A Daily Devotional Thought to Members and Non-Christian Friends – May 22
I send out a daily devotional thought to members and non-Christian friends. First, I started sending just a few Bible verses several years ago. At the beginning of 2020, one of the members made a request that I give them a simple explanation of the text and my comments on its applications. This has been working very well for me and them. They understand what the Bible text means and how to apply it to themselves. It also gives me a short devotional time with members and friends besides my personal one. Probably I should’ve done this long ago, but I wasn’t sure how this kind of thing would be accepted by them.
Our OnLine Service – May 22
The American congregation has not met at the church building since March. The Japanese congregation also stopped meeting, but the Japanese congregation has an online service that most of the members are able to participate in.
The by-product of this online service is that I started examining and listening to my own lessons. I also upload it on YouTube. I hope we will continue the use of Youtube in order to reach out to someone out there.
An article on singing in the worship service – May 22
The use of musical instruments in the service is a thorny issue for Japanese Christians. It pops up occasionally among Japanese preachers.
I have written an article on the congregational singing on our church website. The title is “A-Cappella is the Best Way of Singing in the Worship Service.”
I will continue bringing up this issue to try to encourage even other Japanese preachers. I think there is a great pressure some Japanese preachers feel when they get together with denominational preachers. “Why not? Don’t be legalistic. You are losing great opportunities to reach out to people.” I have often heard these comments from both young and old Japanese Christians. This is the time I need to clearly express why we sing A-Cappella. I believe it is the best way. I don’t and won’t cut down those people who favor the use of instruments.