How we connect with God (and how we might block these channels).

At my church I have been giving a series of talks on the basic Christian life, and through studying and preparing for the second talk, spiritual habits, I came to some important discoveries that I think are both helpful for my own personal life as well as when I have a chance to teach.

There are numerous spiritual practices that we can do as Christians. Sometimes these are called “means of grace”. In short, these are often the channels through which God works to speak to us and grow us in our a. proximity of relationship with Him. b. our clarity of understanding of Him c. Our likeness to Him…for which these then greatly effect our daily life. Some example of these channels/means are 1.personal scripture reading 2. prayer 3. attending church services 4. listening to a sermon 5. fellowship with other Christians 6. acts of service 7. praising God…actually, many more “means” could be listed, but for now, these are some foundational ones.

Now, in teaching about Christian growth, there is a danger that maybe many of us feel…it can be easy to turn these practices into a legalistic list of “do this”, whereas the focus is not on the end (growth in Christ), but simply on fulfilling a new kind of law. Often times, it is this short sightedness that can turn good words into heavy burdens. Bible reading is good in that it opens us to God Himself and He often speaks to us through His Word. Because we read the Bible, that does not mean that God will speak to us in a clear way every single time…in fact, it might feel somewhat rare sometimes. But through regular reading we are keeping a channel open for God to speak to us. So, the goal isn’t simply to just “read the Bible”, but rather to keep a channel open for God to communicate to us and for us to know Him more. Or perhaps listening to a sermon on Sunday at your church. Many times, we will not be particularly struck by the words of the sermon, but sometimes we are. It is because we regularly go to church and receive the Word in the form of a sermon that we are sometimes shown and led down further the road of growth.

So, what is helpful for our growth in Christ is to keep these channels active, desiring for God to show us, lead us, fill us, help us to see, etc.. Through the normal activities of prayer, praise, scripture reading, we are able to remain connected with the living God. Of course, God can use any means to communicate with us and cause us to grow. God spoke through a donkey to Balaam. God can confront us through people who do not believe in God. Sometimes through other experiences or nature or whatever, God reaches us. Yet more often than not, it is through these channels mentioned before that God does often work. We do in fact need God to work through, but that does not mean we can do nothing. Thus we continue to practice these things.

But, there are times when our growth feels as if it has stalled. We are not growing in Christ. While reading something that Harvest church put out some years ago (the Reveal Study) something obvious but important struck me. When our lives are in a kind of sin, perhaps an immoral sexual relationship, some immoral bad habits, or perhaps we are just holding on to bitterness very strongly. Often it is the case that while we are holding strongly on to a particular sin, we unconsciously start to cut the channels that are means for us to connect with God. We hesitate to read the Bible because we know that there are words against us. So we avoid it. We cease reading. What we are doing here is simply trying to protect ourselves from God Himself. Or, we might continue to read, but we will read it at an arms length, never letting it shine on our hearts. Perhaps this is why some people will quit going to church, because they fear God’s interaction with them and their sin. Just as we avoid people who will make us uncomfortable, when our lives are clearly in the darkness, so we will avoid the Word, church, people who might speak truth to us, prayer (other than for supper) and heartfelt praise. The reason being is, we are here walking the opposite path.

So for growth, what we need is connection to the Living God. But when sin is in our lives, these tend to be the very things we avoid. But, it is good to remember these spiritual habits not as ends in of themselves (reading the Bible for the sake of reading the Bible, praying but simply keeping up a habit), but as ways that we connect more with Christ. And it is through these connections that God causes us to grow in proximity, knowledge and likeness to Christ.

R.E.M.’s greatest album (in my opinion).

Fables of the Reconstruction, R.E.M.`s third album has sometimes been deemed as a weaker effort, but the tone and atmosphere of the whole thing seems to go beyond the individual songs to create something that is akin to a painting or a picture. It’s rustic. Weathered. Sorrowful. Lonely. Longing. It is the wooden fences that have slowly rotted with age. It is the sun setting over empty fields. Rarely does music allow you to feel things in a tactile way. Of course music should evoke feelings in the heart…but they don’t transport us to places and times and environments the way this album does.

One form of homesickness

So today I met a lady who had lived near Albany, NY (Troy) for sometime and suddenly my memories of my grandparents and aunt, the summers and Christmases that were spent there….all came flooding back. My grandparents have been dead for sometime and I myself can’t even get back to the states right now (it’s been almost 10 years), but just meeting someone who knows a place that is important to you helps me to feel “known”.

Being known or understood is a great comfort. We don’t need words or explanations. Without even saying much, we can convey our feelings and they “land” with the other person…because they know what we know. When we leave our homes and travel far, then a lot of this common knowledge disappears and we feel like strangers. We have an identity that is put away in the closet since it isn’t relevant to the new geographic area. All the things, though trivial, that were important to us don’t translate well to the new place. Even if certain sensations could be described, without experience they can never truly be known and so much of us will also remain unknown. But then comes someone who has lived in your hometown or visited…and there is an instant connection, as if a part of your home has come overseas and visited you.

Who we are affects what we build…

All to say that it is hard for us to build something that does not reflect who we are. I can hold so many learned ministry skills and accomplish and build much, but if my heart is full of pride or bitterness, whatever is built carries with it those sins (to an extent). That might not mean that what I build is there for “prideful” or whatever, only that the foundation becomes much weaker and unstable. Or perhaps the outside is big and grand, but looking inside is rot and putrid smells. Maybe we want to cut corners and just build something big without being pruned and moved through the crucible. But, to borrow some Star Wars wisdom…the quick and easy way is the path that leads to the dark side. Though the long and arduous path is no fun either. And while on the long path, the short path looks more any more attractive. Why not throw away principle and values if we can quickly move forward and up. But what are we really trying to build? What is the true goal? It must not be just “big” but “true” and “good”…which are so much more difficult. But time does test things and that which is good and true, sooner or later, shines through. Trust God and move step by step…

Very quick thoughts on Japanese theology…

Now, even as I write the title, I am aware of the danger of classifying something as “Japanese theology”, while I implicitly believe that there is no American theology or European theology…just theology. All theology is context bound, though that does not mean that all theology is incorrect or relative. But reading Kitamori’s “the Bible and Japan”, some comments he made regarding the unique contribution of Japanese culture to the understanding of the Bible and theology…I couldn’t help but recall many people with similar sentiments. That, all theology that has come to Japan is in part cultural imperialism and through self-theology, the Japanese church will become free.

There are many parts of this sentiment that I do agree with. There is a sense where the west becomes smug and seems to look down on other cultures. The attitude is that “if you want to learn real theology, you’ve got to come to us”, which is not congruent with a Biblical outlook (I should probably have some Bible reference here, but its late><). Also, much of the Japanese evangelical church has been somewhat bound by American and other missionaries, while 日本キリスト教団, (United church of Japan?) might be bound to Barth or Brunner or other western theologians…so, through self-theology, the church of Japan can better speak and live the Gospel of Christ.

At the same time, I sometimes feel that this “freedom from the west” is given too much emphasis so that the goal is not mainly ” to know Christ and preach Christ in Japan”, but rather to throw off shackles and ties to church in the west. When the emphasis is simply to create distance from other countries rather than to grow in proximity to Christ, theology becomes less about the pursuit of God and more about the pursuit of self. When God is the goal, then there may be incidental agreements between Japan and the west, which is no burden, since the goal is achieved. When one’s country is the goal, the agreement between other churches of the world is one only admitted begrudgingly and with quick asides to show the audience (whoever they are) that the friendship is not so strong. In a sense, disunity is lauded.

So that is one of my concerns that I see from time to time. Good night~

Meandering about Church Life in Japan

This probably could be labeled as a “part 1” since there are likely to be many more to come after. But in thinking through about what kind of church God finds pleasing, maybe I have a finger on one problem that the faces the church in Japan. Like all things, most strengths are also weakness and vice versa. So, while much of the older generation value community, this emphasis on “others” can in turn be a weakness. While we are called to love and care for others, that often can become a either a fear of other people’s opinions (for those who are less vocal) or a loathing of other people’s habits (for those who tend to be more vocal in the church). Even though a person’s first and most important gaze should be towards Christ Himself, Christ often becomes hidden by the voices, the opinions and the hustle and bustle that happens in the church. In one sense, some aspects of pietism (being alone before God) are almost looked down negatively (especially if they get in the way of some of those who driving the church forward). Now individualism is perhaps an even larger problem, especially in the generation born around 2005, and I think that will merit another blog post. But for now, I want to just hone down on this aspect of church life.

Now, through and through the Bible, both parts of the Christian life are held to be incredibly important. The greatest commandment is not “love thy neighbor”, but rather “love God”. And yet, we read numerous times in the letter of 1 John, those who hate their brother or sister cannot truly say that they are loving God. So, to put it two ways, while loving God is a priority, the second greatest commandment “is like the first”, it involves loving others and it also seems to be evidence that the first commandment is actually taking place. But then, if we should concentrate solely on the second and conclude that since we love our neighbor, we are therefore in fact loving God…or that by only concentrating on giving a cup of water we need not worry about looking towards Christ on a personal level, falls wide of the mark. The pattern seems to be that when we first look towards Jesus and love Him, this will nurture and eventually harvest a great love for others.

In the church context, there seems to be a few zealous and vocal people who are often very opinionated and whose speech can be somewhat harsh and judgmental. These people tend to gravitate towards the center of church life and also seem to be the movers and shakers of a congregation. For one thing, they are not passive. They also have a strong sense of duty, responsibility and are driven. These are all good traits, but when these traits in and of themselves are held to be the ideal traits of the church, church life becomes tilted and somewhat twisted. These traits all need to go through the crucible of the cross and the Gospel of grace. We are called to die with Christ and then rise with Him. We die to ourselves and in a sense, all of these traits that we carry with us also must die in a sense. Not so that we become blank slates or empty people, but rather that these traits become reborn through Christ. So we are not just driven towards efficiency…but rather we have a heart for people to grow and people to know Christ. In church life, because the context is the church, both things can look much the same. Aren’t they all for Christ? Yes and know. Anything one does for the church can appear to be for Christ and of Christ, but that is due to the setting. A lot of times, people carry these traits, but they are unchanged (they are not redeemed) and it is here where we see a lot of damage done. What we come a cross is not the rule of Christ in the church, but the rule of a few active people who happen to be Christians.

How can we tell if traits have been transformed through Christ? I think all things will have the aroma of the Gospel. The attitudes and words that people speak, their demeanor, the way they approach their neighbor…they would be bearing the fruit of the spirit through their God given traits of drive and duty. Do the actions of others produce fruit in keeping with repentance? Do these actions push people simply to accomplishing a task, or towards Christ Himself? Do people walk away with a stronger conviction of God, or do they come away spiritually injured?

With the Japanese emphasis on community and the reality of strong people who have not been held accountable regarding the “cruciform life”, many churches become not so much churches of Christ, but churches of Mr. Sato or Mrs. Nakamura…etc.. People come to church, but there is very little thought of the thoughts of Christ towards them…rather almost wholly is their disposition shaped by the person sitting to their right. And that person’s face is not one that looks like that of an angel, as when Stephen died…but rather hard and distorted, full of anger and not of the spirit. Full of pride and not of humility.

But how do we navigate this? What is the solution? That will maybe be a later post, but the simple answer is really to look at Christ first.

Pikmin and management

Perhaps when writing a blog, a person can focus on a certain niche or subject and write a lot about that, which is probably helpful for the blogger as well as those who can read multiple articles on the same subject. The other way a blog can be done is with the focus on the person themselves. I think if the said blogger themselves is interesting or already famous, then really anything they do can be interesting. But I think that kind of person is very rare and I certainly am not that person. Thus, I feel a sort of need to steer everything back to theology or the Bible somehow. I’m not sure if that will happen this time or not since I want to talk about…Pikmin~

I knew about Pikmin for a long time but my past birthday I received Pikmin 4 and seriously played it for the first time. And what I learned is that the game, aside from beautiful ascetics and cute creatures, is mainly about multitasking and management. How can a person be as efficient as possible. And what that involves is sending the right pikmin to the right job. You don’t send the pikmin to break down a wall and just watch. You send a large number to the wall and in the meantime you collect other materials and send other pikmin to fight some other creature. It reminds me of working in a coffee shop. During the opening hours, there was always a rush of customers. And if you are brewing coffee or getting espresso out, you don’t stand and watch, you try and move cups or cut a bagel or put more beans into the grinder….

When everything goes smoothly this can be quite addicting. But also, expediency can destroy some good and beautiful things. As for pikmin, the places are beautiful, but one is never really allowed to just stop and admire the scenery. Nature becomes just a backdrop to the hustle and bustle. So there is a goodness to efficient management, but taken to an extreme, we lose sight of some more important things in life.

Tying things to the church, good management and being efficient is a good thing. But, the temptation might be to do more and more and more and more….and while we can say that we are “accomplishing great things”, unless one completely stops and does nothing, one can really never know God. We are made to work, but made for more than work. We are also to enjoy and cherish God and the people and good things that there are. Of course, the solution isn’t “bad management” which only causes frustration. I think good management in moderation. To delegate and work together, but to also resist the temptation to push more and more…to go faster and faster. I think because of the reality of God, we become free to actually stop. But also because of the reality of God, we do have goals to work forward to. I guess to work with these two thing in mind, which means a life of adjusting and readjusting. But the reality of God helps us to enjoy the most out of both parts of life. Both the going and the stopping.

Animal Management

Perhaps the most used image for the role of the so-called “pastor” in the Bible is that of a shepherd. And shepherds shepherd. They care for the sheep, feed the sheep, guide the sheep, watch out for the sheep, search for the sheep, and perhaps even lay down their lives for the sheep. I think when people become pastors, this image of caring, preaching, warning, and checking in on people comes to mind. Even in Acts, Peter and the other apostles were to give their attention to prayer and teaching…not waiting on tables. So, initially in my mind, this priority of the pastor was strong in my mind…I didn’t think that other aspects of balancing and planning was all that “Biblical”. I felt (and perhaps still do feel to an extent) that all this talk about management and resources and vision casting…was just some kind of cross pollution from the business sector. Of course I still thought that the business world can teach us a lot, but I also felt that leaning too hard into that comes less from necessity and more from pastors looking on and longing to be part of that scene.

But, I think recently I’ve come to understand that management cannot be avoided in pastoring. For example, in Acts, even though Peter and the other apostles appointed deacons to focus in on the other work…the thinking about the problem (people in the churches are not being cared for and the apostles are being spent), coming up with a solution to the problem (increasing the number of people who will work and giving them specific duties), and actually going through and putting the plan into action (finding out people who qualify, explaining what their duties will be). All of these actions seem to be a part of the pastorate.

Thinking back to the sheep example, shepherds are not just to protect the sheep but probably also need to know the lay of the land, where there are good places to be fed, and how to make sure that all the sheep are actually fed. They need to know not just the sheep, but the environment as well. If there are too many sheep, they need to think about the next steps so that all the sheep are provided for (hiring workers under them…perhaps creating another separate flock….). Thinking through these issues, while not directly part of the praying and preaching…still seem to be intrinsically linked to pastoring.

And shepherds generally don’t deal with abstract ideas, but the reality of the sheep. There might be the ideal “sheep”, but to the shepherd, what matters is each sheep before them…knowing their call/voice, and taking time to go after the ones that wander as well…however far or long it might be.

In short, management seems to be a part of the pastorate. And so as a pastor, this is an area to grow in.

One reason why people leave Christ…

I vowed (3days ago) that I would write everyday for a year and so I am compelled to write. Today I spoke from John 6:1-15 at my church and focused in at the last point, mainly that the people who were following Jesus had wanted to make Him king, but Jesus didn’t want to have anything to do with that. This brings up all sorts of questions, but it also gives greater clarity into Jesus’ own ministry as well as the nature of the fickle followers that were around him (of which we may find ourselves to be part of as well! lest we aren’t careful).

So the people wanted for Jesus to be king, but their idea of “king” and Jesus idea of “king” were quite different. They wanted, probably, independence from the rule of Rome and Jesus would be very helpful in accomplishing this goal that the people had. Their idea of a king was not only a person who worked for their benefit (healed the sick, feeding of the 5000) but also someone who fought the battles they wanted to fight. We see this a lot with popular figures in the media. There might be a famous singer or artist that happens to hold similar views as we do…and we immediately hoist them out in front of us to be our spokesperson or what not. And if a person doesn’t end up falling in line with all of our nuances and views, then we quickly cast them out. The people liked Jesus in as far as He was in agreement with them. They wanted Him king, but they’re kind of king. But any person who at the outset has a list of qualifications which their king must meet and follow…does not want a real king. They want perhaps a secretary or servant…or maybe they want a representative. Not a king.

But Jesus wasn’t the king they wanted him to be. Jesus knew this and so distanced Himself from them. I think this also explains why so often Jesus was secretive and quiet about a lot of His work (especially in the Gospel of Mark). People had their understanding of Messiah or “Christ”, but Jesus’ understanding and mission was quite different. So Jesus made sure not to cause confusion or get caught up in currents that would take Him away from the true mission.

Jesus wasn’t the king that these people wanted and so later in verse 66 of the same chapter, almost everyone leaves. If Jesus isn’t on board with our ideas, our values, then we so often quickly avoid Him, or distance ourselves from Him. Even in church work, this has a way of working out. Here are some of my personal notes on this…

SO, what about me?  When I read this passage, how will it change me and work in me?  I will often times want Jesus to do things for me.  Perhaps as a pastor, I want Him to give me numbers and easy success.  I want Him to work in the hearts of people in a way that is beneficial towards my own image.  I don’t always want to come to Jesus on His terms, but I care a great deal about myself and want Jesus to give me the things that would allow me to trust in myself.  And so from this, the question that comes is, “what does it really mean to follow Jesus”?  It involves a lot of letting go of unhealthy or distorted desires and letting Jesus come in and be number one.  For me, I suppose there is a desire for signs that I am doing a good job.  I want visible signs of success.  And the absence of trouble.  I want people to like me and to think good of me.  I desire respect from people more than other things…I often struggle with feelings of being disrespected.  And so, I wish that in following Jesus, these things would come.  In a sense, I desire Jesus to guide me on roads that would result in greater respect for me, rather than roads that would mean less respect for me yet greater respect for Christ. 

In other words, if God’s glory would be apparent through my own glory, I am happy to have Him as my Lord. But if God’s glory would come through my humility, my failure, my “becoming nothing in the eyes of others (especially fellow pastors)” then I, like the crowd, might find myself distancing myself away from Jesus.

I want to be king. That is the heart of the problem (and probably is the heart of most problems). But even before I am called to take off my own crown and lay it before Him, He has already cast off His crown and humbled Himself to the point of the cross…so that I might be exalted. Knowing this, that my God went so far for me, I might then take the first step of response to His grace and entrust not just one part, but all of me for Him.

The heavy weight of Japanese Christianity

So, I have to say beforehand that part of this blog is to present ideas that are still works in progress (maybe all of our ideas are works in progress….). But I want to say this beforehand because when I make some comments about this or that…I’m still sometimes fleshing out ideas and not coming to conclusions. And to avoid backlash, I want to say that now is such a time.

Failure in Japan is not tolerated as much as it is in the states. I know I still need to read up on this more, but there is less tolerance for mistakes and more condemnation for people who slip up on the job. The positive outcome is that orders at McDonald’s are 98.9% accurate. The downside is the pressure to go on without mistakes is so great that many people just give up on life (through various methods). Quality in Japan is so high, and so work in the church also takes on much the same mindset. From talking with various elderly pastors, it seems the rule of quality in society is set against the job of the church (and usually in context, the pastor I’m talking with is speaking down about other leaders and churches that tolerate low quality work). Now, there is truth to these statements (there is always truth in any statement!), but the times and places I’ve heard this makes me worry that the church will often take the rule of society and hold that to be the rule of the church. This I think causes the church to be less the church and more just another form of secular society with religious ideas.

For example, the numbers of church goers is getting smaller (as of 2025) and I am in a meeting with many church leaders. Things aren’t going as planned, numbers aren’t as great as we hope and, even though people are working with no sabbath nor rest…the resounding call is for us to all repent. In other words, the result (small numbers) must be the result of our laziness or lack of work. It is due to human error and can be corrected if people just put in more time and effort. Now, I don’t think anyone there would state things in such a way, but the resounding understanding of success and failure is not so much “faithfulness to God”, which is quite hard to measure, but numbers, results and quality. There is an assumption that if a person is faithful, God will give the numbers. If a person is a true Christian, God is bound to bless.

On the flip side, this means that churches with small numbers, churches that struggle in harsh environments…are ultimately not faithful and the pastors are just doing shoddy work. Failure means both shame before people and in a sense and shame before God. Perhaps a person gets fired from a job and its hard enough, but for a pastor who doesn’t “succeed”, there is no place to go since they are, in a sense, shoddy in their work for people and in their faith towards God. Or at least that is how things can be spun given the prior logic of effort and result. I think this makes the pastoral work of Japan all the more dangerous and even tragic. God is no longer loving, but becomes almost like an unforgiving and unrelenting boss. Sure there was grace given at the outset, but now He becomes the boss with arms folded and head shaking in disapproval…without tangible results, we then become the disappointment of God.

While I admire the passion, and perhaps humility in repentant attitudes…I worry if a person who repents when there is nothing to repent of…if that action is indirectly claiming that all things are up to the responsibility of the person. In a sense, we think that we are in control. Is there any room for God’s plan in this emphasis on works and results? He seems to be absent, or rather, only mechanically pouring out or withholding with result to the quality of our work. So then, are these attitudes humble? Or are we still hanging on to karma and causation found in Buddhism. Because in Japan, if something goes wrong somewhere, you can be sure that it is someone’s fault. Perhaps we have imported this into the church…and this does not help the church but hurts it.

Well, at least that is my hypothesis right now. But I might be coming from a Western perspective where Christianity has been the majority…and I simply haven’t known what it is like to be in the hard pressed situations where the Christian population is negligible. But one other consideration gives rise to caution within me against the sentiment I’ve been talking about. Japan has had historically low percentages of Christians…while other surrounding countries (Philippines, Korea and even China) have had much stronger numbers of Christians. Using the prior logic, then we would have to conclude that all other countries besides Japan have been more faithful and done longer and better work. But that isn’t true. There have been so many faithful pastors and Christians, even facing some of the fiercest persecution…so maybe we should reconsider some of these cause and effect attitudes and have a stronger sense of God’s centrality over the harvest. That might be the greatest step we can take…it might seem like a step back as we turn to relax rather than hunker down and sacrifice ourselves “for the kingdom”…but perhaps this step back is a step of faith and an admission that we cannot control God through our effort. (and again, it is hard to say, because perhaps this thought comes as a result of wanting to just “take it easy”…it would be good for others to give their insight.