Just as Japanese companies usually have a staff get-away once a year, in a nice hotel often complete with onsen (communal bath of naturally hot spring water popular in Japan as a way of relaxation), so does our own group of churches!

April 1-3 2008 saw the annual retreat of our Japanese pastors. As usual, the missionaries were also invited to join.

There are now 12 churches planted by WEC missionaries and now under Japanese leadership. These are known as SFDD churches. (SFDD is a translation of WEC into Japanese.) There are a further four churches under WEC leadership. As well as monthly meetings of small groups of leaders from the various churches, the retreat is the one time in the year when a bigger gathering can take place. It is also the time that the missionary kids get to play with the Japanese pastors’ children, which is fun to watch!

 

The opening meeting, led by Hong Yun Cheon and Keiko Ogami included prayer for the different nationalities and mission fields represented in the room - Australia, Germany, the UK, Singapore, South Korea, New Zealand, Mongolia and of course Japan. We also sang in all of those languages!

 

This year saw new missionary Simon Cozens giving a three-hour seminar on leadership. Simon’s Japanese came up to scratch, and his in-depth studies on leadership while at All Nations Christian College in the UK, as well as his past career working as a computer programmer and editor for a number of companies, provided a great help. He spoke about what a leader isn’t (such as superman!) as well as guiding us through a number of definitions of what leadership is from across the world. Jesus Christ was promoted as our example. In small groups, with this information at hand, we came up with definitions of the type of leadership we want in our own group of churches.

 

 

The final day saw SFDD newest worker Miho Komori (shown in picture, praying) introducing her former Japanese Bible college lecturer Kaori Mukai, who led a session on leading worship. Through imaginative group skits, we saw how God is a parent, who delights to bless us as we come into his very presence in worship; and how the worship leader is like a butler, leading God’s people to their master. Innovative song projection programme ‘Songbee’ was used to project the songs in worship. This a resource produced within our team of workers, for Japanese or bilingual (English:Japanese) worship songs, and is open for use by others on request.

 

It was good to share communion together in a farewell service led by Pastor Takahashi, and where Pastor Tanaka preached from John 3: Jesus teaching Nicodemus. 

 

There was also time in the program to relax – in the onsen, with the kids in the sports hall, talking in shared bedrooms about how things are going in our lives.

 

We give thanks for safe travel to the retreat location – a hotel run by the Christian VIP businessman’s club, in Hyogo prefecture – and for the fellowship enjoyed. We pray that our churches will promote people into leadership God’s way, and have confidence to come into the presence of God in worship.