Hang Tu | June 3
After visiting the famous Fukuoka tower, we went to the city hall area and later on in Ohori Park to pass out English Connect cards, invite people to join the Thursday night English Connect. We notice that people are generally more open and relaxed in Fukuoka than Tokyo. The walking pace is slower; local Japanese are willing to linger and meet people, even strangers for conversation.
The Smiths have a 6 month-old baby boy – Oliver. He has blonde hair and blue eyes, and he's the number one attraction, especially to the elderly. We also can easily talk to people with pets (complementing their pets and asking for permission to pet them seems to disarm people).
English Connect is one of the main ways to draw people into the church. A crowd will come to English Connect. A lot will come to community events (picnic, hangouts, etc.). Some will come to Sunday services and a few will attend First Step (intro to Christianity) and a few will get baptized and become believers.
The process is slow, but, it's working for MSN.
On average, there are about 1,200 people worshiping in MSN churches across Japan. If we multiply that by 1,000 churches, that would give us 12 million, about 1% of the total population since Japan has 124 million people.
1,200 x 1,000 = 1.2 million
The task of discipleship in Japan is huge. How will MSN plant 1,000 more churches in order to reach 1% of the population? It's almost impossible if you ask me.
Currently, MSN are trying to come up with new strategies, revitalizing dying churches in Japan. 15% of the Japanese churches are without pastors, and 80% of churches have pastors older than 50 years old. MSN can come alongside these churches to give support and care.
MSN is also creating a school of theology in Tokyo to train not only Japanese Christians but Christians around the world who wants to serve in a metropolitan area. They will get first-hand experience serving in an urban area while studying theology.
Please pray for our remaining time in Fukuoka to be fruitful as we invite different people on the streets, parks and universities to be part of English Connect.
Please pray for this Thursday night, our first English Connect meetup that we have at least 10 people (not including us).
