Pastoral Team
Japan is so good at embracing the seasons. 2023 at Tokyo Union Church has felt like a springtime of new life. The early pandemic years of 2020–2021 felt like a long cold winter, but as Ecclesiastes 3 says, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” 2023 was a delightful year of blossoming and new growth. We are reminded that God is always at work, even in the dark seasons when we can’t see what God is doing.
2022 was an exciting year of thawing after the long winter. Our 150th Anniversary celebrations jump started us, energized by President Catherine Sasanuma, with a year of thanks for God’s faithfulness and looking to God’s future. The finale of our 150th celebrations was the interview with gracious filmmaking legend Martin Scorsese, our brother in Christ and now friend of TUC. He helped us remember the experience of Christians persecuted in Japan for so many years, as well as his life of making sense of following Jesus while telling a story of hope and faith in a world of violence. Kane Mitani and I worked together on this project for over a year, quietly behind the scenes, until the live interview with Mr. Scorsese on Palm Sunday, April 2, 2023 (by Zoom). It was inspiring for a packed sanctuary and for the 3.2 thousand viewers who have seen the initial interview on YouTube, plus another 1.5 thousand viewers who watched the second version including Japanese language transcription (both at www.tokyounion.org/scorsese). It brought a lot of attention and connections to TUC from around the world.
Reflecting on the Scorsese interview reminds me of how much work goes on unseen in the life of Tokyo Union Church – God’s unseen work and the unseen work of so many humble and devoted volunteers. To the 4.7 thousand people who have watched it, the Scorsese event may look like just another hour of talking. But it took over a year of unseen time and loving labor to nurture our connection with Mr. Scorsese and his production company, and to refine the interview flow and questions. Additionally, it took the amazing planning and execution by our Audio Visual Team that made this available to the whole world. This event is like a parable of 2023, a year of blooming and fruition after a long winter of God’s quiet, faithful work through many generous servants during the long dark night.
Our AV team members have helped transform our life together. We owe them great thanks. They are rarely seen because they are on the back side of the camera and microphones. Led and organized by Risa Kikura and now Ayumi Ito, these faithful servants do the invisible work that helps thousands of people connect to God and God’s people at Tokyo Union Church. Jonathan Oh gives many hundreds of hours to design, build, and improve our AV and digital infrastructure. Our Livestream system, our WiFi access in the building, our sound and camera systems are all improved by Jonathan’s labors of love. He continues with more improvements still to come throughout the building, and it’s almost all invisible to nearly everybody.
Our digital connections allow more people to connect for prayer, study, and fellowship online. Many hundreds are able to join in our worship life who otherwise could not reach TUC or any church at all. And every week still we have people come to Omotesando on Sunday for the first time after they have been joining in worship online for weeks, or many months, or even years. Their first time in the sanctuary is a very special connection to witness. It is like spring rising from invisible growth God has been nurturing through years of dark and quiet.
The explosion of children’s participation has been a great joy. Our Princeton Seminary Intern and Youth & Children’s Ministry Director, Byron Walker, has quietly done an excellent job of organizing children’s Sunday School and preparing the teachers with solid, biblically grounded curriculum. We average several dozen children each week and they love their Sunday School experience.
We have an adult new members class of 10 preparing to join the church right now, several of them have stayed connected in recent months via the LiveStream. There are more planning to join soon. Our confirmation class is also joining the church. We will have 10 baptisms in the next two months. We had record numbers of hundreds of worshippers on Easter – a stark contrast to Easter 2020 when only 25 of us were allowed in the sanctuary to produce our first and unexpected Livestream Easter.
At TUC we are blessed by the humble, faithful service of so many unsung members and friends God uses to make our life possible. Our Coffee Hour food and fellowship are generously prepared, served, and cleaned up by Bianca and her team. The church’s money is carefully managed by our Finance Ministry Team. Our glorious worship music comes from musicians who give many hours to diligent preparation and rehearsal. These and more are all things God does, and unseen by most people. Quietly, God faithfully supplies and orchestrates the Body of Christ, the Church, for faithful ministry to lift up the name of Jesus.
Finally, there is one more big thing God has been preparing for the past four years that most of us didn’t see coming. We were so grateful that in 2020 God called to us a fabulously gifted, Jesus-loving Associate Pastor in the Rev. Héctor Herrera. But little did we know then that God was preparing him to become our next Pastor! I am thrilled that God has called such a gifted and special pastor to serve and lead TUC into our next faithful step. I can think of no one better prepared for this important work.
It has been a great honor to serve Tokyo Union Church for the past four and a half years, throughout the pandemic and now to the waking of a glorious new day. Alison joins me in thanks for the privilege of serving with you.
Jesus Christ is risen and alive, healing the world, making us a new creation. God has been at work, even in the bleak years and when we struggled to make sense of it all. As God says in Isaiah 43:19:
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
God is doing a new thing at Tokyo Union Church. We are blessed to be a part of it and share it with our neighbors. To God be the glory!