From May 3 to 4, “The Revival Conference for Moses-Joshua Walking Together as Two Generations” was held in Kobe, Japan, with dozens of Chinese pastors, missionaries, and lay leaders participating in the event.
With the slogan "Holy Love Can Do!" the conference was organized by the Chinese Oneness International, aiming to help Chinese people worldwide unite in love and assist nations in fulfilling their destiny.
As the conference began, an overseas Chinese missionary first shared the history and current situation of Christianity in Japan. Japan had a long-lasting persecution of Christianity that lasted 265 years. One of the reasons why Japan has more saints canonized by the Roman Catholic Church than the Catholic country of the Philippines is that Japan’s religious persecution was extremely severe. It was only after the Meiji Restoration that the existence of Christianity in Japan became legal. After the end of World War II, General Douglas MacArthur tried to Christianize Japan, but it was unsuccessful.
Regarding the current situation, the speaker mentioned that there are approximately 180,000 religious bodies in Japan, but there are only less than 5,000 Christian religious bodies among them. Most of the Japanese religious corporations are registered as Shintoism and Buddhism. He described the life of most Japanese people as: “They are taken to shrines at birth, celebrate their weddings in churches, and are buried in a temple after death.” (The shrine refers to a Shinto building, and the temple is a Buddhist building.) There are currently about 8,000 churches in Japan, but the congregations are generally small, usually with only a dozen or so people. The average age of believers is between 60 and 80. Among Japan’s current population of about 126 million, there are over 100 million Shinto and Buddhist believers. Japanese people are afraid of gods and simply believe in all the gods they know, while the proportion of Christian believers in Japan’s total population is only 0.3% to 0.8%, the missionary added.
The Chinese speaker also analyzed why Chinese churches generally do not pay much attention to Japan. The first reason lies in the complex ethnic hatred between China and Japan. The second reason is that Chinese churches and Christians believe that Japan is developed and that Japanese churches have enough strength to develop themselves without help, so they should encounter no hardship when preaching the gospel in Japan.
Subsequently, Pastor Dennis Balcombe from Hong Kong spoke on “Pentecostal Revival and All-Powerful Evangelism.” Pastor Balcombe shared his main service experiences, including his arrival in Hong Kong from the United States and the process of establishing the Revival Church there, bringing tens of millions of Bibles into churches and Christians in mainland China, as well as his ministries in Henan, Sichuan, Heilongjiang, and other places. After that, Pastor Balcombe mainly preached the message about being filled with the Holy Spirit, emphasizing the importance of being filled with the Spirit
Rev. Donald Young, one of the leaders of the College of Prayer International in the United States and the founder of the RPG Revival Prayer Movement, gave an online speech about revival, emphasizing that revival will come to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
After that, Pastor Chenghan Zhuang from Taiwan shared a message about the RPG movement (Revival Prayer Group). Pastor Zhuang said that the RPG movement has two main focuses: receiving God’s presence and gaining the people who are not reached. Through RPG, people can experience God’s presence, receive God’s revelation, and enter into God’s actions. RPG is a relational prayer based on love. Therefore, two or three people in an RPG group must genuinely love each other.
Pastor Jianping Lin who is from the Atayal tribe, an indigenous people in Taiwan, first briefly introduced Taiwan’s colonial history in modern times. Taiwan was colonized by Japan for 50 years, from 1895 to 1945, but God was still working in Taiwan. In 1906, a Japanese named Inoue Yanosuke came to work for a company in Hualien but was later killed by local indigenous people. His son, Inosuke Inoue, was a Christian and studied at a Bible school in Japan. After graduating from the school, Inosuke Inoue decided to put aside his hatred for killing his father in 1908 and came to the indigenous village in Hsinchu, where he served as a medical missionary for nearly 40 years, praying constantly for the indigenous people in Taiwan. Later, Inosuke Inoue was called the “Father of Aboriginal Medical Services” and "revenge with love" by many local people in Taiwan.
The story continued with Pastor Guangsong Chen's mission back to Japan. Born in the Plum Blossom village of Hsinchu in 1930, Pastor Chen was greatly influenced by Inosuke Inoue in his youth. In 1947, Chen founded the first church of the Atayal tribe; in 1956, he graduated from a seminary and became the first pastor of the Atayal tribe. In 2013, at the age of 84, Pastor Chen still decided to go to Japan to serve as a pastor for eight years.
Pastor Shenzhu Zhou, the former senior pastor of Bread of Life Christian Church in Taipei for 34 years, talked about "unity.” He said that in Taiwan, there are many cases where two generations serve the church full-time together, but at the same time, there are many heartbreaking phenomena both in Taiwan and other places—many pastors tend to struggle with their own people and cause division. He called for unity, which is so important that Jesus prayed for the unity of his disciples even in his last moment before being crucified. He hoped that everyone could overcome all obstacles, whether it was regional prejudice, different theological ideas, or age gaps. Believers “become one” in the Lord Jesus Christ.
At the end of the conference, Pastor Balcombe and Pastor Zhou exhorted all the participants with annoiting, blessings, and prayer and then held a communion service.
- Translated by Charlie Li
5月3日至4日，“摩西约书亚两代同行复兴特会”于日本神户举行，大约有几十名华人牧者、传道人和平信徒领袖参加了本次特会。
此次特会由五华天夏(Chinese Oneness International)机构主办，旨在帮助全世界的华人在爱中合一、帮助列国进入命定。
特会开始以后首先是一位华人宣教士分享了日本基督教历史和现状。日本先后持续了长达265年之久的对基督教的迫害。之所以日本被罗马教廷封为圣人的人数比作为天主教国家的菲律宾还要多，其中一个重要原因就是日本的宗教迫害情况非常严重。一直到明治维新以后，日本基督教的存在才开始合法。二战结束以后，麦克阿瑟曾经试图让日本基督教化，但是并没有成功。
谈及现状，这位讲员谈到，目前日本拥有宗教法人团体一共有大约18万个左右，但是其中基督教宗教法人团体却只有可怜的不到5000个，绝大多数的日本宗教法人团体都是神道教和佛教注册登记的。他形容大多数日本人的一生说：”出生时去神社，结婚时去教会，死亡以后安葬在寺院”（备注：神社是神道教的建筑，寺院为佛教建筑）。日本目前大概有8000间左右的教会，但是教会普遍人数很少，普遍只有十几人聚会，信徒平均年龄在60-80岁之间。日本目前总人口大约1.26亿，仅神道教信徒和佛教信徒便高达一亿多。日本人很害怕神灵，干脆相信他们所知道的所有神，而日本基督徒占日本总人口的比例仅仅为0.3%-0.8%。
该华人讲员也分析了中国教会为什么普遍不关注日本的原因。第一个是中国和日本之间的复杂的民族仇恨；第二个是中国教会和基督徒认为日本是发达国家，日本教会自身有足够的力量发展自己，不需要得到帮助，因此对日本的福音没有负担。
随后，来自香港的包德宁牧师（Dennis Balcombe）宣讲主题“五旬节复兴与全能的布道”。包牧师分享了他自己的主要服事经历，包括当时从美国来到香港并且在香港建立复兴教会的过程、给中国教会和基督徒带来了几千万本圣经以及去河南、四川、黑龙江等地方服事的经历等。之后包牧师主要分享了一些关于圣灵充满方面的信息，强调了圣灵充满的重要性。
来自美国的杨道诺（Rev. Donald Young）是美国“国际祷告学校”（College of Prayer International）的负责人之一、RPG复兴祷告运动的创立者，网络上分享了关于复兴（revival）的信息，强调复兴会临到那些饥渴慕义的人。
省的庄承翰牧师、林剑萍牧师和周神助牧师先后宣讲信息，内容涵盖五旬节复兴与全能的布道、复兴、复兴祷告运动、台湾的两代同行的故事：从日本人井上伊之助到台湾陈光松牧师、教会的合一等信息。
随后，来自台湾的庄承翰牧师分享了关于RPG运动（即复兴祷告小组，Revival Prayer Group）的信息。庄牧师说RPG运动有两大焦点，一是领受上帝的同在，二是得着未得之民。通过RPG人们能够经历上帝的同在、领受上帝的启示并且还要进入上帝的行动。而RPG是关系性的祷告，建立在爱的基础之上。因此在一个RPG小组当中的两三个人，一定要切实彼此相爱。
林剑萍牧师来自台湾原住民泰雅族。他先是简单的讲了台湾近代的殖民历史。从1895年到1945年，这50年的漫长苦难的时间当中台湾一直被日本殖民，但是上帝依然在台湾工作。1906年，一个名字叫做井上弥之助的日本人来到花莲的一家公司工作，后来他却被当地的原住民杀死。他的儿子井上伊之助是基督徒并且读了日本的圣经学校。学校毕业以后，1908年井上伊之助决定放下对杀害他父亲的仇恨，并且来到新竹原住民部落，从事医疗传教的工作将近40年的时间，不停地为了台湾原住民祷告。后来，井上伊之助被台湾当地很多人称为是称为“援助医疗服务之父”和“以爱报仇的人”。
陈光松牧师1930年出生在新竹的梅花部落，在年轻时期受到了井上伊之助的极大影响。1947年，陈光松创立了泰雅族的第一所教会；1956年陈从神学院毕业并且成为台湾原住民群体之一的泰雅族的第一位牧师。2013年，陈光松牧师在84岁高龄依然决定前往日本牧会八年之久。
周神助牧师曾经担任台北灵粮堂主任牧师34年，宣讲的主题是“合一”。周牧师说，在台湾有许多两代同行、两代人在教会都全职服事的情况，但是与此同时，无论是台湾还是其他地方，都有很多令人心痛的现象——很多人牧者和传道人很会跟自己人内斗，产生分裂。他呼吁，合一却又如此重要，以至于耶稣在被钉十字架之前的最后一刻还在为了门徒能够合一祷告。他盼望大家能够越过一切的障碍，无论是地域偏见还是不同的神学思想、年龄代沟等等，在主耶稣基督里面“同归于一”。
特会的最后，包德宁牧师、周神助牧师两位牧者劝勉了所有特会参加者并且为众人膏油、祝福、祷告，之后也举行了圣餐。
“摩西约书亚两代同行复兴特会”于日本神户举行 华人教会牧者包德宁周神助等分享信息
From May 3 to 4, “The Revival Conference for Moses-Joshua Walking Together as Two Generations” was held in Kobe, Japan, with dozens of Chinese pastors, missionaries, and lay leaders participating in the event.
With the slogan "Holy Love Can Do!" the conference was organized by the Chinese Oneness International, aiming to help Chinese people worldwide unite in love and assist nations in fulfilling their destiny.
As the conference began, an overseas Chinese missionary first shared the history and current situation of Christianity in Japan. Japan had a long-lasting persecution of Christianity that lasted 265 years. One of the reasons why Japan has more saints canonized by the Roman Catholic Church than the Catholic country of the Philippines is that Japan’s religious persecution was extremely severe. It was only after the Meiji Restoration that the existence of Christianity in Japan became legal. After the end of World War II, General Douglas MacArthur tried to Christianize Japan, but it was unsuccessful.
Regarding the current situation, the speaker mentioned that there are approximately 180,000 religious bodies in Japan, but there are only less than 5,000 Christian religious bodies among them. Most of the Japanese religious corporations are registered as Shintoism and Buddhism. He described the life of most Japanese people as: “They are taken to shrines at birth, celebrate their weddings in churches, and are buried in a temple after death.” (The shrine refers to a Shinto building, and the temple is a Buddhist building.) There are currently about 8,000 churches in Japan, but the congregations are generally small, usually with only a dozen or so people. The average age of believers is between 60 and 80. Among Japan’s current population of about 126 million, there are over 100 million Shinto and Buddhist believers. Japanese people are afraid of gods and simply believe in all the gods they know, while the proportion of Christian believers in Japan’s total population is only 0.3% to 0.8%, the missionary added.
The Chinese speaker also analyzed why Chinese churches generally do not pay much attention to Japan. The first reason lies in the complex ethnic hatred between China and Japan. The second reason is that Chinese churches and Christians believe that Japan is developed and that Japanese churches have enough strength to develop themselves without help, so they should encounter no hardship when preaching the gospel in Japan.
Subsequently, Pastor Dennis Balcombe from Hong Kong spoke on “Pentecostal Revival and All-Powerful Evangelism.” Pastor Balcombe shared his main service experiences, including his arrival in Hong Kong from the United States and the process of establishing the Revival Church there, bringing tens of millions of Bibles into churches and Christians in mainland China, as well as his ministries in Henan, Sichuan, Heilongjiang, and other places. After that, Pastor Balcombe mainly preached the message about being filled with the Holy Spirit, emphasizing the importance of being filled with the Spirit
Rev. Donald Young, one of the leaders of the College of Prayer International in the United States and the founder of the RPG Revival Prayer Movement, gave an online speech about revival, emphasizing that revival will come to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
After that, Pastor Chenghan Zhuang from Taiwan shared a message about the RPG movement (Revival Prayer Group). Pastor Zhuang said that the RPG movement has two main focuses: receiving God’s presence and gaining the people who are not reached. Through RPG, people can experience God’s presence, receive God’s revelation, and enter into God’s actions. RPG is a relational prayer based on love. Therefore, two or three people in an RPG group must genuinely love each other.
Pastor Jianping Lin who is from the Atayal tribe, an indigenous people in Taiwan, first briefly introduced Taiwan’s colonial history in modern times. Taiwan was colonized by Japan for 50 years, from 1895 to 1945, but God was still working in Taiwan. In 1906, a Japanese named Inoue Yanosuke came to work for a company in Hualien but was later killed by local indigenous people. His son, Inosuke Inoue, was a Christian and studied at a Bible school in Japan. After graduating from the school, Inosuke Inoue decided to put aside his hatred for killing his father in 1908 and came to the indigenous village in Hsinchu, where he served as a medical missionary for nearly 40 years, praying constantly for the indigenous people in Taiwan. Later, Inosuke Inoue was called the “Father of Aboriginal Medical Services” and "revenge with love" by many local people in Taiwan.
The story continued with Pastor Guangsong Chen's mission back to Japan. Born in the Plum Blossom village of Hsinchu in 1930, Pastor Chen was greatly influenced by Inosuke Inoue in his youth. In 1947, Chen founded the first church of the Atayal tribe; in 1956, he graduated from a seminary and became the first pastor of the Atayal tribe. In 2013, at the age of 84, Pastor Chen still decided to go to Japan to serve as a pastor for eight years.
Pastor Shenzhu Zhou, the former senior pastor of Bread of Life Christian Church in Taipei for 34 years, talked about "unity.” He said that in Taiwan, there are many cases where two generations serve the church full-time together, but at the same time, there are many heartbreaking phenomena both in Taiwan and other places—many pastors tend to struggle with their own people and cause division. He called for unity, which is so important that Jesus prayed for the unity of his disciples even in his last moment before being crucified. He hoped that everyone could overcome all obstacles, whether it was regional prejudice, different theological ideas, or age gaps. Believers “become one” in the Lord Jesus Christ.
At the end of the conference, Pastor Balcombe and Pastor Zhou exhorted all the participants with annoiting, blessings, and prayer and then held a communion service.
- Translated by Charlie Li
Revival Conference for Moses-Joshua Ministry Held in Japan, Attracting Chinese Christians to Fulfill the Destiny of Nations
