One significant obstacle to the growth of cell churches in Japan has been the reluctance of Japanese lay believers to take on a teaching role, even in small group ministry.  In Japan, there is a strong belief that professional credentials and training are required for almost everything.  This type of thinking extends into the church also and makes it difficult for lay believers to take on any significant ministry roles, since they often feel that they don't have the necessary "credentials" to teach or lead.  At the same time, there is a tremendous need for lay leaders to do the work due to a severe shortage of seminary-trained ministers.  To try to address these issues, we are building a library of video-based teaching materials that would allow lay leaders to take on leadership of small groups even if they are not confident enough to do the Bible teaching themselves.

Even as early as 2001, we decided not to use VHS tapes as our primary media, but go ahead and make the leap to burning the teachings onto DVD, for several reasons: (1) space is a premium in Japan, and we wouldn't know where to store a lot of videotapes; (2) DVD is a more versatile medium, because we could have several messages, and even worship music with the words displayed, selectable from the DVD menu without having to rewind or fast-forward; (3) DVD players come in very small portable models - easy to carry to a meeting place that doesn't already have a player.

We studied the issues involved with video for several months, and decided that it was worth putting a little money into doing a quality job with both the picture and the sound, because cell groups may be watching these videos week after week - if they look and/or sound like cheap home movies, the lack of quality will become a distraction away from the message.

Since the decision was made that we would attempt this project when we got to Osaka, we began taking actions related to that as early as May 2002.  That was when we needed a new computer for other reasons, so we thought ahead and got a Sony VAIO that was built for video editing and has a DVD writing drive built in (leading edge at the time).   Later, when we needed a new printer, we chose one that can print directly on white CD or DVD media - much nicer and easier than paper labels (also something that is common now but rare back then). Those decisions weren't hard, as we were familiar with computers, but the video area was new to us, so that took some research.

While in the U.S. over the summer of 2002, Karen sought out opportunities to talk to video professionals, and was able to observe the video operations of three large churches - two that video their pastor for showing in overflow rooms, and another that produces an actual cable TV program featuring their pastor's message each week.  She learned a lot of valuable information about techniques, equipment, software, etc.  When we were apartment hunting in August of that year, we specifically looked for a place that was laid out in such a way that we could use one of the rooms as a filming studio - in the apartment we chose, the dining/kitchen area doubles as the studio (in this photo, the kitchen sink is right behind the camera).  In November and December of 2002 we made our final decisions about the camera, microphones, and software, and made the purchases (and since then we have upgraded both the software and the computer, and bought a second camera).  For you video buffs who want to know, our first camera is a Canon XV2 (called a GL2 in the U.S.) camera, and our second one is a Sony HC1000, both 3CCD prosumer-level cameras. The rest of the gear includes the Adobe Video Collection software bundle (which contains Premiere Pro for video editing, Encore for DVD authoring, and After Effects and Audition for advanced work on video and audio respectively when needed), a Sony ECM-44 lavalier mic for studio filming, an Azden SGM-1X shotgun mic for filming in churches, so that we don't have to pin anything on the pastor (and actually we've used the shotgun in the studio too - you can see it sitting on the white box in the above photo), a couple tripods, a small Steadicam for walking around with the camera (quite an invention!), and other small gadgets. Subsequent computer and software upgrades have been necessary, but the original cameras are still working fine (although repaired a few times) and for various reasons Karen has so far resisted making a move to high definition video.

As you know if you have read the page about OIC, we didn't expect Dan to be immediately thrust into a role of pastor so soon, and at an English-speaking church, but at the same time it has provided some unexpected benefits.   In January 2003 Dan began teaching a series through the Gospel of Matthew verse-by-verse, and so that became Karen's first ongoing video assignment.  A rotating team of bilingual Japanese church members provide simultaneous Japanese interpretation through a radio system, so Karen tapped into that system - she recorded the English on the right audio channel and the Japanese on the left, mixed them in different levels to make separate language audio tracks, and allows the DVD user to select their favorite language, much like commercial DVDs. English and interpreted messages are not intended to be a featured item in our cell church resource library, but OIC has enjoyed having the messages available, and it has been a good opportunity for Karen to learn. For about three years she filmed every Sunday message, producing a complete 61-message series on Matthew, a 15-message series on Ephesians, and various other messages and series'. After that time she joined the worship team, and it was not practical for her to do both, but the complete set is still in the church library for people to review for additional Bible study.

Below is a an actual frame from the edited video of Dan's first message on Matthew.  Whenever he quoted scripture, Karen widened the camera shot a little to leave room at the bottom, and later used the editing software to display the verse(s) at the bottom of the screen for reference. After OIC moved to a new facility and Dan used Powerpoint illustrations in his messages, Karen incorporated those in her video as well.

After beginning to do Sunday messages, the next big project we undertook was a training DVD set for short-termers coming to Japan. We had an abundance of short-termers in 2003, and one of the teams asked for something they could use to do team training before they came. So we developed six 30-minute lessons on different topics pertaining to doing short-term mission work in Japan, which fit on two DVDs. Five of them were filmed in our kitchen studio (one by Dan himself, two with him interviewing another missionary with a lot of experience in Japan, and two more with a Japanese person to teach some survival language skills), and the last was filmed "out and about" around Osaka, a new challenge for Karen both in camera work and editing. They were completed in April 2003, and we have sent about 30 copies to short-termers and other interested people so far.

Since then, there have been many other video opportunities. Karen has done several concerts, seminars on various topics, weddings and receptions, training segments for Mission to Unreached Peoples, and studio-style messages in Japanese, delivered by Dan and others. For some of the stuff in a studio setting either in our kitchen or at the cell church, we even invented a "poor man's teleprompter" so that the speaker can read a script or outline without looking away from the camera (a notebook computer is hung, open in its bag, from the tripod, and it is controlled using a USB mouse with a long cord, taped to a chair just below view). Karen adds cutaways and other effects in the editing process to keep the viewer's attention.

Karen's newest big project is to produce worship music videos for use in cell worship, Japanese small groups at OIC, and elsewhere. We were inspired by worship DVDs produced by Maranatha on which a recording of a song is accompanied by the song lyrics on top of beautiful video of nature etc. selected to reinforce the meaning of the song. So Karen has set out to do something similar with Japanese praise and worship songs. She has taken her camera to various places (even around the world) and shot nature and other footage for this purpose, but she is dependent on others for the audio recordings. Plans of how that would work have changed several times, but it finally ended up that she is producing her own products, using music from three different sources (two major praise music recording ministries who charge us for using their songs, and one large church that does their own recordings and offers free use of them). It has been a big learning experience: copyrights, audio recording usage rights, wholesale agreements with bookstores, bar codes, tax laws, etc. - all in Japanese! The first DVD was released in November 2009, and there is a dedicated bilingual website for the newly created production ministry, where you can read more, see samples of all the songs (including two of the songs in their entirety), and get the latest information about where you can order you own copy if you'd like one - see http://l4jp.com (Light For Japan Productions). The L4JP ministry may also produce other resources in the future for Japanese churches and/or evangelism - we have lots of ideas, but want to carefully listen to the Lord, because there is not enough time to do all the things on our heart.

Besides the samples from Japan Video Praise on the L4JP website, here are a couple other short things that Karen made in early 2003. If you've seen a DVD, you know that it usually has a short intro before you see the main menu. Well, the two clips below are the intro segments Karen produced for the OIC message series and the short-termer training DVDs. The music is made using the "SmartSound QuickTracks" automated soundtrack generator that came with the editing software, and the still photos for the training intro were ones taken by us during our ministry here.

Of course these files are compressed to work on the Web - the real thing is full-sized and smooth.  Choose your favorite player and connection from the table below.  If you have both players, the Real Player files are better.  Also, note that these are not "streaming video" but just files to download, so even on a dialup connection you can choose a DSL/cable file if you want - you'll just have to wait longer before you can view it.
 
OIC Message DVD Intro (25 seconds):