USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Westerville > Three quarters of a century of triumph : seventy-fifth anniversary report and board meeting, Westerville, Ohio, November 11-13, 1930 > Part 5
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Respectfully submitted,
BISHOP H. H. FOUT
S. F. DAUGHERTY
S. C. CALDWELL MRS. S. S. HOUGH MYRTLE LEFEVER
Committee
40
THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN JAPAN
To the Members of the Board of Foreign Missions assembled in the Seventy-fifth Annual Session, and to all the members of the United Brethren Church in America, Most Hearty Greetings:
As you meet to celebrate the gracious guidance of God and the achievements of the past seventy-five years' work, we are with you in spirit and we join with the Psalmist in declaring: "The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad." As a Church "hitherto the Lord hath helped us" and as we all-you in America and we in Japan-face the perplexing difficulties of the present and the pressing problems of the future, we believe "the Lord will provide" the grace and wisdom necessary for their solution.
THE KINGDOM OF GOD CAMPAIGN
Several times before this has the Christian Church Rev. J. Edgar Knipp in Japan carried on nation-wide evangelistic cam- paigns; but the present "Kingdom of God Movement" is unique in its origin and in the breadth of its plans. Two years ago there was given by the Spirit of God to Toyohiko Kagawa a vision of a Christian Church here strong enough to permeate with Christian influence the whole life of the Japanese nation. He was led to see clearly that the number of Christians must be greatly increased, from the present meagre two hundred and fifty thousand mem- bers to at least one million.
Through voice and pen, in season and out of season, among high and low, educated and uneducated, Kagawa has gone since then proclaiming the good news of salvation, individual and national, through Jesus Christ. Many others, pastors, laymen, and missionaries, soon were gripped by his conviction and his vision was shared by them. The coming of John R. Mott in the spring of 1929, helped to crystallize the matter and in the fall a national conference of Christian workers was held in Tokyo and definite plans were made to begin the campaign at the beginning of 1930.
Already seventy-five city, district, and provincial committees have been organized and are at work. Plans have been made to push still further such organizations until every section of the country has been enlisted. During the first six months of this year mass-meetings were held in over one hundred places, with a total attendance of one hundred and seventy-three thousand, and the signing of eight thousand inquirers' cards.
Every week over twenty-two thousand copies of the "Kingdom of God" newspaper are sent out to all parts of the country, and thousands and thousands of Kagawa's latest books, "New Life Through God" and "The Gospel of God's Love" have been sold. These popular 180 page publications, selling at five cents a copy, were made possible as a direct answer to special prayer. Already twenty thousand copies of the special "Kingdom of God" edition of the New Testament
4I
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THREE-QUARTERS OF A CENTURY OF TRIUMPH
issued by the American and English Bible Societies at five cents each, have been sold, and a series of popular pamphlets for particular groups are being published.
One aim of this movement is to reach out with the gospel to groups-fishermen, miners, workingmen, farmers-which up to the present have been largely un- touched. In Japan one-half of the population or over thirty millions of her people live in rural sections. At the fall "Kingdom of God" conference, held the first part of this September, a closely printed pamphlet of eighty-six pages, giving the names and population of the villages and towns in each of the provinces in which there is no Christian preaching-place or church was distributed among the dele- gates. As one turns over its pages and sees the literally thousands and thousands of such places, he cannot but thank God for this movement through which the tremendous rural need in Japan is becoming definitely known. According to that survey, the number of Japanese villages having a population of over one thousand people each in which the Gospel is not regularly preached is 9,864, and the un- reached towns ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 in population number 930.
Rural Gospel schools in each of the forty-eight provinces of Japan are planned. Local and national institutes for the training of workers in street preaching, personal work, family meetings, family Sunday schools, self-supporting evangelism, and systematic 'giving, are being planned also. The deepening of the spiritual life and the enlistment for personal service of hosts of Christians is one of the outstanding aims of the movement this first year.
CONTRASTS BETWEEN 1895 AND 1930
The Christian Church in Japan is a growing organization. When compared with the total population its membership is still insignificant, but "there is freedom from depression in the large outlook. In front the sun climbs, how slowly! But westward, look, the land is bright!" To appreciate the growth let us go back to the year 1895 when our Board decided to open work in Japan.
At that time there was a Japanese Evangelical Alliance made up of representa- tives from the various churches, but its work was limited mostly to planning for the week of prayer in January. Not until 1902 was the Standing Committee of Cooperating Missions formed. This later became the Conference of Federated Missions. In 1911 the Federation of Japanese Churches was formed. This organization disbanded in 1923 when the National Christian Council came into. being.
This Council, though still young in years, is developing a good esprit de corps, and is doing much to foster the spirit of unity among all the Christian bodies in Japan. Its members represent practically all the Japanese churches and missions as well as such organizations as the Japan National Sunday School Association, the Japan Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations, and the Bible Societies. Its commissions on evangelism, education, social welfare, and Christian literature are constantly at work.
Through the National Christian Council the Christian bodies in Japan speak unitedly on such social and religious matters as affect the entire Christian movement in the country. For instance, the relation of State Shintoism and religion has become a live question here. In its effort to foster patriotism the government has pro- moted worship at the shrines of State Shintoism and at times has made it com- pulsory. This is clearly contrary to the policy that State Shintoism is non-religious, as the government officials declare. Moreover, the question has often been raised
43
THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN JAPAN
as to whether it has not at times interfered with the freedom of religious belief granted by the Japanese Constitution.
A special committee of the Council with the signed approval of fifty-five representative Christian organizations, including Japanese communions, local ministerial and lay associations, and Missions, recently presented their declaration on the subject to the government and at the same time gave it to the public through the press.
NUMERICAL GROWTH
This more effective organization of the Christian forces in the Japanese Empire in recent years has been made possible through the development of a larger con- stituency. Figures are not at hand for 1895, the year our own United Brethren work was begun in Japan. But the contrast between the situation in 1900 and 1930 as given by the following figures, is very striking:
1900
1930
Japanese workers (men, ordained and unordained, women workers) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1,113
5,096
Organized churches
416
1,977
Total Protestant membership
43,273
208,305
Sunday school scholars
33,039
224,785
Sunday school teachers
1,310
12,984
Self-supporting churches
71
725
Contributions of churches for year
-
$53,729
$1,124,627
i
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
1
I
I
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
In other words, while during the past thirty years the population has increased less than fifty percent, there has been more than a fourfold increase in Japanese Christian workers, organized churches, and members. Today the scholars in the Sunday schools are more than six times as many as in 1900, there has been more than a nine-fold increase in teachers, there are more than ten times as many self- supporting churches and the annual contributions now total more than twenty times as much as they did in 1900.
In this numerical growth our own United Brethren churches have had a part. For instance, early in 1905 our beloved Rev. Takejiro Ishiguro, known personally to many of you, wrote about our work in Kyoto: "Our church is growing in every way under the blessing of God. There are ten or fifteen men and women in the Sunday morning service and about twenty in the evening. We have six inquirers now and thirty-five children in the Sunday school."
At that time they were meeting in an ordinary Japanese dwelling that had been used as a boarding house. Now, besides their church building proper, they have a large addition which they put up for use as the circle-room of their kindergarten during the week and for the Beginners Department of the Sunday school on Sundays. At their communion service on March 9 of this year eleven were baptized, there were one hundred and thirteen present in the church and one hundred and sixty-three in the Sunday school. They now have a young men's society of thirty- five and a young women's society of thirty-eight. Also a women's society, a mothers' meeting in connection with the kindergarten and on every Tuesday evening a large inquirers' meeting at which forty-five attended during the first quarter of this year.
For cooperation in the work of the Kingdom of God Movement their mem- bership has been divided into eight groups that meet for training in personal work.
1
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THREE-QUARTERS OF A CENTURY OF TRIUMPH
Over one hundred signed up for this service. One new feature is a new branch "Sunday school" that meets on Saturday afternoons in a growing residential community.
CHRISTIANITY'S PERMEATING INFLUENCE
The Christian Church in Japan has grown numerically since 1900, but much more significant than its growth in numbers has been its beneficial influence exerted upon all phases of Japanese life. In a recent editorial the Japan Advertiser, the leading English paper in this country, made the following statement: "The
Union Service, "Kingdom of God" Campaign
betterment of social conditions generally, the raising of the status of women, the fight against licensed vice and intemperance; these, and many other good works besides, have now the strong support of Buddhist and other non-Christian in- dividuals and organizations; but in almost every instance the original impetus came from Christian workers and full credit must be given them accordingly."
The editorial adds: "A total of little more than two hundred thousand Chris- tians as compared with roughly forty-eight millions of Buddhists and sixteen millions of Shintoists can hardly be regarded as more than a drop in the ocean. Yet despite the paucity of numbers, the influence of Christianity on the everyday life of the country at large is patent for all to see. The industrial revolution has, no doubt, done much to help on the movement for the emancipation of women, but it was the influence of Christian ideals that first led the Japanese to raise women from the inferior position accorded to them by Confucianism. Social work may have flourished under Buddhism in the eighth century, but organized work for society was scarcely worthy of notice for the next thousand years and it remained for Christianity to lead the way in eleemosynary work when it was revived once more towards the close of the nineteenth century."
45
THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN JAPAN
Today in every province throughout Japan there is a social welfare department. A few days ago the head of that department in our own Shiga Province said to me while speaking of his work: "The love of Jesus has done much to stimulate the spirit of the work we are doing."
In the fight for nation-wide temperance and purity the large majority of the workers are Christians. Years ago our own Doctor Cosand was one of the pioneers that set the ball rolling. Now public conscience is being awakened on the evil both of intemperance and the licensed prostitution system .. Last year five pro- vincial assemblies, corresponding to our state legislatures, passed resolution's denouncing this system. The purity movement is daily growing in power? "It's leaders, largely Christian men and women, have launched a five-year campaign with a budget of $95,000 which is now being raised. Up to the present one-half of the provinces have been organized and they are planning to organize the fight in all of the provinces.
The part our United Brethren workers are having in the social reform crusade is well illustrated by the splendid success that came to Mrs. Shun Yabe this past spring. As the Otsu W. C. T. U. president, she led the fight against the opening of a "geisha call-office" near an historical temple visited every year by thousands of tourists and students from all parts of Japan. Through agitation in the news- papers, mass-meetings, circulation of protest-pledges (twenty-five hundred signers were secured), personal interviews and a telegram barrage from prominent people, such pressure was brought to bear upon the governor that the application was turned down. Thus a new center of great evil influence was prevented from being formed.
CHANGED ATTITUDE TOWARDS RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
At the beginning of this century the number of Japanese Sunday Schools was less than one thousand. The majority averaged less than thirty scholars with only one or two teachers each. Not until 1907 was the National Sunday School Association organized.
Now a course of graded lessons is being widely used, the association has an expert as its general secretary, it publishes a fine monthly magazine and holds summer institutes for the training of teachers.
The new attitude towards the value and importance of religious education is shown by the fact that the Imperial Educational Association of Tokyo asked Rev. Toyohiko Kagawa to give a series of addresses on that subject at its annual institute this past summer. Through the emphasis placed by Christians through- out Japan on such work the Buddhists have been awakened to the importance of giving religious training to the young. They now have a Sunday school depart- ment with trained workers in charge and are developing up-to-date literature and effective methods.
In the early days Dr. A. T. Howard rendered efficient service as a member of the board of directors of the National Sunday School Association, helping to guide it along effective lines. Our Mission, by placing Doctor Shively in the Doshisha Theological Seminary in charge of the department of religious education, did much to stimulate the introduction of that phase of training into the seminaries of Japan. For the past ten years Rev. Kiyoshi Yabe, through the Lake Biwa Teachers Training Summer School, has been developing in our own and other churches a corps of teachers who have a broad conception of their work and are trained to teach the Word of God. By securing the cooperation of Sunday school leaders
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THREE-QUARTERS OF A CENTURY OF TRIUMPH
and professors from the Doshisha and other seminaries he has carried on a con- ference that is recognized as one of the best. This pioneer work has been fruitful of many good results.
OUR OWN UNITED BRETHREN WORK
The Executive Secretary of our Japan Annual Conference, Rev. C. Yasuda, writes: "It is now thirty-five years since the opening of our work in this land and thirty years since the annual conference was organized. During that time God has been gracious to us and through the help of our brothers and sisters in America not a little contribution has been made to the Christian work in Japan. Up to the present, through the work of our church, over three thousand persons have been
Kusatsu United Brethren Church, Japan
baptized, and through the work of the Sunday schools and kindergartens the teaching of Christ has been implanted in the hearts of many, many children.
"During the past year also we have had many causes for thanksgiving to God. Rakusai Church in the western part of Kyoto and Kusatsu Church in Shiga district were enabled to move from Japanese rented dwelling-houses into their new buildings. Including the original contract price, chairs, pews, kindergarten and other equipment, the cost of the former building was $4,595.67, and of the latter, $5,883.62. Towards the cost Rakusai raised Yen 1,150 and Kusatsu Yen 1,420. The completion of these church buildings was due in large part to the kind cooperation of our brothers and sisters in America, but the result represents also much sacrifice and effort on the part of those two churches and their friends in the community. Since they have their new buildings, the work has made remarkable progress.
"The past March marked the successful completion of the first year's work of our new kindergarten in the Baba dormitory and with the opening of the new building at Rakusai another kindergarten was made possible. Both of these new
47
THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN JAPAN
ones are doing fine work, the former under the supervision of Mrs. Knipp, the latter under that of Mrs. Shively.
"Throughout the year our local churches have earnestly engaged in evangelistic work, especially since the opening of the Kingdom of God campaign. Personal work and out-door preaching are two phases that have been emphasized. During the summer months special attention has been paid to plans for religious education. To mention but one concrete example, in the large commercial city of Kobe, our pastor, Rev. Y. Ono, has been a leader in the interdenominational Sunday school work, accompanying the children from the local church Sunday schools to the sea- shore and getting good results in the summer camp work. The same sort of summer Bible vacation school work has been carried on by our pastors in Osaka, Nagoya, Shizuoka, Zeze, Otsu, ard Kusatsu. This year's summer teacher training school at Zeze, under the direction of the pastor, Rev. K. Yabe, sent out as usual to many parts of Japan, trained teachers.
"For the sake of reaching the village people Mr. Yabe has opened winter institutes, and this summer a rural day nursery during the busy season. This new plan was the means of extending a good influence for Christianity throughout the community. The cooperation of our Otsu and Zeze churches with the local W. C. T. U. in preventing the opening of a new geisha-call office at Ishiyama this spring is one illustration of how our church is engaging in social reform.
"At present on account of the business depression throughout Japan many of our own members also are out of work and the financial problems of our churches have been increased. Notwithstanding this fact we are having our part in the nation-wide Kingdom of God movement and are exerting our best efforts for the redemption of Japan. At our last annual conference, the thirtieth, with an earnest- ness never before seen among us, we decided upon new goals for the next three years. They include among other things the opening of two new preaching- places, the increase of the self-supporting churches from four to eight, a mem- bership of three thousand five hundred, and growth in Sunday school work so that we may have forty Sunday schools, with two hundred teachers, an average attendance of two thousand five hundred and an enrollment of three thousand. In order that these goals may be realized by the help of God and for His glory, with large hopes and earnest prayer we are seeking to do our best for Him." 1
FACING THE FUTURE
Japan as a nation is passing through a crisis. Her serious minded leaders feel keenly the social unrest. Her rapidly increasing population coupled with her lack of raw materials, spreading unemployment, the breaking down of the old moral standards, the inrush of communistic ideas, the economic depression-these have given pause to the nation.
Under the stimulus of an aggressive Christianity and through the trend of world events Buddhism is awakening, but she lacks the power to realize her ideals in a sufficiently large measure to meet the present pressing religious needs of Japan.
Outside as well as inside the Christian church an increasingly large number are being led to see that the only solution of Japan's critical, moral, and spiritual problems is the love of God as manifested in Christ. The followers of Christ, though still "a little flock," are hearing Him say as He did of old, "Fear not, it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."
Many Christian leaders, however, believe that the present divided Protestant church in Japan is not adequate for the task. Two thirds of the membership are
48
THREE-QUARTERS OF A CENTURY OF TRIUMPH
connected with four communions, while the other one third is divided among thirty-two bodies. Church officials, laymen, and pastors, especially the younger men, are of the strong conviction that God wants the churches here to get closer together. One pastor wrote, "If our church work were done unitedly, the results would be doubled." The bishop of the Japan Methodist Church, Bishop Akazawa, in response to any inquiry on this matter said to me, "Some are earnestly discussing the polity and creed for a united church here. But much more important is that the leaders especially grow into a spirit of unity. This will be one result of the Kingdom of God movement. Just what the outcome will be no one can tell now, but in twenty or thirty years many communions will be united, I am sure. In my own work I am planning everything with a view to the coming union of the churches."
Our own United Brethren pastors and laymen at our last annual conference in a resolution expressed it as their deep conviction that "the union of the churches in Japan is the will of God and that through such union the glory of Christ, the head of the Church, would be more fully revealed to this nation." They believe that in order to make our contributions what they should be, we must develop our present local churches into stronger units.
Though few in number, our pastors and members are doing earnest, devoted, self-sacrificing service for Christ and the Church. Their worth is being recognized in many ways. For instance, at the fall conference of the Kingdom of God move- ment, which brought together over one hundred and fifty workers from all parts of the Empire, six sectional meetings were held. As chairman of two of them, the Social Welfare and the Rural Evangelism commissions, two of our pastors, Rev. Y. Okazaki and Rev. K. Yabe, presided. On the Executive Committee of the National Council Rev. C. Yasuda, our conference executive secretary, is a valued member.
OUR OWN UNITED BRETHREN PROBLEMS
We here in Japan, both Japanese workers and missionaries, rejoice that the last General Conference approved the plan "to help our Japanese conference to secure permanent buildings for its unchurched congregations." Three such con- gregations are now in urgent need of help. In addition to what they can raise, an average of five thousand dollars will enable them to put up buildings that will be a tremendous help in their work. One, in Chiba district, is in a town of 18,000 where we have been working since 1901. Another is in a rapidly growing section of Kyoto and the third is in Odaware where our work was organized in 1901.
The reasons for helping these groups of Christians to have buildings of their own are many. They need a home just as a family does. It will help their faith, and make more effective their service. A church specially built for divine worship can be a suitable building, but Japanese dwelling-houses rented as preaching- places are not suitable and do not inspire worship. A church will give these Christians a sense of permanency and stability that they cannot get in a rented building. It is more economical to have a building of our own than to rent, and church buildings at these three places will be a great help in establishing Chris- tianity in these communities. We crave the cooperation of individuals, Endeavor societies, women's missionary societies, and local churches in making possible the proper housing of these groups of Christians.
Another action of the General Conference that brought much joy to our hearts was its endorsement of the plan of the Foreign Board "to increase our present staff and work abroad so as to take care of the normal growth" and "to provide means to occupy Chiba district near Tokyo."
49
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON JAPAN
The rural sections of Japan are becoming ripe for the harvest. Our pastors in Chiba district need the presence and cooperation of a missionary family living in their midst. Our Annual Conference and Mission unite in asking the Board to make it possible for us to go ahead there.
As you meet to celebrate the achievements of the past seventy-five years, we would express our most hearty appreciation of what our Church in America has done to establish the Christian Church here. It is a living force, but still like Gideon's band-small in numbers, or like a growing child, "and who measures a child's worth by his size?" What its future will be no one can tell with certainty, but in the plan of our God surely the Christian Church in Japan has a large and growing mission.
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