In Japan, statistics show that 99 percent of the population does not have a relationship with Christ. Those statistics represent people — living, breathing image-bearers of God whom Jesus Christ died to save. While the task of reaching them with the gospel seems daunting, God is stirring the church in Japan to reach the nation. Even now, churches and missionaries in Japan are praying and planning for gospel opportunities as the country opens its doors to host the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
What might happen if churches around the world committed to daily prayer for the churches, missionaries and people of Japan between now and the end of the Olympics?
With its complex nature of culture, history and former geographical isolation, Japan has been hard to reach with the gospel. Steeped in ancient traditions of Buddhism and Shintoism, religion in Japan is a cultural identity more than a personal reality. The concept of a collective identity through religious history has made for slow progress in reaching the hearts of Japanese people.
Today in Japan, however, winds of awakening are beginning to blow. Prayer strategy leaders in Japan long to see the nation transformed by the hope of Jesus, and they’ve committed to pray daily for the nation. There is excitement and enthusiasm for what they see God doing. Rather than yielding to the darkness, they are invigorated by the light of the gospel.
The signs point to a growing spiritual awakening in Japan. Across Japan, Southern Baptists are hearing reports of God doing amazing things that offer hope of what may come:
A church in the heart of a bustling shopping and social hub in Tokyo has been languishing. This church’s leaders wanted to know why Tokyo Baptist Church was healthy and growing. When they approached the church for answers, God opened the door for the leaders to speak on the importance of standing on the authority of Scripture and yielding to the lordship of Christ. Through ongoing discipleship efforts and prayer, this church could soon be revitalized and play a key role in reaching the city.
A healthy church near Yokohama has been holding festivals with remarkable results. The festivals allow local residents to meet Japanese Christians and see the joy they have found in Jesus. This has prompted people to visit the church following the festivals to learn more about what they have seen and heard. The pastor of the church is praying for God to reach 10 million Japanese people by 2024.
Tokyo’s Olympic Rings signify the games to be held there in 2020. IMB missionaries and Southern Baptist volunteers are partnering with Japanese Christians during these sporting events to spread the good news. (IMB photo)
Japanese people are choosing to listen to and believe the gospel as it is proclaimed during international sporting events, at ongoing festivals and through personal relationships. Additionally, Japanese business people are learning from Christian business leaders how faith and business can intersect.
Southern Baptist churches in the United States have already been in strategic prayer and planning with IMB personnel in Japan to learn how they can collaborate to be as effective as possible in reaching the nation. The statistics are not in our favor, but we can still believe that this supposed missionary graveyard will rattle to life like the dry bones in Ezekiel and that God will raise a vast army to proclaim His truth — not only across Japan, but around the world.
Approximately 65 South Carolina Baptists already are planning to be among the volunteers assisting Japanese churches and International Mission Board personnel in various outreach ministries during the Summer Olympic Games.
Five out of six participants on a team representing Greenville Association are from Lee Road Baptist Church in Taylors. Lee Road’s missions strategist, Bryan Pittman, will lead the team. The association’s churches are hoping to send at least eight people to Japan.
Brushy Creek Baptist Church in Taylors also is among several South Carolina churches forming ministry teams to send to Tokyo.
Missions and adult recovery minister Jim Russell and his wife, Dale, served as IMB missionaries in Japan for 12 years. Since returning to the United States in 1998, they have taken 10 teams back to Japan. So when Russell heard about the South Carolina Baptist Convention’s plan to do Olympic outreach in Tokyo, it grabbed his attention.
Eight members of Brushy Creek, including the Russells, are planning to go this summer. The team will be assisting IMB personnel in doing various outreach activities around a venue where music and messages will be shared in a central Olympic location. One difference in this Olympic outreach from others in the past is that the team’s focus will be on the Japanese people, rather than on the internationals who will be there — and that excites Russell, because Japan is the second-largest unreached people group in the world. His hope is that this effort will become the start of a multi-year partnership between SCBC churches and Japan.
More South Carolina Baptists should be involved in Olympic outreach because of the opportunity to spread the gospel in a hard-to-reach place. Ultimately, the hope is that through Japan, other doors will open to get the gospel into other more difficult-to-reach places across Asia.
We could very well be on the brink of a spiritual awakening in Japan. Let us commit to being a church defined by prayer and obedience to the Great Commission with the blessed hope that an awakening will sweep across the world in our time.
For resources to help you pray for Japan, order IMB’s prayer guide for Japan and visit the Prayer page of IMB’s Olympic ministry website. To find out how you can serve with IMB during the 2020 Olympics, visit the Serve page.
— Bryan Pittman is the family pastor and missions strategy leader at Lee Road Baptist Church in Taylors. This article first appeared on the International Mission Board’s website, imb.org. With additional reporting by The Baptist Courier.