In my previous letter I suggested that
the #1 problem with the Gospel in Japan was Kirisuto kyo (Christianity). There
probably is no one single factor, but I firmly believe Kirisuto kyo is perhaps
the biggest retardant to the spread of the Gospel. In my first article I
mentioned an incident when my dear friends, the Hirotos stopped by our house
one afternoon and told me they didn't go to Kobe for Sunday morning worship
that day; and said the reason was that a sister had collapsed in her home the
night before, so they decided to take church to her that day. I saw in a flash
that that would be utterly IMPOSSIBLE in any other church in Japan. Kirisuto
kyo is built around the pastor and the rank and file believers are relegated to
a subservient position of passivity. No believer in Japan would dare sneeze
without checking with their pastor first to see if it was okay. Individual
responsibility and activity was absolutely unthought of. The church in Japan
was totally bokushi (pastor) centered. One of Gothold brilliant strategies was
that Kihijoji had no pastors.
After Kichijoji exploded from being one
rapidly expanding church (assembly) to a national phenomenon I was talking with
Gothold one day and asked what he attributed his success to. He replied, “After
I quit doing dendo - having one week of special dendo meetings each month - the
Lord took over.”. He went on, “Before I had one special speaker come
each month for meetings, now I have 400 evangelists. full time” Everybody
in the church is an evangelist sharing Christ with their neighbors. I asked
him, “How many shukais (churches) do you have in Tokyo?” He said, “I don't
know. Every week I hear of a new one just starting up. But I do know that I
have 70 brothers who are preaching.” Very few, if any, denominations in Japan
have that many pastors. Every Kichijoji believer is an evangelist. They
don't know anything but individual responsibility – and that is intensely
frowned upon in all traditional Japanese churches. That is the bokushi's
(pastors job) and no one would dare do it.
I believe Watchman Nee was perhaps the
greatest Christian of the 20th century. I believe he had the
greatest impact on China. Wathman Nee was basically Plymouth Brethren. Little
Flock in China was technically not Plymouth Brethren but basically organized
and operated along the same guide lines. And Gothold Beck's, Kichijoji, was
basically the same.
They are intensely scriptural. And in
this they are distinguished as different than 98% of all major denominations..
Firstly they believed we should obey what the Word of God tells us about women
being silent in church (1 Cor. 14:34,35). Women absolutely do not mouth off in
church and have no part in leading or preaching a service. But I know of no
denomination in Japan that are seeing more women leading others to Christ than
in Kichijoji. My good friend Takako Yamamoto was one of the top speakers
for Ladies Luncheons nation wide. Someone asked her if it wasn't difficult
after she left Karuizawa to go to Kichijoji where she couldn't speak. She
replied, “When I was in Karuizawa I was leading one soul a month to Christ. Now
it is every week.”. Shortly after moving to Kichijoji she got on the women for
bad-mouthing their husbands and not praying for their salvation. She organized
a ladies prayer meeting especially for unsaved husbands. The first month they
had seven husbands saved. It is almost a given in Kichijoji if you ask a man
how he got saved and suggested, “Was it through you wife?”. Invariably he would
come back, “Of course.”. Probably 90% of the men are won to Christ through
their wives.
Secondly, there is no organizational
structure and absolutely NO PASTORS. But the Kichijoji shukais are the finest
structured churches I have ever been in. They believe in the plurality of
elders There are certain men who have different gifts. It is not by appointment
but every man naturally functions within his God-given gift. There are no
pastors but you don't have to be there long before you know who the pastor is.
It is obvious. Some men have that gift and function accordingly, but they are
not there by appointment. And, they certainly, do not act like a Japanese
bokushi (pastor). Some men have a gift of preaching and they preach
regularly. Many men are all over the country preaching every week. Some men
have the gift of helps, some men have administration, some are better soul
winners, etc. It is beautiful to see godly men function within their gift, and
it is not by appointment. A bokushi in Japan is a man on a pedestal, but in
Kichijoji he is just an ordinary humble brother doing his God given job. And in
Kichijoji there are no senseis (pastor, teacher, leader). No one is
called Sensei. Oh I love that! Jesus warned in Matt. 23:8, “Be not called
Sensei” (Japanese Bible), but every cotton picken pastor in Japan is a
Sensei. And in most cases it is sickening. Gothold has fractured Japanese
etiquette by using first names. No one in Japan goes by their first name, but
in Kichijoji everyone is on a first name basis or called “brother”.
All women have a head covering. The
Mennonites do this. They are not legalistic about that but a woman would feel
very much out of place without her head being covered.
They have communion every Sunday. The communion is central
to the worship. They have two services. The first is a worship service with no
leader. No one is up front. The men are allowed to do one of three
things: they can call for a hymn out of the hymn book (traditional),
they can read a verse from the Bible, or they can say a prayer.
Every thing is spontaneous. That's it. Then they have communion. That lasts one
hour. Then they have a 10-15 minute coffee break, flowed by a fairly
traditional message by one of the preaching brothers. It sounds dull, but, oh
my goodness, you should be in some of those meetings. Jesus is there.
Tears are common. Sometime the Word sounds like thunder. The prayers are hungry
Christians talking to their Father. I have been in very few services, any
where, so intensely marked by the presences of the Holy Spirit as those in
Kobe.
Kichijoji shukais (churches) are very
strong on home meetings. An enormous number of families have home meetings that
are very well attended. And,,man howdy, do they have CAMPS! There are Christian
camps all over the country every month. If an average church of 30 in Japan has
a camp, and 15 attend, that would be a high number. If a Kichijoji shukai
(church) of 20 has a camp it would be common to have 50 or 60 show up. These
are major times of salvation for hundreds of Kichijoji believers.
The church is in the Beck's home and he
has expanded it three times. Today it is maxed out and is a scene like no other
place in Japan. Max capacity might be 200, but every Sunday there are well over
400 jammed in that building occupying every available inch. The auditorium is
packed beyond capacity with people standing in every corner. The stairway is
crowded. Forget about going to the toilet. There are five people standing in
there. And there is a small crowd of people standing outside holding umbrellas
on rainy days who can't get in the building. Gothold has a Wednesday morning
ladies Bible study that regularly sees over 200 women gather each week. There
are hundreds of taped messages that are widely circulated all over the country.
Gomen nasai (I'm sorry). This is supposed
to be a series on Gothold Beck, and all I have talked about is his followers,
who are a national phenomenon known as Kichijoji. The reason I have written so
extensively about this is because, what Gothold has produced is without a
comparable movement in post-war Japan. While nearly all denominations are
stagnant or shrinking, his work with Kichijoji is expanding exponentially. What
I am trying to say is that Gothold Beck is a phenomenon without a peer in
Japan.
That's it for today. I will continue with
part 3 in my next letter.
Arigato gozaimasu (thank you), bill
No comments:
Post a Comment