On Saturdays we try to have a family day off together, so often on Friday nights I spend a lot of time looking through tourist information and what’s-on web sites trying to think of something interesting to do. If you look at the official Kyoto city tourist information web site, you will find that the number one most accessed page was (until the new aquarium opened) Kyo Power Spots. So what’s a “power spot”? From the same page: Read more about Is the church a "power spot"?

I always forget what goes where. Here’s a cheat sheet. Read more about Ten-Gai-Nai cheat sheet

I’ve just finished translating an interview between Mitsuo Fukuda and Hideo Ohashi about church multiplication and leadership. It has a few gems in it, so I’ve attached the whole thing as a PDF to this post. Here’s a couple of excerpts, but do read the whole thing: Read more about Church multiplication and leadership in Japan

OK, I just finished reading 文脈化教会の形成, the Japanese translation of Mitsuo Fukuda’s PhD Thesis “Developing a contextualized church as a bridge to Christianity in Japan”. It’s much easier to get hold of the Japanese translation, which is published as a book by Harvest Time Ministries, than the original thesis, which is unpublished and so you have to order at great expense from UMI. Read more about Contextualization in Japan

So I mentioned that church is on the whole passive. And myself and others have mentioned that we want to look at a different way of doing church - Simple Church, House Church, whatever you want to call it - which is more participatory. But what does more participatory church look like? Last year I went to a training session on a simple church methodology coming out of Japan, which I’ll call “Upwards, Outwards, Inwards”, and what they do there could well work over here as well. Read more about Upwards, Outwards, Inwards: Simple church from Japan

It’s Mitsuo Fukuda again:

Here are six sure ways to destroy a church.

1. Imitate the ways of a successful pastor.
2. Use his method of evangelism and pastoral ministry.
3. Teach the other pastor’s experience as a principle or dogma.
4. Announce that this is the only way.
5. Communicate that other ways are sinful.
6. Oppose those who don’t employ the “correct” way.

Read the whole thing. Read more about Six ways to destroy a church

I’m looking through “Mentoring Like Barnabas”, by Mitsuo Fukuda, which I think is something that every missionary to Japan should read. Well, that’s sort of why I’m translating it. Anyway, I came up with this nugget: Read more about The temptation to show off

It’s a bit of a shameful admission, but after five years of Japanese degree and then six years of private study, I’ve finally read my first book in Japanese from cover to cover unassisted. Read more about Church Counselling in Japan