Disintegration of churches caused by the "Cell Group" method in Japan
Since the evangelism in Japan is not successful, people talk about introducing lots of "new methods" into the evangelical community. One of them is the "Cell group," which might become a fatal blow to the ecclesiasitical community in Japan. The value of family is considerably neglected in the Japanese society as I have wriiten in my essay "Why Japan."
Families in Japan are well accustomed to disintegration. There is a historical background for this. During the Tokugawa shogunate, feudal lords had to be under the control of "Sankin Koutai System." In short, this system was for weakining the families of feudal lords. While the feudal lords had to live in their own fief, Tokugawa shogunate forced their wives and children to live in Edo which made them Tokugawa's permanent hostage. This was a well devised system, and this caused the long duration of Tokugawa shogunate.
Quite often, even now, only husbands go overseas alone. When Japanese companies transfer workers to some places, usually only husbands go to the designated places. Wives and Children stay at the houses obtained by submitting themselves to housing loan or mortgaging. This is the 21st century's "Sankin Koutai System."
Japanese Churches are filled with people who are suffering this kind of disintegration. When so called "Cell Group method" is being introduced to the churches, people are categorized and classified according to age groups, social class, gender, character, etc. This is nothing but the miniature of secular Japanese society.
In Japanese churches, the more the cell groups are propagated, the less people value "Christian family," because we seldom see "Family Cells." here.
Discipling of Christians are becoming obsolete and rare. Rather "church planting engineering" such as "cell group management," "marketing research" for evangelism, and "statistical analysis" are rampant.
"Church planting engineering" produces a devastating effect on biblical evangelism.
From ancient times, Japanese society disregards the value of family considerably. By promoting cell-group movement in churches, they accelerate the process of disintegration in the ecclesiastical community in Japan.
This is one of the many reasons why homeschooling movement is dwindling in Japan.
Where there is no discipleship, homeschooling dwindles.
Where there are no families as covenantal units, churches diminish.
This is what's happnening in Japan.
16.06.