Well, we're not quite moved yet. The site forwarding doesn't seem to want to kick in, so uicc-japan.org still points to the old site. This is the first time I've tried to forward a domain after actually hosting it someplace, so I guess I'm going to have to struggle with the switchover a bit.

Wow, that was quicker than I expected. It's nice when tools actually work!

The Nishi-Kasai International Church site has also migrated with us.

Now on with the vision thing, building KEW up to be a useful resource for small fellowships in Japan . . .

NEWS flash: We'll be migrating this site to KantoEastWorship.net (KEW) in the next few weeks.

Its on my mind for some time to create a multilingual site hosting pages for people doing ministry in small groups.  KEW will be my first attempt to work out the vision.

With all the weird stuff going on in the courts these days - the Bible as hate literature? - you wonder where we're going to end up.

Also enjoyed reading about the Waldensian lay movement of the 12th century.  I realized I don't have a clue about church history except for the early days and last two centuries; it looks like it would be worthwhile to pick up a book or two.

I was really surprised Sunday when I quoted from the Westminster Shorter Catechism:

The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

OK, fine. We're now using Lutheran materials to topically study the Habits of Faith. I think I'm gonna try to somehow cover some systematic material, like the Westminster Shorter or Spurgeon Catechism, along with our book studies.   There may be disagreements with some elements of these formulations, but on balance I think they are profitable.  Then there's the bite-sized practical theology of The Purpose-Driven Life ...

I still remember being systematically taught basic doctrine of Christ's work at a People's Church in Montreal (> 20 years ago?!). Seems that its good to plant strong seeds in the little interval that you have in someone's life.

Terrif BBQ on April 29th, 1st day of Golden Week. Fantastic weather for the day; it looked very iffy up to the day before, and a couple of days after it went back to gray and drippy. Thanks Lord for answering prayer. Great turnout: our intrepid 7 NEWS members + 10 friends and their collective 3 kids. Nice family vibe, and good conversations.

And thanks Lord for the new house. It was great to see the 15 or so people sitting and chatting like crazy in our furniture-less living room. And then to hang out 'til late evening with David & Bibi, Anthony and Liz.

Happy, happy, joy, joy, thank ya Lord.

Ever notice how the most interesting and compelling analogies are all organic? I mean, who would want to be a chip on the motherboard of Christ, whose CPU is Jesus?

[Hmm, is this perhaps a bit in poor taste?
That's the problem with these late night typing sessions, and maybe too much tech reading.
Unavoidable, really, I couldn't help myself; it wasn't my fault!]

We actually have shrubbery at our new place. Which, as it turns out,  needs watering.

So as a new house owner (yeah!) one of my first jobs was to purchase a hose and hose-reel.  Now it may seem like overkill to buy a hose just for the hedges shoe-horned into a narrow strip of dirt between the house and the road.  But turning on the tap and sprinkling water around a bit makes me feel very domestic. Who needs a garden when you've got a hose?

But now the burning question: how often should you water?  Mayumi thinks we should water our hedges a little every day, but something told me otherwise.  Vague memories of childhood life at the family homestead.  Besides, every day is a bit of a bother.

Finally it came to me: too frequent and light watering encourages plants to take their moisture from near the surface.  As a result the roots don't grow down deep. And so if a dry spell comes, the plants wither and die.

And now .. yes, a point ... Perhaps God also allows times of dryness, drudgery, failure, so that our roots will go down deep, so we will learn to walk by faith not by sight or feeling or ego strokes.

Our God is a good gardener.

It's amazing to see the work that God is starting to do in our midst. Fellowship that I've prayed for for over a year. Evidences of growth in people's lives.

I am learning to be realistic and not run ahead; God's timing is everything. Its easier when you can keep ego out of it, then its more like watching a plant grow. You prepare the soil, water it, and watch it happen, doing a little weeding and fertilizing now and then.

And God gives the increase.
Rejoicing all round!

Well the Hawleys finally moved into their first house. We'd been praying that God would use our new place for his purposes, and lo and behold, we received a mail just after we moved from an overseas visitor who was arriving that week and wanted to volunteer to help with the CAN Website. Unexpected opportunity, and a chance to put our mouth where our prayers were. Thanks, Lord!

Wowie!  Three more weeks and we're in our new house!  Not its time to pack.  Mayumi and I have started going through our things in preparation for our move.  Lots of stuff.  Old stuff.  Hidden treasures.  Junk.

I'm a real packrat, especially for articles, papers, and the occasional 20cm-thick specification. Meyer-Briggs says my personality type tends to intellectual dilettantism.  My sins have found me out, and now I have to wade through and toss out the debris :-)

Something about 1Peter 4:17 and the judgement that falls on all. The great white throne judgement, the burning up of our useless stuff. What are we doing that will last? 　

As usual have no idea how I got there, but I found http://homechurch.meetup.com/, a topical  group of meetup.com, which is a commercial community-support portal. Not too many members signed up for home-churches in Japan. It would probably help if it was in Japanese :-)

A-N-Y-way, I surfed from the group link-page to a couple of interesting home-church related sites listed here for your enjoyment. Hopefully no cults this time!

Here ya go:

http://www.house2house.tv/
http://sojourner.typepad.com/house_church_blog/
http://www.livingroom.org.au/blog/
http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/
　

Lot of very interesting, articulate people out there struggling with reworking "church" for our post-Christendom era.

Hey, all of a sudden our hits went up 25%. Reason is I just started tracking hits to the bible study question pages.

Lesson: create your resources in HTML directly on the Web, instead of in Microsoft Word on your own hard-disk.  Someone will find them useful!

We've been reading in 1 Peter for the last few weeks dealing with the thorny subject of submission to authority. Its thorny because, first of all, submission runs against deeply self-centered tendencies, and secondly, because authority is open to nasty abuse - for example, authoritarian cults and crooked bosses.

After reflecting a bit, I've come up with the following (biblical I think): Christians have been set free. It is the free submission of ourselves to each other as an expression of our submission to God that has merit. Coerced good behavior is not goodness, it's just slavery. Slavery doesn't impress those who would abuse us. But doing good out of our own free will, treating those over us as their role deserves, as we would want to be treated if we were in their shoes, may influence them. And God will be pleased.

But remember, your freedom in Christ is a precious thing.
Don't submit again to bondage, but use your freedom to do good.

A few months ago, I ran into this really cool Web site with really cool spiritual content. I posted comments on a number of their articles, and exchanged a number of emails with a few members of their community, who espouse a radical New Testament Christianity.   Even told a few friends about their site.

And today I found out they are a cult.

I had had some misgivings before. A little too mystical, perhaps. No references to scripture in the emails (although the writings of the early founders quoted scripture extensively, and seemed fairly orthodox).

So a little Web research, and voila! Instant disappointment. Temptation to disillusionment.

Error is not as far away as we would like to think, and sometimes evil is disguised as good spiritual stuff.  Even promoted by those unaware of its true nature.

Be careful out there.  Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.  Check everything with scripture.  Beware radicalism, obey what you know already.  Focus on Jesus.  Stay attached to other individuals and organizations that can keep you in check.  Remember

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jeremiah 17:9

Those of you, like Beth and Kentaro, that have been in the US recently have had the chance to see the final episode of The Lord of the Rings, The Return of The King. Others of us have had to wait patiently. For Valentine's Day, Mayumi bought the two of us tickets to the Japan opening. It was worth the wait.

I can see why Viggo Mortenson (Aragorn) would worry that people would take it as a pro-war movie. The tremendous courage of the heroes, large and small, shows that there are things worth dying for. Its not about us. Duty, love of home and family, love of friends constrain us to do what we would rather not.

Tolkien's view is at odds with our modern times. In his vision, the world is getting worse, not better. Old things, like the Aragorn's sword Narsil or the One Ring are tremendously important. To know yourself as part of a great tradition is a source of strength. The Hobbits, simple and sturdy, are proved better than the rest. Courage, duty and faithfulness count.

And one thing else. Theoden King of Rohan said, in paraphrase: I go to my fathers, and I will not be ashamed. The writer of Hebrews says something similar:

^12:1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.

I was surprised to feel myself choking back tears as I tried to explain to Mayumi how Theoden's simple statement touched me. We will also go to our fathers in the faith, and to our great elder brother, the Lord Jesus himself, God incarnate. Sufferers all, brave wrestlers with God in faith, who after they had done all - stood firm.

What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? ²⁶If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.  Luke 9:25-26

God grant me grace that I will so live as not to be ashamed when I come before them.

Just got back a site report from www.sitemeter.com on the Nishi-Kasai (sub)site.  If you search for "Nishi Kasai" and "church" in Japanese on Google.co.jp and Yahoo.co.jp the church site ranks at the top, or a few entries down depending on the way the search is expressed.

The pastor, Peter Younge, told me they had two visitors last week that found the church from the Web.  All this from a site thrown together in 2 hours, and without advertising, registering with directories or anything.  As far as I know, they are only linked from the UICC site, which is small, but has been around long enough to be crawled by the major search engines.

The point is: putting a site up is an effective, low-hassle, low-cost way to make your church presence known.

Sad to read today that the US invaded Iraq to get rid of an evil man who was already losing it, and to defang a country losing the rational self-control necessary to be an effective threat.
[NYTimes].

The last 3 Sunday evenings I've been going to the contemporary bilingual service of Ueno no Mori church. I liked it enough the first time to bring Hitoshi, Beth, Kentaro, and Mayumi along with me on my second visit.

The venue is the Jesus To Japan building, about 5 minutes from Ueno station, a little off the main road. The worship service is held in the fifth-floor chapel, basically a lecture hall with stage and soft lighting, seating perhaps 50 people although there's only been a handful of people the nights I came, most of them in their twenties or early thirties. They have a nice 4-piece band fronted by Anthony Miyafuji who leads the worship in two languages while playing rhythm guitar. He has a great voice, and the other band members chipping in harmony makes for a very mellow and worshipful vibe.

About 30 minutes of singing, and a few announcements, a straightforward exegetical message from Luke's Gospel with translation by a member of the worship team. Simple, direct, good, and challenging. A few songs to close, and then we head off to the fourth floor for snacks and refreshments around a table. A regular says a few words to me, and then Anthony and his wife Elizabeth spend some time chatting me up.

All in all I had a nice time, and plan to go back at least a few times a month.  There lots of opportunities for involvement as the 4-month old ministry has plans for a coffee house, a marriage encounter group, English conversation classes, and a Website in the near future.

From the looks of this blog, I must have been very busy the last month. A lot of effort put into the Christian Arts Network (CAN) Artist Directory application to bring it up to beta quality; hopefully I can prod Paul into organizing some artists to try it out in the next few weeks even though he's busy with teaching a class at the Christian Leadership Training Center (CLTC), launched this month.

I've also prototyped the 2004 CAN worship seminar online registration using the form-handling software developed for the artist directory. The planning committee liked it.  Slowly, slowly, there's a recognition of how information technology will be able to help.

I'm getting more ideas on useful projects, for example a Christian news publishing and subscription service (=newswire?), a Yahoo-like directory that can be syndicated with a subset of categories, and an online chat + chatbot-based bible study tool. From the CAN side there's been a proposal to extend the CAN website with a marketplace for original Japanese Christian music. Overall these align with the vision I had for Sanbi-Japan before I tied up with CAN.

Is the CAN tie-up an answer to prayer? Or said in another way, perhaps I am an answer to prayer? Or again, is God is fulfilling his purposes for his church through these circumstances?
And, what about my netBarnabas project :-)

Back on the blog after a 2 month (!) gap.  Just to busy with trying to get some work done, finish the CAN project, work on starting up 2 businesses to support m'self, yadda-yadda.  Look for www.eastwestwebworks.com and www.waveclef.com in the near future.

Paul Nethercott of CAN invited me to be on the planning team for their 2004 Worship Seminar.  2003 was great, with great Japanese national involvement.  We're hoping for 300-400 next year.  Pray for revival, and for wisdom to do our little part.

Taking a shower this morning, running my hands through my grungy hair and for an instant... I saw myself as Saddam Hussein as he was shown being examined after his capture two days ago.  Unkempt hair and that long salt-and-pepper beard.

May God have mercy on his soul.

We're buying a house!  Really very unexpected (by me), although I smelled something brewing.  Mayumi had been quietly thinking away, and eventually it all came out.  The ad came, we took a look; two weeks later we signed.  The location is great, 5 minutes from access to two railway lines at Yahashira station, and 5 minutes from the beautiful 21st Century Park, culture center and prefectural library.  We move in in March.

We're both praying that God will use this house for his glory.  But through US?

Laying foundations

We looked over the site Sunday, and I became very concerned about the foundation.  I checked the plans, and it didn't make sense.  I went into paranoia mode.  But Mayumi encouraged me the next morning and I prayed for peace.  So back to the site today to the salesman, but the sales team was offsite today.

But the work crew was there.  It turned out the person who appeared to be the foreman was a Christian Pilipino living in Nishi-Funabashi and attending a church in Goko very close by.

A "divine appointment", seems to me.  Leading through circumstances and timing: the salesguy not being there, the crew on break when I arrived.  I felt in my spirit the warm humor of God, turning my fear into joy.

What IS God going to do through us?

Spent the morning refining the News/Links/Files dynamic content application on the CAN web site. Next step, easy since I designed it to use XML + XSL from the very beginning, is to add RSS and XML interfaces.   The idea is to make it possible for other sites to leverage our data.

Also added a Japanese report from the Revival Times about the recent CAN Worship Seminar. The upshot of the article is that the churches outside Tokyo don't have the skilled manpower to accomplish the updating of worship services that we think is so hip, cool, seeker-friendly, and youth-attracting (not to mention God-honoring and congregation-encouraging). As in everything else, The Big Mikan is the navel in Japan that draws all good things to itself.

Living in Chiba I'm tempted to mutter "duh!" under my breath, though we are comparatively MUCH better off than prefectures farther out. I wonder if we can start some regional networking activity out here in near-Chiba to pool resources and energy...

Blog, blog, blog. I'm not sure blogging is better than talking to yourself - which it resembles on visitor-challenged sites like this one - but since it also resembles the more socially acceptable pastime of keeping a diary, I'll give myself the benefit of the doubt!

My reading list of the last few weeks:

• Hitler's Pope - The Secret History of Pius XII
  [The perils of parochialism]
• Saint Ignatius of Loyola - Personal Writings
  [Fascinating view into the spirituality of one of the group that founded the Jesuits]
• Soeren Kierkegaard - Papers and Journals, A Selection
  [Another maverick, and profoundly spiritual person]
• The Penguin Book of 20th century Speeches
  [Compare the incredible, incredible moral courage of Mandela and Ghandi with Hitler's evil ravings.]

Sorry, I don't have anything intelligent to say about these books.  I just felt drawn to understand the human and spiritual journeys of some who lived before me.  It also seemed to honor Christ's church universal to try to learn from my predecessors in the faith.

The book of speeches was an unexpectedly good find, and certainly the most accessible.  There's another collection I might pick up on Amazon by Wm Safire which purportedly analyzes the speeches with the keen eye of a former White House speech writer.  If I continue writing these pretentious ponderings, I could stand with some professional pointers :-)

I love building models. Model sailing ships, preferably the wooden ones, were my favorites when I was growing up. I loved fiddling around with thread and cloth, peeling the dried glue off my fingers and even the inevitable cuts from "safety razors".

Even as an adult I'm still making models. I feel compelled to talk about "modeling a Web site" with non-technies even when I know their eyes will glaze over as soon as I say "the M-word". I read books on architectural modeling, and model-based software engineering. Not things you can touch, but models nevertheless of ideas and concepts.

The NT talks about models too. In his first letter to the church at Thessalonica, Paul commends that church for modeling faith to other churches, the model that they first learned from him, then from Christ from whom he had also learned it. In Ephesians 5, Paul compares marriage to the relationship of Jesus to his church. That relationship is a model of what marriage is meant to be. At the same time, marriage is a model or representation of the truth of God's love for his church to the on looking world.

Here comes the bride!

Today two friends from UICC church, Kenichi Yamao and Noriko Haraguchi, held their wedding on the grounds of Tokyo Christian Institute. The campus is green, spacious and peaceful. The chapel an airy modern space with a very traditional pipe organ. The music and the singing was tremendous.  The bride was beautiful.  The sermon solemn and joyous.  Their commitment to each other and to God before Him and the assembled witnesses glorious (no pain no glory :-)).

As I was watching Noriko's procession down the aisle, with that great big happy smile on her face, I thought about that greater wedding to come, Jesus' promise to come back to claim his Bride, the glorious Bride, His beautiful one, for which he sacrificed his life to make her perfect, without spot or wrinkle.

I was thinking of individual believers following Jesus' model, and modeling his truth to others. I thought of God's planting colonies of His coming Kingdom, couples here, small gatherings in this place, and larger assemblies in that.

I was thinking of the great and glorious choice we can make, to model holy and invisible truths through our lives, so that others can see, then imitate, then model for others too.

Christianity is caught rather than taught.
Be a carrier!

The last few weeks the Matsuda's and Hawley's have been thinking about the future of the NEWS meeting. There doesn't seem to be enough time to do what we had originally planned, the initial flurry of interest from others has died down, and most Sundays it's just the four of us gathering together.

I had been hoping for a little more, something to feel good about, maybe something even to brag about. Hasn't happened yet. Time to bail?

But somehow it didn't feel right. Beth said she's getting the same answer.  And I see the Lord working in our hearts and pulling us together, which encourages me immensely.  The prayer meeting has started up again, and by Hitoshi's request, not my pushing.

So, I repent of despising the small thing. And somehow I believe God will do a work, if we are faithful, whether it means a large gathering or not. And that he can lead us as a group, though the members of our little church (can I call it that?). And to my relief and the peace of mind and heart, it will be God who glorifies himself through it.

Stay tuned!

This week I started a course on Web Evangelism offered by the Asian Internet Bible Institute, along with almost 100 other believers scattered all over the world, including a few from Canada, my home country. College professors, pastors, IT professionals, missionaries, and just ordinary believers most already ministering over the Web and wanting to do it better, and a few (like yours truly) trying to figure out what they could do.

Everyone seems really keen to learn from the resources and from exchanging experiences. This is the first online course I've taken, and it certainly is interesting to study the use of the Web for ministry while actually being ministered to over the Web!

I've also come across a number of links to US/Canada-based online house church networks which I'll post to the link section of the site. I'm considering setting something up for Chiba. All very exciting stuff; I'll try to log it as I go along.

 The doorbell rang this morning.  Expecting the delivery man from Amazon, I opened the door and there they were.  The children.

Fortunately not the screaming ones, it was the SOO cute firework watching girls, and their friend from the third floor.  Looks like they were following a salesman making his rounds, eager for some adult attention.  Dad's snoozing after a late Friday night, and Mom's doing the housework.

So I stood in the doorway and rumpled their hair and talked with them a little.  And I thought of those pictures of Jesus with his hands on the heads of the little children.  And I realized how much I wanted to share Jesus with them.

Went to the park yesterday with Mayumi.  21世紀公園 is a nice chunk of semi-wooded nature near Shin Yahashira station (nice BBQ facilities, and even places to set up tents!).  Nice place for contemplation.

Except, as usual, there were screaming kids.  Now recently whenever I hear some little darling screaming his or her head off, I get to thinking about how I do the same whenever I am frustrated, don't get my own way, etc.  Don't (always) express it by yelling, but the attitude is the same.

Still, sometimes kids can be SOO cute.  About a month ago, two little girls who live in our apt building came up to our floor (we live on the top floor) to watch the Matsudo summer fireworks.  Beautiful faces, piping little voices.  The younger sister was too short to see over the outside corridor's low-wall, so I let them take turns on my shoulders.  Heart.  Melt.

How does God look at us?  Surely he sees both the cuteness and the selfishness, whether unself-consciously expressed or artfully hidden.  Even what we don't see isn't hidden from Him.

But God sees what He created in love.  He sees what we can be.  What we will be.

And He loves us.

Last week the Christian Arts Network held their second annual worship seminar. 180 people, mostly Japanese, from 60 churches spread over 20 prefectures came to participate in worship lead by Japanese bands, learn in workshops ranging from worship leading to songwriting to implementing change, hear from internationally known speakers and artists.

I arrived from two days of hiking up in Chino with Mayumi and an old friend from Tokyo Baptist Church.  So I felt a little underdressed for conference staff, but the atmosphere was so relaxed, I soon forgot about it.  It was great to hear the Japanese bands and join on the worship.  I also was lucky to room for two nights with some of the musicians and speakers and hang out a bit.  Maybe something will come of those contacts; would be nice...

Oh yeah, the mini-concert by Iwamoto and Kokubu was great.  Kokubu Yurie has serious pipes; her arrangement of Ave Marie was awesome, and her execution verging on the operatic!  The husband-and-wife duo also gave two songwriting workshops which unfortunately I couldn't attend.

Updating the Church

The emphasis on passionate worship was wonderful.  But how do you implement a more upbeat, contemporary feel in the notoriously traditional Japanese churches? One of the speakers, a pastor, kept hammering on this: work within the context of the church.  That ministries as such don't bring lasting fruit.  On the other hand, the main speaker noted that innovation will be birthed outside the church.  So there's the tension: traditional/contemporary and church/ministry

Jesus talked about this issue of new wineskins and old didn't he?  I think the pastor was right when he said that ministry should be through the church. The question is "what is the church?"

New life requires new forms: maybe the forms of our churches need to change.  More passion, more organic life, more diversity, more priesthood of all believers, more opportunities for new growth.

¹As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. ²Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. ³Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. ⁴There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to one hope when you were called-- ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
⁷But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. ⁸This is why it says:
   "When he ascended on high,
       he led captives in his train
       and gave gifts to men." ⁹(What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? ¹⁰He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) ¹¹It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, ¹²to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
¹⁴Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

If only it was so easy...
　

Just as we were settling down for a Matsudas and Hawleys sit-around-the-table worship service. some visitors dropped in, a young Japanese-Australian couple Brad and Mime.  A very welcome addition to our worship time and bible study.

As expected, the discussion on the roles of husbands and wives (Ephesians 5) was lively. But considering the cultural shifts evidenced, for example, by recent court decisions to recognize same-sex "marriages", I would have expected a little more heat.  But on the way home, Mayumi (my wife) and I (her husband - obviously) had a second go at this idea of particular roles for men and women.

Practically speaking, women's roles in society have changed.  As Mayumi pointed out, there's no gender-specific educational courses given to men and women these days.   And on a personal note, both Mayumi and Beth are the main bread winners in their (?!) respective households, and I give thanks for the food I eat :-)  So what are we to make of the bible's teaching on gender differences and unique roles?

As Brad pointed out,  the apostle Paul states "the husband is head of the wife, as Christ is head of the church".   If you have any appreciation for what Jesus is for his church, that statement has got to strike you as extreme in the least.   But Paul goes on to say that the marriage relationship is a mystery, a revelation of the relationship between Christ and his church.

Imaging Christ

Here's my thought: Do we have a responsibility to demonstrate in our marriages the bond between Jesus and his body the church?

There are these stories in the Old Testament of the prophets being commanded to do rather strange things. Burying their underwear and digging it up years later. Lying on one side for months. Being swallowed by a whale for three days. Refraining from holding a funeral when their  wives died.

Pictures and symbols. People called by God to play a part in revealing God and his purposes to a world which is dull of hearing but who still watches. Paul says the church reveals God's wisdom to the whole cosmos as He calls out a new people, his church, from both his ancient people and the Gentiles who had been lumped together as cursed strangers.

Outside the context of God's purposes, what the prophets were called to do was arbitrary and senseless.  But surely God is the ground of all meaning and all purpose?  Everything was made by him and for him!

Playing our part in God's revelation of himself is worth more than asserting the right to define our own place and to realize our maximum potential.  In faith can we decide to glorify God even if it means submitting ourselves to a fellow human being?

This week Abbie returns to England after her one-month missionary stint here, and Brian and his family leave for Hong Kong. Not sad, but a little lonesome losing the chance to fellowship with such cool people. People on whom Jesus is placing his mark.

Last week in our bible study someone remarked, "I've never fit in anywhere".
Hmmm. I noticed that self-assessment doesn't stop people from responding very positively to this unique individual. And I sensed that some others in the group could identify. 

I think no one really feels that they fit in, at least not all the time. Because "We Are Not Home Yet". Earth after the Fall isn't supposed to ever feel completely comfortable. Even in our closest relationships, we experience the shadow of selfishness and alienation. Even in our relationship with God, where at least we have the comforts of knowing that the problem is all on our side, and that God is dealing with our sinfulness and will do away with it in good time.

Meanwhile we see the marks of Jesus on those who he is teaching to love him, and we feel the love welling up inside us: God's love for his family shed abroad in our hearts.

Are we greater than He? Can I accept that God feels that same love for me?  Can I accept my uniqueness in the same way  I accept that I am a sinful person, but that my identity lies elsewhere?  That I am free in the One who has made me fit to be his son, and has made a place for me in His church, and in His new heaven and earth that waits patiently for its unveiling?

Ever notice that people are "not on the same page" when it comes to the spiritual life?  That what turns you on doesn't do it for everyone?

Tom Albin, dean of The Upper Room in Nashville, who researched the role of small groups in early Methodism has this to say:

When I was a pastor, if you had come to me and said, I'm having trouble with my prayer life, I would have asked you what books you had read, and I would then have recommended the two best books that you hadn't read yet. The basis of my ministry was that knowledge leads to transformation.

Now ... I would also ask, What are your prayer practices, and who are the people who taught you to pray, and how did they pray?  . . . 

I would try to help you into the sphere of influence of living human guides, spiritual friends who can help you develop new ways to pray that suit the kind of person you are. I now understand Christian spiritual formation and discipleship to involve three interrelated dimensions: knowledge, experience, and a small group that can support me as I grow in grace and discover my place in the body of Christ. 　(emphases mine)

This week has been tough; been in a bit of a funk.  Beth and Kentaro are traveling on vacation, Steve is gigging outside of Tokyo, and so Wednesday's prayer meeting got cancelled.  I read the above article, then prepped for today's study on Ephesians 4.  Then I started remembering how I miss Doug and Eddie since they left.

I (know I) need the body of Christ.

7 weeks into our adventure in lay-lead "church", our little group seems to have settled down into the two core couples (Matsudas and Hawleys) attending regularly and several other people from N-K church.  Kubota-san from the old UICC English Worship Service has come a number of times. Its a blessing to hear him contribute to the discussions; the love of Christ shines from his face, and I praise God each time I sense what Jesus has done in him.

It looks like the level of discussion is still a little difficult for the non-native speakers, and those with modest English skills have given up coming. I'm still wondering if we need to do something for them, or if the Nishi Kasai church's english-language bible studies are covering that ground.  [Peter Younge will be running two Alpha course sessions in parallel starting in September (in Japanese I think), and I plan on joining to get a feel for that style of outreach.] 

The fullness of God

Still, my personal sense is that the bible study format we're using at NEWS is working to foster more communication than the formal lecture (sermon) style (duh?).  This weeks study (from BCBSR) in Ephesians 4 contains the following comment:

It is written that each person is given giftedness to contribute to the edification of all. And that the goal is to prepare God's people for works of service, which is the practice of the mature Christian. But what we find in institutional Christianity today is an elitist mentality in which a few are allowed to speak and minister while the others are treated like a bunch of stupid sheep. And why is it so typical that when professional ministers think of "works of service" about all they can envision their stupid sheep being capable of is setting up chairs and the like?

But congregations are also willing accomplices in this charade of institutional church life. For while having great potential for doing great things for God, they are lulled into laziness and purposely remain immature so as to avoid responsibility, being quite content with being treated as stupid sheep.

So anything we do that lets people be more involved has got to be a positive step.  Although we're still a long way to go before we are a functioning fellowship, "being filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (Eph 3:19) might be expected to take a little time :-)  The apostle Paul prayed believing we could and should get there.

Gloria

So help us Lord, so that the Father will receive ”glory in the assembly and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."

Thinking of rehosting this Blog on Blogger, which seems to work with Japanese (sample) and be nicely customizable. It'd be nice if other members of the leadership team could Blog too!

Ran across a pair of cool sites Impact Japan! (E,J) and HeresHope (J only) run by people doing innovative outreach work.  You know, house churches or "basic churches", and ideas that we are skirting around the edges.

So on Tuesday night I trekked in to Ebisu to chat with Impact Japan's Charlie Williams over supper at Wendy's about his lo-o-ong experience of church planting in Japan (21 years! Wow!), and what we were trying to do in Nishi Kasai.  Kentaro met us later on our way to a church-planting training session that Charlie is having with 10 or so Japanese and foreigners.  Really nice people.  Better yet, alive people who want to follow Jesus and reach out to others.

Sang some songs, did some role-playing on 1-to-1 witnessing and small group bible study, and watched a video on Church Planting Movements (pdf, HTML)- waves of hundreds or thousands of new churches being planted all over the world by ordinary christians, even those who have just become believers.  Just trusting God and doing it.

The training was lots of fun, and very stimulating.  It was really encouraging to hear the theories I'd been READING about being TALKED about by people who HAVE and ARE DOING them!

Want some?

This first training cycle is just about over.  Charlie has offered to have another training cycle for us in the early fall.  If there's interest please mail me. 

Charlie has some other cool project ideas.  Stay tuned!

PS: If you're in Ebisu with a yen for a burger, both Charlie and Kentaro recommend the Freshness Burger place, better than MOS Burger (my personal favorite).

There's a mystique about the Lord's supper.

Surrounded by prayers and warnings against participating too casually, we eat and drink food with significance greater than the earth below and the stars above. We call the bread and wine "the elements", the building blocks of something greater than ourselves.

Usually the priest or pastor serves us the bread and wine, though perhaps an elder might be delegated to bless the elements before they are distributed:

But Jesus gave the Lord's supper to his church not as magic, simply as a remembrance.
What are we commanded to remember?

Spend the morning at Hope Church (Nishi Funabashi) Worship Conference, 2 1/2 hours, most of the time singing, swaying, praying, and praising.  Everybody, from the teenagers dancing in the front row to the 30 and 40-somethings a bit further back clapping and swaying, was having a great time.

I'm asking myself: where have I been for the last 15 years? Today was my first taste of a contemporary worship service backed by a well-equipped team.  Got to sing and pray my heart out with (almost) complete abandonment.  Thanks Lord.

Don't get me wrong, I love black gospel; songs of longing and hope and faith refined through the fires of incredible suffering.  [Need a lot less equipment too; Hope church's sound booth looked  bigger than my living room, and their main sound board is about the size of a futon.]

But if you really want to get pumped up, bring yourself on up to a contemporary worship service. Take your Japanese friends to one of these services and really blow their socks off.

The last two years I'd been asked a few times to spot preach at UICC.  This newbie would sure have liked a preaching plan to guide me in selecting scriptures, topics, etc.   I'm not opposed to a little bit of spontaneity and being-led-by-the-Spirit-on-the-spot, but by inclination - and after reading Church Planting - Win and Nurture from www.strategicnetwork.org (a GREAT site by the way) - I was totally gung-ho on having a TEACHING/PREACHING PLAN.

Uhhh, planning...  Hmm, it would probably have been a good idea to plan with team before launching on a 12 part study of Ephesians :-)  Not sure the core of our fellowship is in agreement with even HAVING a preaching plan.  Guess I should have discussed first. Duh!

My new team mantra: Listen! Talk! Pray! then Plan!

After the Nishi Kasai church Japanese morning service, hung around with Beth and Brian.  Man, can he play guitar!  Lots of fun jamming the blues together; got inspired to practice a little more.  Like it says, Iron sharpens iron.

Gave a planned 10 minute talk (went 20) on the purposes of the church (Acts 2:42-47).  Good discussion, especially considering it was our first time together.  Key insight that came out: if your church isn't good at all 5 purposes (Nurture, Worship, Fellowship, Service, Mission) then it won't be good at any of them.

Now THAT's a BIG agenda for a fledgling church.  Will we try to settle for less?  Will God raise up people with gifts to lead in each of these areas?  Time to get out the prayer mat...

Gulp! We're in our second week of the new worship meeting at Nishi Kasai.  Deciding to carry on having a worship service after the professionals were called away was a major step of faith.  Foolhardy,  even!

Seems like a cool idea to log this adventure, however brief or long it may turn out to be.  Like Michael Card sings, "There is a joy in the journey".

God bless y'all.