It all started before we moved to Japan.  While we were in our final preparation stages in March of 1996, we helped man the MUP booth at a missions conference at Biola University.  There we met a Japanese lady named Keiko Yamamoto, who was working on her doctoral degree at Biola, before going back into ministry.  We kept in touch, and later she married the missionary whom she had worked for in Japan as a secretary for years until his wife passed away, and through her (and then their) prayer letters we saw the whole thing unfold and got to know her husband, Jack Marshall.  In 1974 Jack and his first wife had founded Osaka International Church (OIC), and so when we started to take reconnaissance trips to Osaka, we got to know OIC and their current pastor.  The pastor took an interest in our work among the Burakumin, and hoped to partner with us in some way.

Then we came here in August 2002 and looked for an apartment at various locations around the center of the city.  The one we decided on happened to be about ten minutes away from OIC - everyone who comes to church using the JR train walks right past the front of our building.  We planned to visit Japanese churches around town during our several month preparation time before starting our cell church, but because it was easy, we attended OIC for the first few Sundays.

A view of the old OIC sanctuary, when the Christmas choir was singing in 2002 (we moved into a new buiding in 2004)

At over 100 members it is big for a church in Japan, and although 13 nations are represented, 60% of the members are Japanese, even though the main language spoken on Sunday morning is English.  It is also an energetic church, with many young people - we enjoy their worship and fellowship.  In September they had a retreat and needed a guest preacher to fill in, so the pastor asked Dan if he would do the honors.  Little did we know that this would set a precedent. for future events.

Then at the beginning of October 2002, the bottom fell out.  I won't share the details, but the pastor quit, and the financial situation of the church was such that there was no way they would be able to call another permanent pastor for quite some time.  They asked Dan if he would cover a few Sundays in the pulpit, and they scrambled to find enough guests to fill up the preaching schedule until they could figure out what to do for the longer term.

Dan giving his first sermon as interim pastor in October 2002, telling the congregation that there are times when we must "hang in there"!

Of course Dan immediately agreed to do a few sermons.  But we also thought about the bigger picture.  We prayed about it, talked about it, thought about it, and prayed about it some more.  The more we considered the situation, the more we saw God's fingerprints all over it.  We had just arrived in Osaka, and even lived just down the street.  We were friends with the church's founder.  The church had heard Dan preach and liked him.  And unlike most people that they could ask to help out, Dan not only didn't have any other Sunday obligations now, but even after the cell church starts he had no plans to have meetings on Sunday morning!  But even committing to a few months as interim pastor was so different than the vision that brought us to Osaka that Dan still felt he needed more confirmation, so he wrote to or called people he trusts to advise him.  The response was so overwhelmingly positive that we were amazed!  Dan felt like the Lord was saying to him, "These are your brothers and sisters; get over there and help them!" So Dan offered his services as part-time interim pastor, to help them until such time as they could call a permanent, full-time pastor.  The first official agreement was until the end of March 2003, but in January 2003 when he started to teach verse-by-verse through the gospel of Matthew, he promised to stay until he finished Matthew, which would take until about June 2004. Then in November 2003 he came to realize that when God told him to help OIC, the command was not necessarily temporary, and that he needed to be willing to stay long-term if the church chose to call him to the permanent position. So while he encouraged the church to go through a proper pastoral search process, he also put in his own application. To make a long story short, there were other inquiries, but in the end, Dan's was the only application remaining. One catch, though, was that the church constitution stipulated that they only called a "regularly ordained Protestant minister", and the council decided that Dan's commissioning as a missionary was not the same as ordination as a pastor. So he was still technically "interim" pastor until October 2005, when he was officially called after being ordained by International Ministerial Fellowship. He was interim for a total of three years, which might be a record!

Noriko, the leader of our team of interpreters, referring to Dan's draft sermon while interpreting

Although he has given many "guest" sermons both in English and Japanese, and led small Bible studies on a weekly basis, this is his first experience of being the primary teacher and pastor of a congregation.  All you pastors out there already know this, but the first thing Dan discovered was just how much time it takes each week to prepare a sermon.  He already knew that preparing a Japanese sermon was hard work, because it is not his native language. But even in English it's a significant effort, especially since he cannot teach just from an outline because for the simultaneous interpretation into Japanese, the interpreters want at least a draft sermon written out.  Then he discovered that the more people get to know him and trust him, the more of them come for him for counseling. It's wonderful to be able to help people, but Dan does not consider counseling an area he is gifted in, so he often feels out on a limb, especially with cultures he hasn't studied (like Philipino wives asking for advice about their Nigerian husbands!). Please pray that the Holy Spirit would guide him in these situations.

Dan has started several new things at OIC. The first big one was in early 2003, early in his time as interim pastor. Our sanctuary was full to overflowing, and even though we knew that a new building for the Osaka Christian Center (where we meet by renting the facilities) was being built with a bigger hall, Dan felt that we should allow growth in the meantime by starting a second worship service. But got him a lot more work than he bargained for. He envisioned it as two similar services back-to-back on Sunday morning with the same message for both. But he made the "mistake" of asking what they wanted, which doubled his workload: they chose Saturday evening for the new worship, and asked that he give a different, more basic message, for young Christians and seekers. And the interpreters said they couldn't commit to Saturday night, but instead that Dan should do the message bilingually by himself! Those of you who speak a second language, have you ever tried to give a speech switching back and forth between the languages? It's four times as hard as doing it in either tongue alone. But we also took the opportunity to introduce a multimedia approach, using an LCD projector, Powerpoint, and DVD movies to bring the teaching to life. First, Dan taught through Luke using the Jesus film in Japanese with English subtitles, then the epic Jesus of Nazareth, in English with Japanese subtitles. Karen leads the worship, also singing most songs in both languages. Since Sunday morning was still using the old-fashioned method of OHP transparences, this was good preparation for moving into the new building, which has a large hall with a built-in projector and screen and an excellent sound and video system.

Bilingual Saturday night service in the old building

2005 OIC Christmas Eve service, showing the new hall. We had a record attendance of about 180 people!

Another big addition at OIC that was mainly started by Dan was a small group ministry, launched in mid 2005. Care & Growth Groups, as they are called, meet weekly in homes or at the church office, and start by running the Alpha Course, then a curriculum based on the Purpose Driven Life, and then move on to other studies selected by the group. As much as possible, we are encouraging lay people to lead the groups rather than depending on Dan.

As this is the first time Dan has had the main pastoral responsibility in a church, it has been the opportunity for more new experiences. In July 2003 he performed his first funeral and his first wedding within two weeks of each other, the next January his first baptism. Since then (as of this update in Feb. 2006), he has done eight more baptisms, two more weddings, one more funeral, and countless baby dedications.

Karen has been involved a lot also. She leads worship on Saturdays and plays on the team on Sundays, designed and maintains the web site and two databases of information, helps in the office while our new secretary is still learning the many computer tasks required, and designs most of the literature the church puts out (posters, ads, flyers, etc.).

At first it seemed that the tremendous time it takes to lead a church like this was just a distraction from the cell church vision. But the Lord has been showing us how this has been part of His plan all along. There are a lot of Japanese Christians at OIC who are interested in serving the Lord more - they could become a tremendous help to the cell church effort. God has even been speaking to Dan about this through an African proverb: "If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together."

The members of OIC have been through a lot, and there are still hurts that need more time to heal.  But these people really love the Lord and are clinging to Him and to each other as they look toward the future, and we are blessed to be in fellowship with them.  Please join us in praying for the church's future and for its members.