Phillipans 2:12-18

Written for  THE CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN

Makihiko Arase

Japan Presbytery celebrated the 50th anniversary in the year 2000. The highlight of the year was the three day special convention in August. More than 350 Cumberland Presbyterians got together at a hotel standing at the foot of Mount Fuji. Along with Dr. Thomas Campbell from the US and Dr. Carver Yu from Hong Kong, Rev. Hidekazu Yoshizumi was invited to this event as a guest speaker. He is a retired minister of United Church of Christ in Japan and former principal of Osaka Jogakuin Girls’ School, which was originated as Wilmina Girls’ School by Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He is a historian well versed in the Cumberland Presbyterian missions in the western Japan of the late 19th century. His lecture was inspiring as well as informative. And it reminded me of the great missionary spirit of Revs. J.B. and A.D. Hail. I am convinced that we , the “frontier church” in the 21st century, should reconfirm and inherit that legacy.

One of the distinctions in the early Cumberland missionaries is that they were extraordinarily rural oriented. At that time, missionaries of other denominations tended to live and work in the major cities such as Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, Osaka or Kobe. There was a good reason for the concentration. Eager and progressive people came to gather in those cities to study, to absorb new Western thoughts and to engage in new business. From the viewpoint of “mission strategy”, staying in the urban area was a rational choice. By and large, Christian influence permeated mainly through the intellectuals or the upper-middle class of the urban society.
Cumberland Presbyterians went a different way. Although our missionaries placed their head quarter in Osaka and also built some churches and a school in this city of strong economy, their primary concern was not in developing the urban ministry, but in getting further into rural areas where no missionaries had ever been. Even when their ability to speak Japanese was very poor, they already started off their rural evangelism. They set many preaching points in the countryside. It was a hard job. Only few of them developed to the point to be organized as church. Obviously, their mission endeavor was more laborious than efficient. We need to imagine that when the Hail brothers began preaching circuits around Wakayama in the 1880’s, there was no way of transportation except for river boat, jinrikisha(rickshaw),and palanquin. They had no horse while itinerary preachers on the American frontier took advantage of horses and wagons. It took five or six days to get to Shingu, three fourths of the whole journey on foot, when the Hails began a mission there. In most of the towns and villages, they were the very first persons to bring the gospel.
A Japanese man, who worked with A.D. Hail and later became a minister, admired him in this way. “If you consider by human standards, Doctor Hail’s evangelism is an unsuccessful one. None of his mission places are very promising. But Dr. Hail is a person who picks up what others abandon. He is a great man who shows the true spirit of Christ because he chose to become a shepherd for one lost sheep rather than to be a big name by gathering ninety nine.

Making a research in the early Cumberland Presbyterian missions, I have come to think that there was a clear call to Inaka Dendo in the core of their ministry. Inaka” is a rather colloquial Japanese word which means “the country”. Dendo is evangelism. A.D. Hail often used the concept when he talked about Japan mission. Let me quote a little bit from what he spoke at a national Christian conference.
“Inaka Dendo is an obligation and an urgent matter. Practically speaking, Inaka means a place where evanglism has been relatively undone. Inaka Dendo is a movement that makes the gospel prevail in all the countries of our nation. What it demands us most is to get started immediately. It urges us to bring the flame of evangelism that has already been raised in the center with inspiration into the countryside immediately... I appeal this in order to prevent the church from becoming too defensive. Starting Inaka Dendo immediately is the responsibility we bear to Japan.”
He was so convinced of the urgency of rural evangelism that he even criticized other missionaries and local pastors who tended to concentrate in urban areas. He was really a man of burning missionary zeal.
Let us pay attention to his unique interpretation of the term, Inaka. Unlike general usage, it is not demographic or geographical concept. Whether a particular community is Inaka or not is not defined by its population, maturity in industry or civilization. Inaka is a place where people cannot hear the gospel proclaimed. It’s where the good news has not become good news for people. Thus Inaka Dendo is not merely rural evangelism. The idea is more holistic, including multiple effort to reach out to the neglected, the forgotten and the marginalized, in our contemporary terminology.
The Cumberland Presbyterian Mission put a great emphasis on women’s work. They founded a girls’ school and a Bible school for women. They made every effort to reach out to housewives who were more or less stuck inside home. Responding to Hail’s appeal for women workers, Woman’s Board of Missions was organized in America and it sent excellent workers. Why they tried so hard to reach out especially to women? Not simply because they were the half of the population. They were the neglected, oppressed and deprived half. There were problems of concubine, poor farmers selling daughters as prostitute. Women in general rarely had a chance to receive education. The missionaries felt it duty to treat the women with person with integrity and liberate them.

Let me use one more example. A.D. Hail often visited a leper hospital and helped the ministy to the lepers. When a young Japanese minister made up his mind to begin the leper mission, every colleague was against his plan, because it was very difficult financially for small and weak Japanese churches to support such a work. Hail was the only person to encourage him to go forward, pledging support. From 1912 through 1923, Hail baptized 202 people at the hospital that was completely alienated by the society. On the day two weeks before his death, the old American preacher felt a chill badly and collapsed in the morning. But he would not cancel his appointment to visit the hospital and baptized two people. That was his last service in this world.

All those ministries, focused on the unreached and forgotten people, were not “successful” or “thriving” work by human standards. They chose more difficult way to go. Because they believed that Christ commanded them to go forward to serve where people are deprived, hurt and unreached. For me, their direction is clearly a reflection of Jesus’ ministry. Inaka Dendo is not merely something in the past. Not something placed in the archives. It’s something we should act out. It’s our mission. It’s motivated and empowered by the good news of Jesus Christ which pushes out every Christian to go to the frontier to let every citizen of the world to hear and experience the love of God.
One of the virtues I have found and appreciate in American culture is that Americans take every chance to honor a person who is devoted to selfless service for the good cause and make a great contribution to society. I think Japanese people are not good at honoring and commending others. Japanese need to learn Americans sophisticated ways of expressing respect. But at the same time, we all have to remember that there are important jobs that are never paid attention, complemented, much less awarded. There are secret works that only God watches. And there are many things that seem to be done in vain. Many services of love that would not become “successful” or “effective” soon. The real value of those services may become visible after the service person dies. It’s tough. But somebody has got to do it. And we are called to such a service.

Listen to what Paul said. “Do everything without complaining or arguing.”
Why did Paul have to say such a thing to the church folks in Philippi? Because the early Christians felt like complaining and arguing and possibly did complain and argue as we do today. Because Paul had to do many seemingly vain, fruitless missions that made him grumbling and questioning. Thus, “Do all the things without murmuring and disputing.”
Can we really do it? And why we’ve got to do it? The Bible provides us with powerful reason and encouragement. We don’t have to grumble because it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
If God is the one who caused me to try this challenging work, this seemingly troublesome service, that may need endurance, then, why it will be in vain? You can give yourself to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is never in vain.

I’d like you to remember what the Preacher says in Ecclesiastes.
“Cast your bread upon the waters.” What a crazy word is this! Yet he is telling the truth. He teaches us, “Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.”
The American born myth, “free competition in free market will make people happy”, is now prevailing the world. In such a world like this, we are violently tempted by “success” and “production efficiency”. We easily tend to choose an easy and conspicuous way. But it isn’t necessarily the way Christ wants us to walk on. We need to stop and examine ourselves carefully. And again I want to confirm this simple truth. Nothing will be in vain if you labor in Jesus Christ. Even the smallest humble service will be used for the glory of God, because of Christ who already destroyed nihilism in the cross. Even when you look like worthless, the truth is that you shine like stars in the world. So, let us confess with the apostle Paul and with A.D. Hail, J.B. Hail and all the known and unknown Cumberland workers that perspired in Japanese soil, “I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not in vain or labor in vain.”

Makihiko Arase
Is Pastor of Megumi CP Church in Tokyo, Japan.
He serves the presbytery as the stated clerk.
He is also the chairperson of the Committee on Book of Worship.
He studied at Memphis Theological Seminary in 1991-92.
He lives with his wife Yumi and two children, Ken and Manna.