Flyers with Newspapers
When I think about the speed of how the gospel is spread in Japan, I am often reminded of the parable of the wedding banquet (Matt. 22:1-14). Maybe we should more openly invite people to the church, so we have decided to put out large number of flyers (at least 50000) with news papers in the surrounding areas. This is expensive, but it is something we have to do in order to spread the gospel. We will continue inviting anybody. I mean anybody who wants to know about Christ, anybody who is interested in church, anybody who is interested in the Bible or religion, anybody who is seeking the meaning and purpose in life, even people who are not so excited about Christianity and even people hostile to Christianity. We have to seek out those people and encourage them to come to open church. Yes, we are an open church and welcome anybody. I would like us to be kind of church which people feel free to come and go. I pray some of them will stay and come to have genuine interest in Christ.
Schedule in Class and Preaching
I have been speaking from the Gospel of Matthew since December 2013 and am supposed to finish it in March 2016. After that I will speak from Isaiah. I alternate the NT books with the OT books. In our class I always pick out a book which will help the church members to grow most effectively. Since December 2014 I have been teaching “the foundation of Christian faith.” The topics are the Bible as the Word of God, God His nature, Jesus Christ, the plan of salvation, the Lord’s Supper, Christian growth and so forth. I am supposed to finish this class in June and will start teaching the book of Hebrews in July. None of the members have studied it in depth, so I hope it will help them understand the message of the Bible more clearly.