UNconnecting: engaging Japanese culture UNusually

My wife, Diane, and I first started ministry in Japan in 1990. Over the past thirty-two years we have been involved in many aspects of church planting through traditional means of English classes, cooking classes, craft classes, special events, outreaches, discipleship, Bible studies, speaking, and teaching. We have seen fruit and enjoyed each of these avenues in serving God and others.

In general, our experiences have shown us that Japan is in a hurry. People are busy and lead highly scheduled lives. Personal, family, and company schedules are stressful and hard to keep up with. Japanese people also take themselves very seriously. There is little tolerance for imperfection.

A zero-defect policy is great for making cars, but it doesn’t apply well to making healthy lives or relating to others on a daily basis. Fear of failure, fear of showing weakness, and fear of being ostracized strongly motivate people to perform well and not to laugh about themselves.

Missions methodology is based on biblical principles that can help guide and lead in church planting. We have benefited immensely from the experiences and input of other missionaries, authors, pastors, and scholars. Reading missions biographies, experiencing team ministry, attending the Church Planting Institute conferences and involvement with City-to-City Japan continue to be very formative for us. Some of the guiding principles that have helped us the most are being gospel centered, movement oriented, pursuing incarnational ministry, and putting Japanese in touch with God’s Word and God’s people.

Our lives continue to be a wonderful adventure and journey toward the heart of God. In these latter years of ministry, we are deepening our understanding of God’s character and how he has made us, gifted us, and led us to where we are now. Three areas in particular have become very relevant to us at this point in our lives as we seek to engage with Japanese people: time, encounters, and laughter.

UNhurried time

Unhurried time means having an attitude and being in a setting where I can relax my heart and my mind and be filled with faith expectancy. Jesus never seemed to be in a hurry. I have intentionally prayed to have peace about what I might or might not get accomplished and to see what God has for this time. When others in the community want to interact with us, having time free to accept their invitations has brought new ideas, thoughts, and plans to share further time together. It does take sacrifice. To keep my time free for people, I find myself having to take care of routine responsibilities early in the morning or late at night.

But my joy is the freedom of the day where I can be present in the moment and see who God brings my way or with whom I can visit. As I engage with others in conversation at the gallery and in the community, sometimes my iWatch will indicate a text or message. I have learned not to look at my watch, because as soon as I do, the person apologizes and says, “Well, I must be going. I am sorry for taking up so much of your time.” It shows me how conscious the culture is about time and not being a “bother.” To be able to give full attention and unhurried time has provided relaxed opportunities for others to share what is on their heart and mind. I am not always able to keep a free schedule like this, and I acknowledge that there are factors that are outside of our control. But my desire is to create as much unhurried time as I can.

UNscheduled encounters

Unscheduled encounters happen where there are natural opportunities for people to interact and meet one another. People came to Jesus and met him where he was. For me, this has been our gallery and studio. When I am working at the studio, if I want to meet people, I just open the sliding doors that open out onto the street. I thank God for the exact placement of our studio on the first floor. People are able to easily see what I’m doing or creating, and their curiosity is piqued. Surprisingly, once people enter our studio workspace, if they seem interested, I am able to give them a tour of our whole facility. Our studio is an old two-story apartment that we have prepared for artists to use and for future artist residencies. I have had total strangers enter the living room, kitchen, storage room, and washroom, and the conversations have helped build and deepen relationships.

Art also invites questions. So the UNusual space we have at the gallery and studio are filled with objects, paintings, and sculptures that invite questions. Beauty is one of the love languages of Japan. Having facilities on the first floor that open naturally to foot traffic is a blessing. However, wherever God has placed us, we can think creatively about potential opportunities for meeting people in unscheduled ways as we become familiar with the natural rhythms and flow of those in our area.

As I meet people, sometimes they will spontaneously say, “Let’s get a cup of coffee” or “Let’s have lunch together.” Those opportunities have been some of the most personal times of talking about faith and life. In one conversation at a coffee shop, we were talking about heaven and hell and I forgot the exact word for the Buddhist hell that was being discussed. A person sitting in the booth next to us politely shared the word! The conversation was going much farther than our table. These conversations would never happen if I didn’t have the opportunity to accept the unscheduled invitations and encounters.

We are located in Seto City, a city in decline that is seeking renewal. It is predominately a homogenous area built around the arts of pottery and ceramics. The population is older. There are many younger people starting new business ventures in the community because of the predominance of empty and abandoned buildings. When we moved here, we wanted to be where people naturally walk by. It is also a commuter city. People commute into downtown Nagoya from the nearby train station. I am grateful to God for the unscheduled times with people in our community, encountering others naturally where they live as they are walking to work and as they are traveling to Nagoya to enter a very scheduled regimen. We are doing life together.

UNserious laughter

It’s hard for me to imagine Jesus not sharing times of laughter with his disciples and others he knew. For me, laughter has been a pathway to deeper sharing in conversations. Laughter opens the heart. A couple who were skilled in drama spoke at a number of gatherings I attended through the years. They had a keen sense of humor, making us laugh at both our common experiences and ourselves. Sometimes these dramas focused on “elephant in the room” topics that no one wanted to admit or talk about but we all knew were a reality. Laughter helped us admit the challenges and be vulnerable because we were in a safe space. Then, with open hearts, we were able to receive the truths more openly. Shared laughter brought us to a point of connection and understanding. It engaged our emotions and our hearts as well as our experiences and intellect.

In a recent conversation with a fellow missionary, he mentioned that it was the court jester with his humor and creativity who had the freedom to tell the king anything without being executed! Of course, it is a different historical cultural context and situation, but I thought the role of creativity and humor and the disarming nature of laughter was interesting when permitted and appropriate.

We occasionally watch Japanese dramas and comedy shows that seem to acknowledge the seriousness of their culture. These shows allow a collective laugh over what Japanese people experience. The laughter provides a gracious attitude that helps present challenges in an open way that allows discussion and sharing more deeply.

During one of our exhibitions, guests were asked to write a note about something they wanted to run away from and to post that note on the wall (shown to the right). One visitor posted, “I want to run away from my cell phone.” As the exhibition progressed, several visitors posted the same comment on the gallery wall! When we pointed out these comments to other visitors, this common theme made us laugh. This experience also gave us opportunity to talk together more seriously about the root causes behind the comments, how our lives are affected, and what we are hoping for.

These are things that we are finding work for us right now. We are finding a lot of joy in the process. Living our lives with a trajectory toward God, enjoying these moments of UNhurried time, UNscheduled encounters, and UNserious laughter means others are joining us in this direction toward God. We are eager to see what God has planned for continued engaging, networking, training, and equipping. Our present experiences and practices are helping us see ways to make it easier for others to enter into what God is doing.

Photo submitted by author