Where Everybody's Crazy

Today I went with a few people from my church to visit an exhibition of William Merrell Vories' life and work. I'd actually been to the exhibition before, but I wanted to see it a second time. To be honest, I've developed quite an interest in Vories. Some would say an unhealthy interest. But I think it's an important interest.

Vories had a vision which inspired his whole life. As he put it, his vision was "to build the Kingdom of God in Omi". (This is also the title of a short biography of Vories by Naohiko Okamura.) Which is the same vision that also inspires my life! Of course I'm going to find this man interesting.

When he arrived in Japan, he was given this "advice":

Omi, where you are going, is surrounded by mountains and is culturally isolated. The influence of Buddhism is strong and Christian mission is extraordinarily difficult. No preparations have been made for you and it probably can't be helped if you have no success there.

Omi is the name for the northern part of lake Biwa, and the area where WEC Japan concentrates its mission. Omi is where we are. Omi is where I am.

Vories came to Omi in 1905. Soon he had a Bible study group at his school where around a hundred people came to read the Bible together. A few years later he built the YMCA in Omi-Hachiman. In 1911, the "Omi Mission" was founded.

Let me tell you about the Omi Mission.

The Omi Mission was holistic before people talked about holistic mission. Vories had an architects' office, long before people talked about business as mission. He built churches, houses, schools, universities, all over Japan. The Omi Mission, and Vories in particular, literally changed the face of the country.

The mission had two evangelistic boats, the "Jordan-maru" and the "Galilee-maru", from which the mission travelled around Lake Biwa, preaching the Gospel. The area around Lake Biwa is the area where WEC Japan operates today.

They had a school, where Christian education was given, and Vories negotiated the rights to manufacture and sell Mentholatum in Japan. (British readers may be helped to know that Metholatum is the American equivalent of our Vic Vaporub.) The factory allowed the Omi Mission to employ and train those who had no other hope or other means of employment. They had a hospital. They had a printing press and a publishing company. They had libraries. They had churches. They had both Japanese and foreign staff. In fact, the majority of the staff was Japanese. They supported themselves throughout their mission with the work of their enterprises, all based on Christian principles. As far as missiology goes, they did everything right. If you want a textbook example of a great mission, you should study the Omi Mission.

Oh, and they had mission outreaches both through the YMCA system and as actual church plants to Maibara, Nodo, Katata, Minakuchi, and Imazu.

This is particularly painful for me. I am about to start a church group in Maibara. Why is it painful?

Here is a map, produced at the height of the Omi Mission, detailing all of their activities: (click for enlarged version)

WEC entered Japan in the 1950s, and, for theological reasons, refused to work with Vories. (He caused a storm in missiological circles by taking Japanese nationality in a Shinto ceremony in 1941. Obviously no true Christian would attend a ceremony at a Shinto shrine, even if it allowed him to stay in Japan during the war and even influence the Japanese Imperial family directly afterwards.) Now we are slowly catching up to the point that the Omi Mission got to fifty years ago.

As I have said, I am just about to start a church group in Maibara.

Vories planted a church in Maibara fifty years ago.

It's gone now.

Let me let you into a secret. For a mission that got everything right, not a single one of Vories' missionary endeavours remain today.

The Maibara YMCA, the railway mission and the library have all been demolished. There is simply no trace of them. The Imazu mission center, the Katata center, the Noda center, the Minakuchi center, they are all gone. The boats, the schools, the factories, the hospital, the YMCAs, the libraries, the churches.

All gone.

A flourishing mission which was revolutionary for its time and was, according to the evaluation of this time, doing everything right, simply disappeared without trace.

Not fifty years ago.

Do you think our work lasts? Do you think it is important? Do you think that what we do here has any kind of lasting value?

At the end of his life, this man who had almost single-handedly built up a fantastic mission organisation - and in his personal life, outside of the mission, had completely transformed Japan - referred to himself as "a failure".

Maybe this the missionary's work ethic coming in again. But maybe he had a sense of what was coming. He wrote that he was worried that the Omi Mission had lost the Holy Spirit and had lost its direction.

Omi, where you are going, is surrounded by mountains and is culturally isolated. The influence of Buddhism is strong and Christian mission is extraordinarily difficult. No preparations have been made for you and it probably can't be helped if you have no success there.

I do not believe that my work here is going to fare any better.