Multiplication: the ultimate game-changer

For more than thirty years of ministry, I have wanted something that would help me in the grand task of making disciples in this land. It has been a long journey of procrastination. Well, maybe not procrastination but distraction—there were always many other things keeping me preoccupied. A lot of wonderful things for that matter. Then finally, about five years ago, I began to re-chart the course to the core of cores: What precisely is discipleship? And what should it look like in this country?

Focusing on discipleship in Japan

It’s common knowledge that Christendom in Japan is in crisis. Churches are not expanding but rather regressing. The new trend is fewer-churches-this-year-than-the-previous-year, and the forecast is that this trend will likely continue for years to come. Leaders are vanishing. The average pastor’s age is in the 70s, and half of the churches are on the brink of “no-pastor” status.

What is the reason for all this? I had my suspicions even 30 years ago, and, after decades of ministering in churches and making my share of mistakes (and some successes) in ministry training of all sorts, I came to a conclusion—Japan’s Christianity crisis is not because of lack of evangelism, a deficiency in the quality of evangelism, or even a lack of tools and methods of evangelism. It is deeper. I am convinced that the crisis of the church in Japan is the outcome of a dire lack of discipleship. Fortunately, in recent years there seems to be a lot of buzz about “discipleship” in Japan. Things look hopeful.

What is discipleship?

So what exactly is discipleship and how do you do it? Without clarity here, we end up busy doing a lot of great ministry but often miss the real core of everything. That was exactly my situation.

Although I had been deeply involved in discipleship since my University of Hawaii days, I was doing a lot of evangelism, teaching, healing of hearts, even mentoring, but not much discipling.

What I arrived at is that a disciple is someone who follows Christ, doing what Christ does. And in order for that to happen, we need disciplers—those who do as Christ did—to personally, systematically, and comprehensively guide others in the grasp of the Word, growth in character, and development in ministry skills. Intentionally cultivating disciples—not in a classroom, or a church, or workshop—but in a personal relationship.

After examining various guide material options, I couldn’t find anything particularly suitable for Japan. Not that there wasn’t great material; the issue seemed to be the fact that the material wasn’t made in Japan. If something was made in Japan, it seemed like it might have the capacity to maximize the amazing qualities of the Japanese for discipleship. I will mention just one quality.

Japanese loyalty

Two years ago, I stood at the memorial at Nishizaka in Nagasaki. This hillside is the site where the 26 martyrs were crucified. Most of them had been arrested in Kyoto nearly 700 km (430 miles) away and, with a portion of their left ears cut off to humiliate them, they were marched for a month in the winter cold behind a placard that told of their imminent crucifixion in Nagasaki.¹

Of the 26, three were mere boys. Anthony (his Christian name) was only thirteen. Upon arriving at Nishizaka, the magistrate did not want to crucify children and gave Anthony the opportunity to choose a less gruesome death. But Anthony replied that since Jesus died on a cross for him, he could not refuse to do the same. So, in February of 1597, along with 25 others, Anthony was crucified. From the cross, the boy sang praises to God out of the Psalms before a crowd of 4,000 until a guard speared him in the side. If discipleship is doing what the Master does, then Anthony is a matchless example of what a disciple looks like. And Anthony was a Japanese boy.²

Anthony’s is only one story. There are countless thousands more. During Japan’s holocaust against Christians, Japanese followers of Jesus wrote the book on discipleship with their own blood even before America was a country. Thus, to import a discipleship plan from North America, or anywhere else for that matter, would tragically leave out the faithful journeys of many and the amazing connections that Japan has had to the God of the Bible.

History has proved that when it comes to loyalty, the Japanese are platinum grade: kamikaze, seppuku, and even the 442nd (a US army regiment mainly made up of Japanese Americans in WW2).³ Just imagine when believers in Jesus here say, “I will follow you all the way, Jesus. I will go the distance.” Doubtless, it will shake the world.

The importance of discipleship

Just how important is discipleship? Jesus knew how effective discipleship was for impacting the world. True discipleship incorporates multiplication. Let’s make the comparison of multiplication vs. addition in growing the church.

Addition is one person going out and sharing the gospel day after day. Now say he or she leads one person to Christ every single day of that year. If they haven’t burned out, they would see 365 salvations. Nice!

Now instead think of multiplication. Say someone disciples two people during one year (not twelve, just two). In that year, he or she would have easily led two people to Christ. Not so impressive. But the next year, those two people each disciple two other people (seems doable, right?), and those people each lead one to Christ. Now imagine both the addition-focus side and multiplication-focus side go on for some years. For a while, discipleship by multiplication lags way behind. Then things make a radical shift.

After fifteen years, the addition side has seen 5,475 salvations, but the multiplication side has seen around 65,000 salvations. At the 20-year mark, addition sees 7,300 salvations, but multiplication is now over two million saved. Remember, this all started with someone discipling only two people and helping them each disciple two—totally the recipe for revolution.

So why don’t we see these kind of results? Probably two simple reasons. First, we rarely really disciple people. Second, the people we disciple don’t disciple people. Bottom line, they drop the baton.

It has taken years, but finally we have finalized a discipleship series that seeks to address these issues effectively. GospelVenture aims to make it easier to disciple people and harder to drop the baton. And now it is finally available.

Do you want to see real impact in Japan? We don’t so much need more Bibles, videos, books, or tracts. More seminars or outreach campaigns aren’t needed either. We really need more disciples, those who will disciple others and so on—a handful of people who do all they can to initiate and perpetuate multiplication through discipleship may be all this country needs. It’s very doable. It’s that simple. It’s that hopeful.

See everything at www.newdaytoday.net.

1. Paoline Laudate, “History of the Catholic Church in Japan” (Japanese website), https://www.pauline.or.jp/historyofchurches/history03.php (accessed August 26, 2019).
2. “Twenty-six martyrs museum home page”, http://www.26martyrs.com/ (accessed August 26, 2019).
3. “What was the 442nd Regimental Combat Team?” 442nd Regimental Combat Team, http://www.the442.org (accessed August 26, 2019).