By the strong promptings of the Holy Spirit, the church in Japan is beginning to move forward. As if going along with the movement of the Holy Spirit, after five years since his last visit, General Conference president Elder Ted Wilson and his wife, Nancy Wilson, came to Japan from March 10 to 14, 2016.
On March 12, about 1,100 church members gathered for the special worship service at the Makuhari International Training Center in Chiba. The title of the sermon was “Build the Church of God! Jesus Is Coming!”
As Elder Wilson preached from Nehemiah chapter 6, he appealed to the congregation saying, “We are living in the last days of Earth`s history. Please build the church of God through the power of the Holy Spirit.” After the sermon, the congregation paired up in groups and prayed as they dedicated themselves for a new beginning.
We opened the afternoon service with a special welcome message by Jairyong Lee, president of the Northern Asia-Pacific Division (NSD), and special music selections by more than one hundred Hiroshima Saniku High School choir members and graduates.
In the afternoon, we were introduced to the following upcoming projects: new youth evangelism project called “Gideon 300,” the Tokai International Evangelism Center, and the Youth Rush Japan project. Nancy Wilson also made special appeals to the Japanese women in the congregation.
During the afternoon service, in between each segment of the program, the newly formed Media Publishing Department promoted various books, media, and the Hope Channel Japan website with much creativity and thought.
President Shimada and the GC leaders (Ted Wilson, G. T. Ng, and Michael Ryan) discussed the work of evangelism in Japan. As evangelism work in the world includes evangelism work in Japan, the GC leaders will earnestly pray and support the evangelistic work in Japan. Total Member Involvement (TMI) was emphasized multiple times throughout the day, with an appeal that every church member in Japan must be involved in evangelism work.
On this weekend, the All Japan Literature Evangelism Rally and the All Japan Youth Conference were held simultaneously at their respected locations. On Friday night, more than 200 young people attended the special worship service at the Tokyo Central Church in Harajuku to hear Ted Wilson preach a special message.
One of the reasons Elder Wilson and his wife came to Japan was to discuss with the leaders in Japan the evangelistic campaign scheduled for May 2018. On Friday, March 11, the JUC evangelism committee members gathered for a special meeting. On Sunday, March 13, the JUC board members had very profitable discussions about evangelism.
Elder Wilson said, “The Lord is showing special interest to big city evangelism. More than half the world’s population lives in the cities. Therefore we must follow ‘Christ’s Method’ and reach out to people. In the big cities, health evangelism is especially effective. Every Seventh-day Adventist must have compassion and be involved in this work. Even in Tokyo, the harvest is great, but the laborers are few. The big agenda for us is to figure out how to implement Total Member Involvement. Please figure out how to implement Total Member Involvement in Japan.”
After the discussion, we came to the conclusion that the 2018 evangelistic campaigns will be to harvest and close people on making decisions. Before the harvest, we must organize prayer ministries, small group ministries, emphasize health evangelism, use media ministry, and work together with the institutions to cultivate the harvest.
“For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). Please continue to pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to move strongly in Japan.
You can watch the video of the special worship service at the Hope Channel Japan Church Channel Website. http://www.hopechannel.jp/church-channel/
– Written by Norihiko Hanada, JUC Communication Director