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Welcome. Let's Think Together.

This website is a collaborative effort to develop creative messages that introduce Jesus to the average Japanese citizen. If 400 years has yielded 1% we must ask, "Father God, how are we falling short in sharing your great news in Japan? Please open our minds and hearts to ways of communicating your love and grace which mimic the messages of Jesus and the Apostles."

Premises

  1. We are working on "cold introduction" material: curiosity peaking tracts and web content which is intended to be "discovered" by average Japanese citizens. This material is designed to stir questions from a person you don't have a strong relationship with. Our premise is that there is plentiful material to use after you have built a personal relationship.

  2. Our audience is assumed to be proudly Japanese: generally disinterested in religion and against western religion, not willing to compromise cultural connections/values/traditions for any reason.

  3. Common western cold introduction material (e.g. a tract on the four spiritual laws) is assumed to have been used and failed to produce substantial fruit in Japan. Our intention is to develop unique Japanese content that is first-century-biblical. (Please read below for additional background thoughts on developing new material consistent with Jesus' and Apostles' words.)

Rules

  1. Be kind. Creativity takes space for brainstorming. There are no bad ideas in the beginning. This will take a lot of prayer and patience to listen to the Holy Spirit. If, after prayer, you are certain something won't work, please use scriptural and cultural based reasoning to explain your position. AND, with every concern, please PROVIDE SUGGESTED REPLACEMENT CONTENT that is consistent with our Premises.

  2. We will develop all drafts in English, because, well, I am pathetic at learning languages and don't know Japanese. Once we are in agreement, everything will be in Japanese.

About

We are Developing Tracts First

If we can narrow down the message to a tract, we can easily expound on the material later, on a web site or longer pamphlet. The tract must come first, because it makes us say the most important message in just a few words.

 

A tract is a small (e.g 3x5"), maximum 8 page document that is intended to get a person curious enough to scan the QR code to learn more. A tract can be handed out directly, left in a place where someone will find it, or posted on social media.

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Click the image below to see (and comment on) the working drafts.

If you have additional drafts for the team to consider, please email them to me. I will post them here for comments. Praise Jesus! He is the King!

Japan Tract 2.1_Page_1.png
Who is on your side 2.1_Page_1.jpg
books

Additional Thoughts on Jesus' and Apostles' Approach to Unbelievers. Consider This...

God caused the language dispersion (Genesis 11, tower of Babel) so He is not surprised that He has hundreds of names across the globe. Furthermore, He claims He has revealed Himself to all peoples:

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And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for...         what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Acts 17:26-27, Romans 1:19-20

 

Despite us having no excuse, Jesus had compassion on every unbeliever because in His self-proclaimed gentle and lowly heart, He saw the unbeliever as a sheep without a shepherd. It is not surprising therefore that when Jesus approached the woman at the well in John 4, He tantalized her with good news, "If you knew the gift of God, you would want it" (paraphrased), and when Paul went to Athens in Acts 17, he quoted their philosophers and said their Unknown God was Yahweh.

 

In both cases Jesus and Paul conversed in a substantially different way than we may have been taught to speak to the unbeliever. Also, in both cases the unbelievers were highly skeptical, much like the Japanese today.

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Media

What Would God Say To The Japanese?
Is it Possible He Would Say...

  • You value others more than self. I agree.

  • You value community more than an individual. I agree.

  • You value work ethic, not slothfulness. I agree.

  • You value a quiet pride, not a public boast. I agree.

  • You value loyalty. I agree.

  • You value purity. I agree.

  • You value perseverance. I agree.

  • You value the things I created. I agree.

  • You value social harmony in accepting one’s place. I agree.

  • I gave you and every group of humans the values of Giri, Wa, Accepting Ones Place and Purity.

  • And out of all the world, you alone truly honored my values.

  • You wrote about me. You knew about me.

  • Some groups remembered me, but forgot my values.

  • Some groups forgot about me and my values.

  • You forgot about me, yet held dear to my values, despite significant pressure from the world.

  • I want you to see that your creator God is in your writings, your history, and rediscover that I am the I am of the Bible. Your ancestors knew me and my values.

  • It is time to come back to me. I’ve been your God all along, helping you preserve my values.

  • But now it’s time to remember me and embrace a relationship with me, your creator, because I need you to help bring the world back to me and my values.

  • I have a special role for you to play as the one culture who has preserved my values. Seek me in the Word and you will find me. Knock and I will answer.

  • You’ve suffered long enough in your aloneness

  • Your suffocating and debilitating fear of shame makes me weep for you

  • Your tragedy is witnessed in suicides and stoic despair

  • You’ve carried the heavy burden of the need for perfection

  • I have rest for you. I will carry the weight of perfection. I will take the shame, and the threat of shame. I will wipe the past clean and lead you to a peaceful green pasture.

  • I have loved you, the Japanese, since I formed the world and birthed you. Come home to me, just as you are.

Sample Chapter
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