Quid pro quo: The Experiences of a Missionary in Japan

Quid pro quo (“A favor for a favor”) is a phrase that immediately brings to mind one of cinema’s most famous psychopaths, Hannibal Lecter, but for me it’s also a warning to the Christian missionary community. Quid pro quo has been used by missionaries in Japan for a long time, certainly since before I arrived fifteen years ago. We provide a service, usually cheap English lessons, and Japanese people provide an opportunity for us to share our faith with them. Perhaps they even make a verbal declaration for Christianity. They may do so not so much for salvation or due to faith, but to avoid the awkwardness of declining a request. Despite this, there is a common expectation among missionaries; if we provide something for the Japanese then they will return the favor by giving us the opportunity to share the gospel. Because of this it is often difficult for missionaries to make close non-Christian Japanese friends. My wife and I have been encouraged multiple times by fellow missionaries to follow a specific formula. First, pursue friendships. Next, extend an offer to study the Bible, if this is turned down it is best not to linger but to pivot to new friendships. This is very pragmatic advice. Indeed, as missionaries, the job is to make disciples, not to make friends. Supporting churches pay missionaries to build churches in Japan, preferably churches of the same theological, and even cultural persuasions. It’s not harsh, it’s just business. The fact that that business is of a Christian nature doesn’t seem to change things. But shouldn’t it?

Five years ago, I was blessed with the conviction that I needed to better understand my faith. What parts of my belief were shaped by God, and what parts were shaped by my home culture? The formula described above, an exchange of a service like an English lesson or even a friendship for the opportunity to proselytize strikes me as transactional: each party gets something that they need. While this may be in line with best practices in the business world, it is not the way of God’s kingdom. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but this way of thinking has always caused me to be frustrated in my work as a missionary in Japan. But when I began looking deeper at God, I was struck by God’s aseity. The concept of aseity, as I understand it, is the concept that God is completely self-sufficient. He takes nothing because he needs nothing. He is. With this truth in mind, quid pro quo arrangements in mission effectively become false advertising. When the missionary thrust is understood by the receiving culture as offering English lessons or other nominally valuable services in exchange for a listening ear, God is misrepresented. God doesn’t need a listening ear in order to give good things. God gives because God is a giver. In Acts 17:24-25 He is described as follows:

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.

Acts 17:24-25 (NIV).

God doesn’t give with the expectation of a return on investment. His gift of life and the created order came without strings attached. After humanity walked away from Him, God, in the second person of the Trinity, humbled Himself and died on a cross. The book of Romans teaches us that God doesn’t wait for a signed contract before offering salvation when it says the following:

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8 (NIV).

Once the implications of God’s Aseity became real to me I finally began to believe the words of Christ quoted by Paul in Acts 20:35:

It is better to give than to receive.

Acts 20:35 (NIV).

As this truth set in, I was made to rejoice and tremble! How much greater is this God than the one I had previously peddled! Yet, if I were to properly represent him, as one offering love without expectation of a response, what new risks of failure must I assume, when the guarantee of an earned opportunity for proselytization is removed? What if I share God’s love and nobody cares? What would I tell my supporting churches? I would certainly cease to be a savvy investment for a missions budget. My pragmatism ceased to be my safety net, God would need to be enough.

In the past my wife and I had tried the formula. For years we ran a low-cost English club for young children that brought tens of families through the church doors. We ran summer English camps with the help of American teenagers that culminated in Sunday morning English song recitals that doubled as church services complete with a gospel message and a hot dog lunch. Nobody got saved, but lots of hot dogs were eaten. Then in 2020 something unexpected happened and, for a season, church doors closed. We could no longer entice people into the church with a quid pro quo offer. We couldn’t even get our own children to sit through a zoom worship service in our living room. After what seemed like an eternity of coronavirus restrictions (but only turned out to be the first five months or so), we decided that, since we couldn’t bring people into the church, we might as well go out where the people are, so we signed up two of our boys for the elementary school baseball team. Stepping into the community, we no longer had something to offer in exchange for the opportunity to proselytize. Instead, we shared time, long hours every Saturday and Sunday, with more than twenty Japanese families, most of whom had no Christian friends. We couldn’t invite them to church, because they were at the baseball field on Sunday mornings, and most of the time so were we! Fast-forward to today and I’m still unsure of how to share the gospel, new life in Christ and peace with God, with people who have never felt a need for such conditions. On the other hand, I am building friendships with people and finding that I like being friends with them too. I continue to search for ways to share Christ, but even when I’m turned down, I haven’t moved on and sought new friendships. I don’t want to falsely advertise a God who gives without needing a return. My God is a giver, and if I am to represent Him well, then I want to be a giver too.

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© Jonathan Robison, 2022.

This work is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

Cover Image: © Jonathan Robison, 2022.