Today's topic is, "What are the pastors' ministry visions?" Let me answer this question by introducing my ministry philosophy. When I was invited by L.A. Holiness Church as a speaker at their Nichigo Revival Conference, Mr. Maehara commented on my messages saying, "Pastor Nakao's message reminded me of the phrase, 'Back to the Basics.' This phrase has become more important in today's business world. I think it is true in both evangelism and ministry. We should present the basic teachings of the Bible in fresh ways." I appreciated his comment. I want to keep "BASIC" in my ministry.

"BASIC" is an abbreviation of "Beginners All purpose Symbolical Code" in the computer vocabulary. In my ministry, "BASIC" means (1) Biblical, (2) Awakening, (3) Saturating, (4) Integrated, (5) Creative.

1. Biblical

Every minister says his ministry is Biblical. It is not 'Biblical' to borrow peripheral ideas from the Bible. For instance, is it 'Biblical' to force people to speak in tongues? It is a Biblical account that some people spoke in tongues. But speaking in tongues is only one gift of many spiritual gifts. It is not Biblical to say that the people who are filled with the Spirit should speak in tongues, though speaking in tongues itself is Biblical. We should not read our ideas into the Bible, but get ideas from the Bible. The Bible is systematic as well as historical. The Bible is the central point in the teachings. I think that the central point is the crucification and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We should read and study the Bible through the light of God's redemptive work in Jesus Christ. As an article of Leadership magazine suggested, we want to discuss the agenda Biblically at our board meetings.

Let me use two examples, First, when we discuss how much we should contribute as monetary gifts to another church or organization, do we discuss from only the feeling of "giri"- obligation? Secondly, we know that we should forgive each other within the church. But we should not permit wrong doing in the church. We accept alcoholics and pray for their recovery. But we cannot accept alcoholism within our church. In Japanese, we have two kanji (Chinese characters), both of whichare pronounced "yurusu." One letter means "to permit", the other means "to forgive". Please don't confuse "forgiveness" with "permissiveness."

2. Awakening

This word might sound old fashioned to you. I know that we do not live in the Great Awakening Age. However, most American churches are sleeping spiritually as in the middle of the eighteenth century. I am grateful that our conference has been emphasizing "revival" and "renewal" as a spiritual descendant of George Whitefield. I do not think that the teaching of "holiness" has become outdated. It is easy to slip into spiritual slumber. People seem to hope that preachers speak only what gives them peaceful sleep. They hate challenging messages even though they use the words, "challenging message" in the program. They want to meet for fun and food rather than Bible study and prayer. I still remember the words that Pastor Brian spoke to me in my early days in San Diego. He told me, "You are threatening to someone." I was proud of the word. I came to San Diego to threaten people for God. I want to emphasize the spiritual "renewal" in our church with Pastor Brian. For this purpose, I want to hold our All Church Camp as a Church Renewal Conference. I was so impressed that the West L.A. Church had an evangelistic meeting rather than a banquet to celebrate their fortieth anniversary. I want to hold a church wide Renewal Conference when we have our seventieth or seventy-fifth anniversary.

3. Saturating

I use this word in the meaning of "to fill." I don't believe we need a long series of discussions about our vision. We already have our vision statement which was approved by BOD in 1992. It says, "As we look towards the future, we believe that God is not calling us to be a church that does all things for all people. Therefore, we are seeking to focus the purposes stated above with the following vision statement. The San Diego Japanese Christian Church seeks to reach families for Christ by: 1. Incorporating those with and without family support into the family of Christ; 2. Providing ministries that strengthen our bi-cultural families and equip family members to live for Christ in today's world; 3. Developing a whole family emphasis in our ministries; 4. Affirming the importance of our multi-generational and bilingual families; 5. Ministering to families within both the English and Japanese Speaking Departments. Our present outreach priorities are: 1. Unchurched young families 2. Nisei, Young Adult, and College-age people."

Isn't it wonderful? I think that we are one of a few churches in our conference which has a vision statement. We also have been developing "A Handbook of Procedures" and "Job Descriptions." However, if we do not follow the procedures and do not do the job stated in the book, they may become a waste of time and paper. At the end of the year, we have a thick binder holding board minutes and reports. If nothing is done about the action items of the minutes, they will be in vain. Our ministry is not making documents. It should be more productive. I do not deny paper work is necessary. I want to emphasize practice rather than plan. Once we set a goal, we should try to reach the goal step by step. Consider how many unfinished jobs you have when you try to start a new project. Good leaders do not set the current job aside to take a new job. Do we have a lot of unfinished or urgent jobs? I believe true vision can show the way of implementation as well as the plan. Effective leaders never let a matter take its own course. They pray hard to God and try to communicate, cultivate, mobilize, publicize, appeal, encourage, and support people. Without good administration we cannot turn a dream to reality.

4. Integrated

We have cultural and generational diversities in our churches. We are a church which has two different language groups like the first century Jerusalem Church. the English department may have more diversity than the Nichigo department. I found that we have some degree of communication difficulties between the two language groups and the age groups. I think that such difficulties did not result from a lack of language skills. Most of the miscommunications came from lack of desire or effort. When we are biased against other groups, we do not try to listen. I hope I may have a real open heart to others. I also hope I have the opportunity to share my personal ideas and thoughts in this Leadership Training in informal ways.

I want to suggest two ways for better communication. First, please plan your activities, meetings, and projects well in advance. Then we can have enough time to discuss them and inform people. If you start your plan just before a deadline, it has to be discussed without sufficient information. Please establish a deadline and adhere to it. We have a proverb which is popular among Japanese people, which says, "A foolish man makes a rope after he catches a robber." I think the English equivalent is "A foolish man locks the stabledoor after the horse has gone." Today is too late to prepare for today's job. Today we should prepare for tomorrow. I observe poor management and/or administration in some areas of our church. I did not anticipate doing secretarial work in the United States. I learned church administration methods from books by American authors that worked well in Japan. If we can improve ourselves in this area, we can get rid of the conflicts between one group and another.

Second is spiritual. Our unity is in Christ. If we want to feel unity among the diversities, we should nurture people with spiritual food. Growing in truth and love is the only way to oneness in Christ. I do not like to ignore any age group. As a family of God, we need each other. A member respects the other. It is not a true family if the aged people are expelled from the family just because they cannot work effectively. It is not a loving family if the little kids are neglected because they are noisy. I believe that the family exists for itself. A family is not a place of business. It is the place to experience fellowship. Then, church exists primarily to enjoy fellowship as well as to worship God. God challenges me to build up his church in the United States where a lot of diversities exist.

5. Creative

Since our church is unique, we should develop our own creative ways. However, to be creative, we first need to learn from each other. Japanese people found that they were behind other countries after a three hundred year national isolation. The people tried to learn from and imitate other countries. As a result, Japan became the number one country in business and technology. A recent issue of theJEMS Journal says, "An effective church 'steals' the best ideas that have worked with other churches." To learn from each other, I want to develop fellowship with other churches. It is a great benefit for us to have this leadership training with Rancho La Costa Church. Since we are isolated from the L.A. area churches, I want to develop local fellowship. I won't abandon our good traditions, but I want to have church activities in creative ways. I think that the most important thing is the members' satisfaction, not the ministers' (leaders) satisfaction. I believe that we ministers should listen to the silent majority. They want to listen to life-applicable preaching, to have heart-warming fellowship, and to serve the Lord through various opportunities the leaders provide for them. Ministers should have "antennas" to catch the members' needs. Listen to the quiet majority. They will show you the vision for the future of our church.

(Presented at SDJCC Leadership Training, Nov. 25, 1995)