Monday, September 19, was the 5th Annual Windy Road Concert at Windy Chapel. For those who don't know, I sing with a Japanese choir and we sing Black Gospel style at my church. Black Gospel choirs are extremely popular here and a very effective means of evangelism in reaching young people. They are attracted to the upbeat, joyful music and I believe that they are tasting a bit of the Holy Spirit. I always hear the comment, "I was so moved by the music."
I was asked to give a gospel message based on our theme, "A Present From God." The message I felt led to give was to talk about God's love demonstrated in giving us His only Son, Jesus Christ. Japanese find the concepts of personal sin and Jesus' sacrifice for our sin very difficult to understand, so I really struggled in prayer with putting together this message. I've learned that the best way to communicate the gospel is to use lots of illustrations and stories.
I started by asking "What is the greatest present you've ever received?" and then gave a personal story. Next, I talked about the four kinds of love: storge, phileos, eros, and agape. I noticed some tears among the crowd as I illustrated God's agape love by telling a story about a little boy donating his blood to save his baby sister's life. Although the little boy didn't die, Jesus DID die to save our lives from the disease of selfishness.
Also, several newcomers came to the concert. Usually, flyers are not very effective evangelism. It's said that in Japan for every 2,000 flyers distributed, one person will respond. However, at least 4 people came because of flyers, and 3 or 4 came because of the church's web site.
Here's the website to the church's picture album of the concert.
http://windychapel.com/album/album9/image9.html
