1,000 y e n p e r p e r s o nfrom the church budget
toward a group meal.
Each group decided how
to spend the money. One
group bought cakes,
while another bought
bento boxes. Yet anotherbought ingredients and cooked their own meal.
Church members greatly enjoyed this, so wemight repeat it this Christmas.
When we get together as a small group in ourchurch, we do not use acrylic panels, which I believe are not effective from an epidemiologicalpoint of view. We do, however, take extra care forproper ventilation.
I might add that when I preach at the podium
without a mask, an acrylic panel is set up in frontof me in order to relieve the minds of those whohave concerns.

Astubetsu Evangelical Christ Church

JU: Anything else you would like to share with
our readers?
KY: I want to appeal to churches to use theirapproach to COVID-19 as a practice exercise.
There will be outbreaks of other epidemics, if notnecessarily pandemics. Global warming mightbring hemorrhagic fever viruses to Japan. We
must review and evaluate how churches havedealt with COVID-19 so that we will be better
prepared next time.

3

Feature

Providing ibasho and tamariba for Japanese
Christian youth
Dr. Naoki Okamura, Professor, Tokyo Christian University

The apparent weakeningof Christianity in Japanis often attributed to thedeclining presence ofyoung people in many
local churches. Churches
without youth groups are
increasingly common.
If this trend continues,
many Japanese churches
will cease to exist in the
not so distant future. In an attempt to understandand to reverse this trend, a study was conducted
recently to explore how young Japanese
Christians develop their faith in the midst ofJapan’s complicated and changing society. The
study utilized a qualitative research method
known as grounded theory, in which more than
30 young Japanese Christian students wereinterviewed at Tokyo Christian University. (TCU
is an evangelical interdenominational Christian
university that accepts students from over 20
different Christian denominations.)
To be involved, the students had to meet two
conditions: 1) be in the age bracket from 18 to
23 and able to clearly recall their adolescentyears, and 2) acknowledge to have become abeliever before their adolescent period. The study
participants were encouraged to talk freely on thefollowing open-ended question: “Looking backover your adolescent years, what challenges anddifficulties have you faced, and what has caused
you to grow as a Christian young person?”Through analysis of the compiled verbal data,
three somewhat unexpected realities came tosurface. First, while the difficulties and challenges
they faced varied—from school choice to boy–girl relationships, the major difficulty they saw
was not being able to share their thoughts andfeelings freely with other Christian youth. This
often caused a great deal of stress. Second, themost significant experiences that influenced themto grow as Christians took place in Christiancamps and conferences, often during summer andwinter recesses. Third, the actual changes thattranspired were varied, from wanting to read the4

Bible and pray for the first time on their own, toacquiring apologetic attitudes for not appreciating
their home churches.
During the group interviews, the following
open-ended question was posed as a follow-up:“Please try to characterize the Christian camps
or conferences which impacted you positively
as Christians.” They were also encouraged
to exchange thoughts and opinions amongst
themselves. From their interactions, two terms
stood out as key—ibasho, space where one canbe oneself, and tamariba, “hang-out” space. As
they attempted to further explain these terms,
four important characteristics arose: 1) Essential
components of these spaces are relationships
and fellowship with people of their own age,2) in these spaces, an individual’s opinions anddecisions are respected and valued, 3) evangelism
can effectively take place in such spaces, and 4)
these spaces can exist anywhere inside or outsideof local churches.
It may be noteworthy to mention that out of theover 30 students who were interviewed, not one
alluded to Sunday sermons or camp messages as
having a significant impact on their faith journey.
Of course, such data should not be taken as
declaring sermons useless. It should, however,be viewed as affirming the advantageous impactof active interaction over passive involvement,
especially in this age group.
After examination of the verbal data using
grounded theory, the following proposals weremade.
1) Recognize as extremely important that many
Japanese Christians in their adolescent years
struggle with a lack of interaction with other
Christians of the same age. It is well known thatfor their psychological security many young
people yearn for relationships with peers during
these formative years. Many Japanese pastors
tend to blame after-school schools (cram schools)
or athletic programs for the drift of young people
away from their churches. However, the absenceof ibasho and tamariba may be the biggest reason
why many of them no longer see their churches
as meaningful or helpful places.

(continued on page 5)

Feature

Extending God's Word into all places
Fumika Mizunashi, Staff of High-school Born Againers

hi-b.a. YouTube channel

When the coronavirus pandemic first broke out,
the Japanese government ordered that all schools
throughout Japan be closed. High school students
had no choice but to study in isolation. Aloneat home, they had to write daily reports. School
events that students had looked forward to were
all cancelled, such as Sports Day and once-in-alifetime school trips. Even if they wanted to share
their disappointment with others, they couldn’t
meet up with their friends. Not only that, somestudents hadn’t had a chance even once to go totheir school, so they hadn’t made any friends yet. It
was in this environment that hi-b.a. started online
ministry with a twofold desire—to share the gospel
with students studying at home alone, and toprovide those in isolation a Christ-centered place
where they could feel a sense of belonging.
In this article, I would like to share specifically
about our online Zoom meetings and our online

YouTube ministry. In our Zoom meetings, students
would join online from wherever they wereon weekday evenings. We sang worship songs
together, read Scripture, exchanged updates, andprayed together. High school students from all
across Japan (and at times from overseas) joined
in and encouraged each other. Because the numberof high school age Christians is in decline inJapan, isolation is a common problem that highschoolers face. Being the only Christian in a schoolor the only young person at a church meeting
is not unusual. Meeting other high schoolers
online who share in the same faith can be a hugeencouragement. One student said, “I didn’t know
there were this many Christian high schoolers inJapan!”We also started a YouTube ministry when the
pandemic broke out. In this ministry we posted
messages on our YouTube channel. Up until then,high schoolers had only had the chance to hear
the gospel if they attended a meeting or event.
But YouTube enabled students to hear messages
whenever it suited them and choose topics thatinterested them. On our YouTube channel, we
chose titles that were appealing to high school
students and that they would want to share withothers. Our staff would check the analytics ofthe videos to see which sections were the mostappealing, and used that information to improve
our next video.
(continued on page 6)

Providing ibasho and tamariba (continued from page 4)2) Provide young Japanese Christians withspaces where they can just hang out and be themselves. This is critical for the church. On top of
making good use of existing Christian camps,
new and safe gathering spaces that are more accessible and can be frequented should be developed.
3) Train youth leaders who understand the special needs of Japanese Christian youth. The lead-ers must be able to carefully listen and patiently
observe each young person. They must also beless assertive and demanding in their actions.
The core task here is to provide youth with ample
opportunity to make sense of what is happening
both around them and to themselves, and to apply
in real life what they have learned as Christians
up to this point in their lives.

5News and Notes
Field report from Ukraine
Masato andMiki Funakoshi, a missionary couple serving
in Ukraine,
visit Odesa
once every
two weeks
The Funakoshis Photo by Hunger Zeroto hold a worship service with local believers. According totheir May 14, 2022 report to Christian Shimbun,
Russian missile attacks against Odesa have been
growing in intensity. Following is a summary of
their report.
On May 11, we were shocked to hear that
Zakhar, an Ukrainian college student we knew,
had been killed in action in Kharkiv. Zakhar
was in the same class as our son Yūki in Sunday
School and the church kindergarten. His family
moved out of Odesa a little before Zakhar gradu-

ated from elementary school. From what we
knew of him, he had not gone to church for years.
We only hope that he had since come to believe
in Jesus.
Several members of our church have been in
military service. Please pray for those engaging
in battles in the fields.
Odesa Church has been delivering food tochurches in Mykolaiv, where there has been nowater supply and a shortage of food and medical
supplies. Please pray for the safety of the brothersdelivering food.
In Velika Began in western Ukraine, 26 members of Odesa Church have been living communally. Some of them have been working with a
Baptist church in a town near the Hungarian border, where a number of displaced people have arrived from all over Ukraine. Please pray that God
will effectively use each of the Odesa Church
members in Velika Began.
On May 8, we attended worship at Makariv
Church, located in a Kyiv suburb. During theRussian invasion into Makariv, the church(continued on page 7)

Extending God's Word (continued from page 5)

In addition to the above, we also used the LINEapp to send Bible verses by text and we broadcast
audio messages by radio. (Some high-schoolers
have been worried about their per-packet charges,
so we are trying to find ways they can have accessto the Scriptures we send without waiting to pickthem up when they’re on a Wi-Fi connection.)
Online ministry has taught us the following
two things:
First, access to God’s Word does not need to belimited. Up until now, the sharing of Scripture has
been restricted to a particular place and time. But
through the use of an online platform it is available to anyone. This gave people the opportunity to join a meeting at any time. T h e y c o u l dlisten to sermons at a time of their choosing. This
gives us a similar joy to what Martin Luther musthave experienced when he translated the Scriptures, making God’s Word available to many.
Second, we need to seek ways to best convey
the message. Just as Paul “became all things to

all people“ (1 Corinthians 9:20) so that he could
reach certain people, we also must understand theculture and trends of today’s high schoolers in order to reach them. In Japan, where the declining
birthrate and aging of the population continues,
high schoolers are bound to face even greater
spiritual isolation. We would be grateful if people
from all around the world would pray for the salvation of these young souls and of the Japanesepeople.
Translated by Grace Koshino

hi-b.a. online meeting6

News and Notes
Field report from Ukraine (continued from page 6)

members were scattered and there had been no
church services. Since mid April, however, themembers began to return. On this Sunday, I was
privileged to preach on Revelations 5 and to look
up to our Lord the Healer together with the congregation. We were greatly encouraged by the experience. Please pray for Makariv Church and forthe restoration of the local rehabilitation center.
Ukraine has been in desperate crisis as a nation.
May the country be protected by God’s mercy.
May bloodshed and destruction come to an end
as soon as possible. Even in the middle of crisis,
we pray that more people will receive eternal life.
Please keep on praying that the churches will beprotected and strengthened and that missions advance in Ukraine.
Christian Shimbun June 5, 2022
Translated and summarized by Atsuko Tateishi
Andrew Marin on LGBTIn May 2020, Word of Life Press Ministries
published the Japanese translation of Andrew
Marin’s book on LGBT issues, Love Is an Orientation*. The book was originally published in2000 in the U.S. Marin grew up in a conservative evangelical church, where he was taught andbelieved homosexuality was a sin. When threeof his best friends, one after another, came out
to him as gay, he began to ask God why he had
given these friends to him. Marin’s quest led him
to move into a gay community.
Marin listened to the gay people he met andlearned how they felt alienated by Christians ingeneral. He developed friendships with people
in the gay community and studied the Bible withthem. Some came to believe in Jesus.
The book was initially criticized as liberal byevangelicals and as discriminatory by mainline
Christians. In the midst of an increasingly polarized American society, however, the book had therare value of giving voice to a conservative Christian who is building bridges to gay communities.
Marin’s conclusion is not about whether homosexuality is a sin. Rather, he concludes with achallenge for unconditional love.
“It’s not the job of Christians to convict the
GLBT community. That’s the Holy Spirit’s job.
It’s not the job of Christians to judge the GLBT
community. That’s God’s job. It’s the job of
Christians to love the GLBT community in a waythat is tangible, measurable and unconditional––
whether we see our version of ‘change’ happening or not!
“That realization has led to my new definitionof love: tangible and measurable expressions of
one’s unconditional behaviors toward another.
My experience has revealed that in the minds of
GLBT people, the word love has been rendered
conditional: ‘I will love you if I see you do . . . ,or act like . . . , or sexually change . . .’ Someone
can say the words ‘I love you’ until that personis blue in the face, but it will not matter one bit
unless there are measurable, unconditional behaviors attached to those words.”* LGBT to Seisho no Fukuin––Sore wa Tsumika, Sentaku no Jiyū ka.『LGBT と聖書の福音―それは罪か、 選択の自由か』[LGBT andbiblical gospel ― is it sin or a matter of freedomof choice?] (Tokyo: Inochino Kotobasha, 2020)
Christian Shimbun June 12, 2022
Translated and summarized by Atsuko Tateishi

7Please pray for Japan
1. The Japan Evangelical Association is now preparing for theseventh Japan Congress on Evangelism (JCE) which will beheld in Gifu in September of 2023. Please pray for JCE7.
2. Pray that the Holy Spirit will work through foreigner-friendly
ministries in Japan so that Japanese churches and ethnic
churches in Japan might be united in the bond of love.
3. Pray that more “Kingdom-minded” collaborations will happen among different ethnic churches in Japan and Japanesechurches. There are many opportunities, including ministry tochildren of mixed marriages, and so on.

Japan Update
Autumn 2022 - Number 83
English Newsletter of theJapan Evangelical Association (JEA)
Chairman :Toshinori Ishida
General Secretary : Takahito Iwagami

4. Pray for young Christians and pray that God will raise up thenext generation of Christ-centered, gospel-driven leadersamong young Christians in Japan.

Japan Update is pub­lished biannuallyby the JEA. Through Japan Update, the
JEA seeks to communicate how God is
at work in Japan and to foster prayer
and collaborative work for the advancement of God’s kingdom in Japan. Views
expressed by in­di­vi­dual auth­ors do notneces­sarily reflect offi­cial JEA posi­tions.
Japanese names appear in Wes­tern order(sur­name last).

JEA related schedulePer­m is­s ion to reprint is gran­t ed, butplease give cre­dit and send one copy of
any pub­li­ca­tion con­tain­ing reprin­ted material to the edi­tor.

DATE		

EVENT

PLACE

Sep. 19-20

JCE7 Preparatory Conference

Gifu

Oct. 17-21

Asia 2022

Bangkok

Oct. 13		JEA Women’s Forum

OnlineOct. 25		JEA Disaster Relief Forum

OnlineNov. 3								

Ethnic Ministiries Network
Japan and JOMA International
worship

OnlineIt’s been almost two and a half years since
the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19)
pandemic. Thank you for your prayers. Japan
experienced its worst outbreak of these past
two years in the summer of 2022. At this moment, the number of positive cases is slowly
decreasing. Because of the reduced severity of the disease causedby recent variants, Japanese churches and Christian organizations
have begun to cope with the presence of COVID-19. They haveresumed face-to-face worship services, youth camps, and otherevents. We have learned many lessons and gained much wisdom
during these past two and half years. This issue shares someof that information with you. Please keep praying for Japanesechurches and Christians in Japan.
Takahito Iwagami, Editor in Chief

http://jeanet.org/

Japan Update Staff
Editor in Chief
Takahito Iwagami
Asst. Editor
Atsuko Tateishi
Translation Editor
Gary Bauman
Translation Staff             Tomoko Kato		       Grace Koshino
Hiromi Terukina
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