HOW THE JAPANESE CAN HELP OUR CHURCHES

    It is an unlikely subject, the Japanese helping our churches, but I am assuming that people that have done so much for themselves can do something for others.

    If we go back forty years we find a small country (Japan would fit easily into the state of California) so devastated by war that there was hardly any hope that it could ever recover. Today Japan is not only the industrial leader of the orient but one of the great technological empires of the world. She tops all other nations in some impressive categories: highest percentage of literacy, lowest infant mortality rate, the longest average life span, the highest educational level among youth. Japan also has one of the lowest violent crime rates among the nations. An American missionary in Tokyo, who has chosen to rear his children in that city, told me that he feels much safer in Japan than in his homeland.

    I am impressed with the wisdom of our own statesman, Benjamin Franklin, who insisted that anybody could be well-to-do if he would practice two virtues, industry and frugality. Franklin would likely name these as the cause for Japan's "building greatness out of ashes." The average Japanese saves 20% of his income, which is triple that of Americans. They call such money "discretionary" income while we call it "disposable" income. We spend ours and they save theirs!

    An example of their genius and industry is their luxury bullet trains which zip all over the country at well over 100 miles an hour. When I was in Japan a native was telling me about these trains and noted that they knew how to make the trains go much faster, up to 200 or more miles an hour. The only problem, he observed, was that they do not yet know how to stop them when they go that fast!

    But I have none of these things in mind when I suggest that the Japanese might help us in the Church of Christ as well as other American denominations. It is rather what the Japanese call nemawashi, the meaning of which is illustrated in wrapping the roots of a tree together before moving it. Some Americans have defined it as "circular agreement." It describes the common practice of Japanese business to make no decision except by circular agreement. No action is taken until there is agreement throughout the company. This may slow things down for a time and even be frustrating, but it has the effect of all the team pulling together with minimum dissatisfaction.

    This means that the Japanese in their long cultural history have learned to talk and listen to each other. It is common for a Japanese company to solve its problems and plan its work in group discussions with input from diverse levels within the company. This has proven so effective that some American companies have begun to use it in an effort to increase their own efficiency.

    The main reason why Churches of Christ today face a crisis in matters of polity (elder-minister-congregation relationships), a crisis that involves us in a score of legal confrontations, is a lack of nemawashi. In our hurried, careless way we move the tree and be done with it, scattering roots and soil along the way. We do not listen to one another. We do not seek "circular agreement" when action is to be taken. Our "corporate executives" in the form of the eldership, a concept that may well be foreign to the Scriptures, act on their own, consulting only with each other. They may ask the members to pay the freight but they do not ask them what they think. They do not seek general agreement. Our usual practice along this line is so one-sided that the members know nothing about what "they" are going to do until it is announced from the pulpit or published in the bulletin. In our churches the left hand does not know what the right hand does. This even includes the hiring and firing of the preacher. The members may hear rumors, but they usually know nothing until the elders announce it.

    And so we are surely the most "they"-oriented denomination in the country. We talk about what "they" decide and what "they" do, meaning of course the elders with perhaps the preacher sitting in "ex officio" on the meetings. In those cases where the preacher really runs things to the relief or the frustration of the elders, it is rare that there is any substantial communication with the members. We are not sufficiently a "We" people.

    If the Japanese have turned ashes into a great nation by consulting with each other at every level of operation and thus moving ahead as one, then our churches may recover their authenticity as part of the Body of Christ by "the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love" (Eph. 4: 16).

    A passage of Scripture that points up the virtue of nemawashi is in Malachi 3. Amidst the ashes of apathy, indifference, and rebellion on the part of God's people the prophet pointed to the reason for hope of better things to come: "Those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and meditate on His name" (Mal. 3:16).

    God always has his faithful remnant. In this case that remnant got together and talked things out. They prayed together and shared their faith. It might be seen as "circular agreement. " The Lord listened. What comforting words! When we talk it over together and struggle for some solution, the Lord is there listening in and blessing us. He even takes notes! The "book of remembrance" is the prophet's way of assuring the people that God is with them and that he will remember their faithfulness. Surely from this we can conclude that if God listens to us then we ought to listen to one another.

    When our elders and preachers behave more like listening shepherds and less like dictating executives, we will no longer have a crisis in communication and consequently a crisis in polity. --the Editor