Thoughts on Evangelism in Japan
from Rev. Iwao Satoh, pastor of Sagamino Church

Pastor Satoh was packing to return to Japan from his year at Memphis Seminary when he was asked to offer some reflections on approaches to evangelism in the churches of his home presbytery. He kindly responded with a quick e-mail note reproduced here, offering to give it additional thought when he has more time.

”I am packing now and assigned to do something about the GA, as you write.
I do not have time to write an article [for the E-Word] until the GA. Let me just describe my hunch about the Japanese evangelism. I suppose that we basically import the evangelical strategy from America and Europe. "Purpose driven" series are popular in Japan. As you know, our Christian population is limited and I never heard of such a powerful tool to draw Japanese folks to the church: however, some pastors are challenging to the Japanese community by adopting cultural sensitiveness. For example one of my acquaintances made a "Christian family altar" to remember the deceased parents and ancestors. It is kind of controversial, because ancestor worship has been
considered as one of the most difficult elements which confronts Christian belief. I personally hope that those attempts will produce the fruits for the future. I also experienced the effectiveness of the cross-cultural ministry. Teaching English is one of the most fruitful ministries to tell the
Gospel in Asia. And many young local people came to join the church after we started the international worship.

So, we would need a unique ministry something that would be deeply rooted in our culture, yet showing the diversity and dynamic elements of the church. It reminds me of the word "Glocal" which we discussed at the recent Global Exploration retreat. We would need to start a glocal ministry in Japan!

I remembered, too,  that Koza church now focuses on small groups. And Kibougaoka church is doing cell group ministry. They are relatively bigger churches in Japan. I am more than happy to ask the pastors about their ministries, if needed.

I hope that this sharing would answer your question to some extent. 

Peace,
Iwao