TOKYO (ABP) — Thanks to a Japanese fascination with gospel music — inspired in part by the Sister Act movies — churches in the United States have started offering gospel concerts and classes in Japan as ways to reach others.
“Gospel music is really a tool now to reach often very hard-hearted Japanese people, so I talked to the Japanese Baptist Convention about how we could help,” Yutaka Takarada, pastor of Japanese Baptist Church of North Texas, said. Takarada recently partnered with Charlie Singleton, director of Baptist General Convention of Texas's African-American ministries, to create a Texas gospel choir.
The choir first sang together during practice at the Chofu Minami Baptist Church near Tokyo. The choir performed to capacity crowds everywhere, including a 500-seat concert hall.
The popularity is significant, because many of the people in gospel choirs are not Christian. Less than one percent of the Japanese population is Christian.
Kyoko Murakami's journey of faith began when she started singing with the Tokyo Voices of Praise gospel choir in 1997. She sang about Jesus, but she didn't know why. For four years, Kyoko performed she said, but she didn't truly worship.
In 2001, a friend handed her a Bible and encouraged her to read it.
“I began to realize the meaning of the words, and I knew that Jesus was my Savior,” Kyoko, 26, said. Today she co-directs the Tokyo Voices of Praise gospel choir and leads several others at area churches.
“The people who come to hear and sing the gospel music get to experience the atmosphere of Jesus speaking to them,” Kyoko said. “For non-believers, the gospel music is performing, but for believers it is not a performance. It's worship.”
Stories like Kyoko's are one reason a group of Baptists recently traveled 5,000 miles to sing spirituals. They sang to more than 1,500 people over the nine-day trip.
The Texas Voices of Praise gospel choir is composed of members from 10 Baptist churches statewide. Leonard Hornsby is the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Mansfield, Texas. It's his second gospel tour in two years; he sang in Spain in 2005.
“Singing gospel music in Japan was significant because we gave hundreds of Japanese people exposure to spirituals sung by Christians, which is vastly different than those sung by non-believers,” Hornsby said.
Andre Byrd, pastor of New Covenant Christian Fellowship in Dallas, said Japan and its people have changed his life. “The people we sang to have blessed us more than we may have blessed them,” Andre said.
“One of the things that impressed and inspired me was the statement of the people who said they could feel the sincerity through the music ministry,” said Singleton, founding pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. “It was not a performance but people who were sincere in their commitment and ministry.”
-30-