Church Planting on Stony Ground: Revisiting Japan's Situation

 

“And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.” – Mark 4:5-6 (Jesus in the Parable of the Sower)

This week will be important to me as it will be my ten year anniversary for living in Japan. Recently I was re-watching this old video about global missions. In the video a division can be seen setup between three different types of worlds that exist within global Christian missions. They classify these divisions as world A, B, and C. World C, which is 33% of the population, is the “Christian” world that has some kind of Christian influenced system or understanding. World B, which is 38% of the population, is non-Christian with access to the gospel, but has chosen not to accept it. World A, which is 29% of the population, is non-Christian with no access to the gospel or no chance of hearing it. The video goes on to say that a vast majority, or 72% of missionaries and resources are sent to World C. Another 25% of missionaries and resources are sent to World B, while the remaining 3% is sent to World A. This video was made years ago and little has probably changed since then with the only exception being that of greater internet access globally. This global internet access has greatly impacted World A in ways in which traditional missionaries have not been able to.

This brings us to Japan. According to Joshua Project missions statistics Japan is currently 0.57% Evangelical Christian with 2.16% overall “Christian”. In 1853 the United States Navy forcefully opened up Japan to the rest of the world with Missionaries arriving shortly thereafter for the first time in hundreds of years. It has now been about 171 years since that time with not a lot of huge changes happening toward accepting of Christ for this nation. Multiple Bibles have been translated, many Christian resources have been established, many churches have been planted within thirty minutes to one hour of every Japanese person (though there are some mid-sized cities with no churches still), and a small Christian sub-culture exists in Japan. All of these factors firmly place Japan into “World B”. Great access to the gospel with constant rejection of it. Doing missions in “World B” requires an entirely different set of skills and level of patience. In ten years of living here many missionaries have already come and gone for various reason. One day I too will have to leave as a reality of missions. What is the reality of church-planting on stony ground?

According to Ken Joseph's book Lost Identity in the 700s AD era Christianity came to Japan for the first time, but it never took too deeply and was absorbed into a certain Buddhist sect. Buddhism that had no God suddenly found itself worshiping various Buddhas as Gods in the newly established sect. Much later in 1549 the Jesuit Francis Xavier arrived to spread Catholicism, which was initially successful with thousands of converts, only to be crushed by massive persecution leading to almost completely being erased from Japan. In 1853 after being closed for centuries Western missionaries returned and slowly spread the gospel. During World War 2 the Japanese church was entirely complicit with the government and carries with it the scars of doing that to this day. Only after World War 2 with a new generation of missionaries were many churches planted in the newly humbled nation, but the gospel never spread as hoped. In its place secular humanism, materialism, and capitalism spread which led to great material prosperity until an economic crash in occurred 1990. To this day Japan has not recovered from that economic decline, but has rather steadily declined. 

Spiritually, to this day Japanese Christians have great difficulty maintaining the churches that they have been entrusted with due mostly to aging and attrition. Just like the description in Mark 4 of the stony ground from Jesus, a strong root never took place in Japan as a nation. Even now most Japanese are proud of their rejection of Christianity of the which they are taught about in school. To them it may be the only knowledge of Christianity that they have. As a people they are heavily skeptical of anything outside of their culture, which is deeply implanted into their minds through public schooling. There is a veil as it were covering their eyes. For many it takes years to consider God, and even if they do, they are many times unwilling to take the last step of obedience for fear of what others in the group may think. For many the deathbed conversion may be the only way to make peace with God and save face with others. Only the truly courageous step forward daring to risk all to follow Christ here. 

However, with greater access to travel, international education, and the internet as well as many looming social issues many Japanese people are thinking outside the box for the first time. Will they have the courage to trust Christ or follow the path of their ancestors in rejection? Will they have the courage to live for Christ openly in their land? Will they be able to reach their own nation? Traditional Missionaries still do what a vast majority of Japanese Christians are mostly unwilling to do: boldly preach the gospel to the lost masses by going against the group. Many seeds need to be planted and watered yet. We will continue to do just that as long as God permits!