God and Culture

From its beginning, Iwa has been seeking ways to enable the gospel message to go beyond the doorstep of the minds of people of Japanese and Asian ancestry and penetrate deeply into their hearts by discovering the cultural touching points of the gospel. Another way to describe what Iwa has been doing is to say that Iwa has been “contextualizing” the gospel for Japanese and Asian cultures.

Often, people who contextualize for a particular culture do it subjectively by looking inward at their own cultural sensibilities and identifying what feels right to them. Iwa has relied on a more objective process of reflecting on Scripture, praying for insight to see the Scripture through different cultural eyes, sharing new insights through writings and speaking opportunities to test whether or not they resonate with the people they were meant to touch, and then creating and testing resources based on what has been confirmed and affirmed by the people.

It was Iwa’s purpose from the start, to blaze a path that could be followed by others who could contextualize the gospel for every other culture in the world. It is still Iwa’s vision and hope for that to take place, and for the entire world to be reached for Christ as a result.

All of Iwa’s resources have come out of this process of contextualization. But featured here are those that have more to do specifically with culture and contextualization.

Learn about the reasons behind what makes Iwa's resources different here.

Foundations for Asian American Ministry

This seven-unit series represents the cumulative wisdom of Iwa Founder Stan Inouye gained through his over 30 years of equipping leaders to minister more effectively in Japanese- and Asian American churches.  It covers the following topics:

• Biblical Foundations for Ethnic Ministry        
  
  • Adoptive and Adaptive: The Role of Biculturals  in World Redemption
  • Reflections on Mirror Christianity
    
    
• How to Identify and Identify With the Asian Americans God Wants You to Reach
  
  
• How to Design More Effective Ministries for the Asian AmericansGod Wants You to Reach
  
  
• How Culture Shapes Effective Ministry to Asian Americans
  
  
• How Being Bicultural Shapes Effective Ministry to Asian Americans
  
  
• How to Introduce Positive Change in the Asian American Church and Community
  
  
• How to Identify and Select Leaders in Your Asian American Church
  

This resource will be available for order in the online store.

Adoptive and Adaptive: The Role of Biculturals in World Redemption
by Stan Inouye

It has been Iwa’s contention that God has a unique and strategic role for minorities, bicultural people, and immigrants in God’s plan for world redemption, both as cultural bridges and cross-cultural interpreters for the God who transcends culture. To give biblical support to that belief, this message presents how God uses bicultural people like Moses and Paul as cultural bridges to accomplish His mission in the world.

Reflections on Mirror Christianity
by Stan Inouye

This message describes the biblical account of the origin of culture and gives scriptural basis for ethnic-specific ministries. One professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, after hearing Iwa Founder Stan Inouye deliver it, remarked, “God sometimes gives a special message to a specific person to deliver on his behalf. I believe God has given you just such a message. Stan, preach this message over and over again until you are sick and tired of preaching it, then preach it some more.”

Iwa Insight No. 1:
Evangelism to Group-Oriented People
by Sharon Uyeda Fong

If Japanese and other Asian people tend to be group-oriented while people from Western cultures tend to be individual-oriented, what implications are there for evangelism to people of Japanese and Asian ancestry? This monograph explores how evangelism to group-oriented people may look different from the evangelism usually seen in the U.S. and other Western societies.

Iwa Insight No. 2
Getting On  With Evangelism
By Sharon Uyeda Fong

How can Christ be introduced to people of Japanese ancestry in an effective, interpersonal, culturally sensitive way? This monograph presents the Japanese concept of “on” (pronounced like the word, “own”)—roughly translated, “obligation” or “indebtedness”—as a key to understanding how to engage in the kind of evangelism that fits the culture of people of Japanese ancestry.

Iwa Insight No. 3
A Cultural Response to God's Discipline
By Arlene Inouye

Should God’s discipline be seen only as punishment, or is there a different way it can be viewed, a way that makes more sense to people for whom even disapproving silence can be enough to set  them on the right path? This monograph presents a cultural reinterpretation of the advisement from Proverbs 3:11 that the discipline of the Lord should not be regarded lightly, based on such Japanese cultural considerations as childhood experiences of being raised in a Japanese American family and the concept of shikataganai.

Seeing the Contagious Christian Course With Asian American Eyes

This booklet provides a review of the Willow Creek Association’s popular evangelism training program, the Contagious Christian Course, with suggestions on how to maximize its effectiveness for Asian Americans and other Asian people. It is not only valuable as an assessment of a particular evangelism training program, but is also valuable as an exposition of Iwa’s philosophy of evangelism.

Cultural Dynamics:
How Culture Shapes Effective Ministry to Asian Americans
Foundations For Asian American Ministry Unit 4

This study presents the concept of omoiyari (i.e., empathy) as a cultural key for understanding and reaching Japanese- and Asian Americans with the gospel, introduces the Cultural Continua for helping to identify a culture’s orientation and values, explores the implications of the major cultural traits of omoiyari people on the five major components of evangelism, and presents nine steps to effective “omoiyari” evangelism. It provides the content for Iwa’s workshop and ministry aid entitled “Hearing the Gospel with Asian American Ears.”

Bicultural Dynamics:
An Exercise In Cross-Cultural Understanding
Foundations For Asian American Ministry Unit 5

In this structured learning experience, participants explore the characteristics of two hypothetical cultures and then imagine what would happen if representatives from those cultures meet to discuss a merger of their companies.

Bicultural Dynamics:
A Model of Biculturalism
Foundations For Asian American Ministry Unit 5

This study presents what takes place when a person is strongly influenced by two different value systems, and what implications emerge for ministry as a result.

Leadership Identification Process:
Calling God's Chosen To Lead
Foundations For Asian American Ministry Unit 7

How can Asian American churches identify and select their leaders in a biblically based and culturally sensitive way? This resource presents a practical step-by-step process that brings together Scripture and culture to offer an alternative to unexamined traditional ways of selecting leaders that are often popularity contests or mere position-filling tasks. One unique feature of this resource is a clear presentation of the characteristics of a leader who has cultural competency to work in an Asian American context. Another is the offering of a form with a convenient checklist for evaluating the fitness of a potential leader to serve in a given ministry position.