Bible-based Christian church in Sapporo★ Biblical Christ Church

IN THE GRACE OF GOD

Blessing and grace we reached by the hands of the Lord

Our church has a history of more than 30 years. Since the beginning for 10 years, the church grew steadily under the leadership of the missionaries. After that, the missionaries went back home and Japanese pastors were appointed. Things were going well for a while but after that many people started to leave church. The number of the staff became half. And finally those who remained were only 2 people besides the staff and their families. The situation was devastating. There may have been people who believed that this church would dissapear in no time. One of the reasons why this happened was because the founding pastors were very capable people and the members were dissapointed with the local Japanese pastors.

That was the beginning of blessings, though
At that time we felt that members would not have trouble if our church would dissappear because there were more than 100 churches in Sapporo. And if our church were a church that
had no meaning of existence, it would be OK for our church to dissappear. At the same time, we had a desire that we would like to fulfill a purpose if there were one in our church. Therefore, those who remained bent their knees and prayed and seeked God for what He really desired for church.

Essence of church
During that time, God showed us what the essence of church was in various occasions. Since the building materials are people, a healthy church needs to be built by having each person become healthy. It is not how it looks outside but what is inside and motives of hearts are imoprtant. We had understood such a concept in our head but what we were actually doing was contrary to that in a way.

Sustainable church
What we thought when the church got into a devastating situation was that the church should not be in the crisis each time the pastors change. Of course some sort of change is inevitable. However, the management policy should be something that can be handed over to the next generation and it should be sustainable.

Thanks to the Lord

It is grace of the Lord that has carried us through until now. And we do need the grace of the Lord from now on. We really want to give thanks to the Lord for all the Grace we have received.