Retreat Reflections / Japanese Churches

Got back from the retreat about 24 hours ago.  I got a lot more out of it than I thought I would.  The speaker was really good.  He talks like R.C. Sproul… which is kind of strange for a Korean guy.  Also, I got a chance to jam with Sam in leading praise.  I forgot how much I loved playing with that guy.  He made it really fun.  Also I loved the jam session with my 6-string brothers Sam, Dokko, and Ki.  You guys are the best.  This morning (Sunday) was really stressful because half of our equipment was gone and Ki and Edmund came back really late from the retreat.  But God was good and it went relatively well – considering.

But I definitely like the jam sessions more than playing in front of people.  I know the goal in leading praise is to “disappear” but it’s hard when you feel like you’re messing up all the time (i.e. Forever God is with us…).  I’d rather just not even care if I have the right tempo or notes or if I’m singing in key.  It may seem undisciplined and unpolished, but it’s how I praise.  Maybe someday I’ll be good enough to not make mistakes and still be able to “let loose,” but until then I have to choose one or the other… and in order to keep people from stumbling from my lack of skill, I have to choose to bottle my enthusiasm to hit the right notes and to sing the right words.  I can ghetto praise with my brothers later…

I don’t know if I’m making any sense right now because I’m working on about 8 total hours of sleep since Friday.. Maybe I should get some sleep… it’s what… almost 3AM?

Anecdote time…

Many of you know I was in Japan for a few months right after college intensely studying the language and culture.  It really did open my eyes to a lot of things that I wasn’t exposed to.  On one particular trek to some little town near Nikko I came upon a little stone church – complete with a cross and bell tower and steeple.  It wasn’t large, but in comparison to the town it was a decent size.

I looked around for any sort of notice when service times were or anything like that in case there was something coming up later that day.  I found none.  My curiosity growing, I asked someone, who seemed to be a local, about the church.  She told me that people get married in that church.  So thinking I misunderstood her or she misunderstood me, I tried clarifying that I was asking about the congregation (for which I had NO idea what the Japanese word was) of the church.  She kept insisting that people get married in that church.  After a couple more minutes, I just smiled, pretended that I understood completely and thanked her for her time.  Later I found out that I was the one who was misunderstanding.  What she said was absolutely and wholly true.  Someone explained to me later that most likely it was a “wedding church” meaning that it was really only there for show and for people who wanted a “western wedding” complete with a pseudo-minister and the like, and that likely during the rest of the time it probably just lay completely empty.  I was really saddened by this.  I thought to myself that in this country where less than 1% of the population is Christian, they like the ceremony and  pomp and outward appearances of Christianity, but disliked the very meat of Christianity itself.  As they would say… “It tastes too much like butter”.  There is another saying that the Japanese are “born Shinto and die Buddhist.”  If you want, I can explain those last two things to you in person.

But here’s the dig… how are we here in this country so much different?  In many ways we are not.  We wear Christianity like a parka when it rains and take it off when it’s sunny.  Sometimes it rains more and we depend on the parka more, but really, we’d rather it not interfere so much with our normal lives.  How backwards is that?

As an aside, that statistic is true about less than 1% of Japanese being Christian.  But what’s even sadder is that just across the Sea of Japan (maybe a 3-4 hour ferry ride) is a country which sends more missionaries per capita than any other in the world and in which approximately 1/3 of its population is Christian.  So not to mention any names, but the country’s name rhymes with the word “Dorea”.  These stats are to our shame.  And don’t give me any of this nonsense about WWII and those abuses because my own aunt was tortured and blinded in their prison camps and she loved them and wanted them to know Christ more than anyone else I know.  Besides, Christ – perfect and sinless in every way – died for his enemies.  Most of the people involved in WWII are long dead.  And don’t give me any of this nonsense in that they are resistant to change and are unredeemable.  You’re cheapening the power of Grace.  We are not to take the lamp into the room full of crystal chandeliers.  It is in the darkness where the light is most needed.  To add to the sense of urgency… do you know what the fastest growing western religion is in Japan?  Jehovah’s Witnesses.  It’s spreading like a weed.

Okay… need… sleep…