reachingtokyo

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~hw8m-mrkm/home_en.html
this a link if you want more stuff written my Kanzo Uchimura- please be aware some of the full meaning and content gets lost in the translation.

please read the previous posts about churchless faith, kanzo uchimura and the about Him introducing himself

This is from a guy named
Alan Jamieson should feed the fire a bit. This is a real issue read more at:

What makes people stop attending church and what happens to their faith after they have left?

As I approached the front door of the first of over a hundred church leavers I would interview, I thought I knew what happened to the Christian faith of those who no longer went to church.

I could easily understand why people choose to leave the church, I'd watched others leaving; and had contemplated shifting out myself on more than one occasion. Part of what held me in was the belief that leaving the church was inevitably the first step to a dwindling faith - the ultimate Christian disgrace - 'backsliding'.
http://www.reality.org.nz/articles/33/33-jamieson.html

Two and a half hours later I left by the same front door somewhat bewildered. The couple I had just met didn't fit my expectations. They had left their eldership role in a growing Pentecostal church nearly five years previously, yet their faith had obviously continued to develop, their understanding of God at work in their lives was undoubtedly continuing, and they were involved in their community as an outworking of their faith.

I was intrigued and somewhat mystified. My plans to conduct a quick study of half a dozen or so church leavers, which would confirm my prejudices, were in disarray. In fact the study grew into a four year project involving 162 interviews with both church leavers and leaders in Evangelical Pentecostal and Charismatic churches ( a group which I refer to as EPC churches).

The people I tracked were predominately in their 30s and 40s. They had made Christian commitments (as well as commitments to their respective churches) as adults (over the age of 18 years) and had been actively involved in their churches for an average of 15.8 years.

To try and sum up the faith journies of 108 people spread from Dunedin to Auckland (with a few Australians thrown in) isn't easy. Each person's journey was in fact quite distinctive with its own twists and turns, but what I did find was that those church leavers I interviewed fell into five clear groups.

"let us not give up meeting together,as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another- and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Heb10:25

whats the point? I am not advocating Christians stop meeting together or anarchy against the church- If we are to meet together what will we do? How often should we meet? Are we wasting peoples time? Sometimes people are told to be "in God's House whenever the doors are open"- Ill be blunt- utter nonsense. Our hearts are His temple. What is the purpose of meeting together at all? To encourage each other, according to this verse. {disclaimer- it could mean other things as well but I cannot bore you with all those things- example- to praise God corporately}

So when have you been most encouraged by other believers? when they agree with you? when they challenge you? when they think at all? Where was this encouraging done? For me it was usually in a more social setting like over coffee or in someones studio space,at work, or on the car ride home from church. Sometimes even in church, maybe watching someone worship. My point we have so many meetings and services and are people really encouraging each other in that setting? They are lonely depressed, feeling guilty, etc. Why?

I believe the church- by and large- has become a welfare state- too many average sermons because the pastor has to give a sermon every week (why?). Too many people who got to church looking to get fed because noone ever taught them how to study the Bible and seek God on their own time- oh wait they dont have time they are in church 4 nights a week- Its a bad system- we are dependant on it because we dont know what else to do. Its like when you get home and go to turn on the TV or the radio, or hook up the internet. Its a default setting. Like Christianity in the US- by default people think they are Christian, but that doesnt make you a Christian. Its an act of the will by faith, with the situation surrounding that act orchestrated by God, and the existance of that opportunity allowed and given by God through grace. Back to the subject. Meetings called church- The new testament church was dispersed because they tried to set up just that type of "community" a sheltered one- they were dispersed through persecution- Why would God not want His people meeting together so often? Its just not the time yet- heaven is reserved for that. Now we must give opportunity- instead of prostilatize- for the whole world to hear the Godd News that God is choosing not to hold peoples faults against them, for a season judgement is on hold- we are free to meet with God- anywhere/ anytime/ with anyone. I am ranting now. Please post any good questions thoughts or answers, even bad ones are ok

Non-church" is the church for those who have no church. It is the home for those who have no home, the orphanage for the orphan in spirit....The true form of the church is non-church. There is no organized church in heaven. John says, "I saw no temple (church) within the city (heaven)" (Revelation 21:22). "Bishops, deacons, preachers, and teachers exist only here on earth. In heaven, there is neither baptism nor communion; neither teachers nor students.... Naturally, however, as long as we remain on this earth, we need churches. Some people will join churches constructed by the hands of humans; there they will praise God, and there they will hear his word. Some churches will be made of stone, others of brick, and still others of wood. But not all of us need churches of this sort. That there are many Christians who do not belong to organized Christianity is similar to the fact that there are many homeless children. But even those of us who do not belong to organized Christianity need some sort of church while we exist on this earth. Where is our church and what is it like?


[Uchimura Kanzo Zenshu, Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1963, vol. IX, pp. 210-213]. Tsunoda et al, Sources of Japanese Tradition, New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1958, pp. 854-5.

Just read this Jeramiah 5:30-31

" A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land: the Prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?"

seems appropriate

If this doesnt apply to your situation great.

I for Japan;
Japan for the World;
The World for Christ;
And All for God.

as written on Kanzo Uchimura's

"My name is KANZO UCHIMURA. A Japanese, a son of samurai, an independent Christian; in profession, a book writer, a magazine-editor, a teacher in the Christian Bible. Was born in Tokyo, on the 23rd of March, 1861, according to the Gregorian calendar, eight years after Commodore Perry anchored in the Bay of Yedo. Began to study English at the age of 14; but never mastered it. Sent to the Foreign Language School, to prepare for the Kaiseigakko, now the Tokyo Imperial University but was induced to enter the Sapporo Agricultural College, then started by the Colonial Departments under the presidency of William. S. Clark, Ph.D., LL.D. of Amherst, Mass., U.S.A. Graduated from that college in 1881. Served in the Agricultural Department for 3 years. Went to America in 1884, mainly to learn methods of practical philanthropy. Came under the guidance of Isaac N. Kerlin, M. D. the superintendent of the Pennsylvania Institute for Feeble-minded Children, at Elwyn, Delaware County of that state. While there, met James B. Richards, a veteran teacher of the mental defective. Was introduced to President Julius H. Seelye of Amherst College, Mass. by Mr. Joseph H. Nijima. Joined the junior year of the class of 1887, and stayed there until graduation. The great president opened my eyes to the evangelical truth in Christianity. He is my father in faith. For forty years, since then, I preached the faith taught me by that venerable teacher. On my return to Japan in 1888, I made several attempts to put my educational ideas to practice, but always failed. Missionaries nicknamed me a "school-breaker," because wherever I taught, troubles arose, and schools were put in jeopardy. My fortunes in Government schools were worse. My refusal to bow to the Imperial Rescript on Education, not only deprived me of my situation in the Dai Ichi Kotogakko, but sent me out into Japanese society as a vagabond, wherein for some 20 years, I had not a place where to lay my head on. But I was more successful in book writing and journalism. During the last 30 years I wrote about 30 books, which though not "good-sellers," were some of them, good survivors, and are still read after the expiration of the copy-right. I joined the editorial staff of the Yorodzu Choho in 1895, and there met the managing editor of this magazine, and I have kept up friendship with him till this time. After three years, I started my own paper, the Tokyo Independent, which was succeeded by the Biblical Studies in 1900, which is continued to this day. Then I did much of preaching, lecturing, and Bible-expositions, the most notable of which was a large Bible-class in the Hygienic Hall, in front of the Home Department, not far from the Imperial Castle. I started the class in 1918, till it was interrupted by the earthquake ravage five years afterward; but now resumed in my own precinct, though on somewhat smaller scale. I am a free-lance in my religious standing; join no church, never "licensed" to preach by any ecclesiastical authority; entirely independent. My two books which I wrote in English were translated into several European languages, enabling me to find many friends in the continental Europe. The books failed in America; Englishmen never liked them. I pass for a rabid yaso (follower of Jesus) among my countrymen, and a heretic and dangerous man among missionaries and their converts in this country. Still I seem to have not a few friends in this wide world; for my magazine,--the Bible-magazine' written in my own language,-- has quite a large circulation, and my books translated into German are still being read in Europe. I on my own part, take, or try to take, all honest, sincere men and women, as my friends and allies; and though some of them may dislike me, that is no reason why I should dislike them in return. I am a Japanese by birth, and a Christian in faith; and my Christianity made me a "Buerger der Welt," a world-citizen, a brother to humanity. With the managing editor, I am an advocate of peace. Both of us are haters of war. We take comparatively little interest in politics. But we love God, the world, the soul. With this self-introduction, may I find favor with the readers in the wide, wide world! " March, 1926.