The first step is to establish a storefront Gospel Kanji Museum in Karuizawa.
This museum will introduce visitors to the gospel through carefully designed scrolls, interactive exhibits, digital displays, books, videos, and personal conversations. It will demonstrate how a museum can lower the threshold for people who would otherwise never enter a church or attend a traditional Christian meeting.
Each exhibit will include a QR code that visitors can scan with their phones. The QR code will lead directly to an expanded digital presentation of the subject they have just encountered.
A museum scroll may introduce a kanji, its individual parts, its meaning, and several passages of Scripture. The corresponding website experience can take the visitor further through additional Bible passages, videos, historical background, illustrations, explanations, related kanji, questions for investigation, and opportunities to continue exploring the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Visitors will not be expected to absorb everything during a single museum visit. They will be able to save the material, return to it later, share it with friends or family, and continue their investigation privately and at their own pace.
The Karuizawa museum will also serve as a place where exhibits can be developed, tested, improved, and prepared for use in other locations.
Church leaders, missionaries, educators, and Christian organizations will be invited to experience the museum and consider how these resources might serve their own communities.
The Gospel Kanji Museum website will become a comprehensive exploratory and investigative resource.
The physical museum will awaken curiosity. The website will give visitors the freedom to follow that curiosity wherever it leads.
Each Gospel Kanji exhibit will have its own digital home containing the complete content behind the exhibit. Visitors will be able to examine the character, investigate its individual components, read the relevant Scriptures, watch supporting videos, listen to discussions, explore historical and cultural background, and discover connections to other Gospel Kanji.
The website can also guide visitors through larger biblical themes such as prophecy, the birth of Christ, His teachings, His crucifixion, His burial, His resurrection, salvation, faith, righteousness, judgment, grace, and eternal life.
Some visitors may begin with a single kanji that caught their attention in the museum. Others may follow a complete path through the life of Christ. Still others may return repeatedly as they consider what they have seen and read.
The website will allow the museum experience to continue in homes, schools, churches, trains, cafés, and communities throughout Japan. A visitor who spends thirty minutes inside the museum may continue exploring its message for weeks, months, or even years.
The QR codes and website will also connect every future Gospel Kanji Museum to the same growing library of biblical resources. Whether a person visits an exhibit in Karuizawa, Sendai, Osaka, Fukuoka, or a small rural town, that visitor will be able to enter the same comprehensive digital world and continue the investigation independently.
Our vision is not for Rising Sun Ministries to own and operate every Gospel Kanji Museum in Japan.
Our vision is to equip local churches.
A church already understands its community. Its members have existing relationships with neighbors, schools, businesses, and local leaders. A museum established through a local church can become a natural place for hospitality, cultural exploration, meaningful conversation, and continued connection.
Each museum can be adapted to its location while remaining faithful to Scripture and clearly pointing visitors to Jesus Christ.
The shared website will allow even a small church with only a few physical exhibits to offer visitors access to the full depth of the Gospel Kanji Museum. A church may begin with one scroll, but the QR code on that scroll can open the door to an entire digital library.
The Gospel Kanji Museum creates a natural place where those who are simply curious can ask questions, explore the Scriptures, and consider the claims of Christ without feeling that they are intruding on the worship and fellowship of a church congregation. As people place their faith in Christ, the local church becomes the place where they are baptized, discipled, encouraged, and equipped to serve.
Because churches can reproduce the Karuizawa model without waiting for Rising Sun Ministries to purchase and operate every location, the ministry has the potential to grow rapidly.
One church may begin with a single exhibit. Another may convert an unused room into a small museum. Another may rent a vacant storefront in a shopping district. Another may create a traveling museum that can be displayed in schools, community centers, churches, conferences, and public events.
Over time, dozens of Gospel Kanji Museums and exhibits could appear throughout Japan, each one connected to Christians who live in that community and are prepared to continue the conversation.
Every location would also connect visitors to the same expanding online museum. This gives each church access to far more content than it could display physically and ensures that visitors can continue their exploration after returning home.
The multiplication of these museums would allow the gospel to be presented repeatedly, visibly, and thoughtfully in towns and cities across the country.
As the museum network grows, Rising Sun Ministries will develop an expanding library of resources for churches and missionaries throughout Japan.
Museum exhibits can become books, Bible studies, videos, podcasts, documentaries, children’s materials, digital lessons, church presentations, and evangelistic tools.
These resources will serve the physical museums, the comprehensive website, local churches, missionaries, educators, and individuals who want to investigate the Scriptures on their own.
We desire to serve those who are already faithfully serving Japan by placing useful, biblically grounded, and culturally thoughtful resources into their hands.
Training events and workshops will help pastors, missionaries, church leaders, educators, and volunteers understand the Gospel Kanji material and use it confidently within their own ministries.
The goal is to strengthen the work of local churches and mission organizations by giving them additional ways to begin conversations, explain Scripture, and introduce people to Jesus Christ.
As God expands the work, we envision establishing a permanent Rising Sun Ministries campus.
This campus would become the central home of the Gospel Kanji ministry and a place of hospitality, learning, creativity, and spiritual encouragement.
It could include:
The campus would serve both the public and the Christian community. Visitors could explore the museum, while churches and missionaries could come for training, resources, collaboration, encouragement, and time away from the demands of everyday ministry.
The research, publishing, media, and digital teams based at the campus would continue expanding the online museum so that every physical exhibit throughout Japan is supported by thoughtful, comprehensive, and accessible biblical content.
From this central location, physical exhibits and digital resources could be prepared and sent to churches throughout Japan.
We are beginning with one storefront in Karuizawa, but our vision reaches across Japan.
We see a network of church-led museums where people can enter freely, ask honest questions, explore the Scriptures, and encounter the person of Jesus Christ.
We see every physical exhibit connected through a QR code to a comprehensive website where visitors can continue investigating what they have discovered at their own pace.
We see missionaries and churches receiving the resources and training they need to communicate the gospel with clarity and confidence.
We see visitors entering out of curiosity and leaving with a desire to know more.
We see those visitors returning to the website in the privacy of their homes, reading the Scriptures, watching videos, asking deeper questions, and continuing their journey of discovery.
We see local Christians continuing those conversations and welcoming people into the life of the church.
Our vision is for the Karuizawa Gospel Kanji Museum to become the seed from which dozens of Gospel Kanji Museums and exhibits grow throughout Japan, with every location connected to a digital museum that can be explored from anywhere.
From one museum to many. From a physical exhibit to a continuing investigation. From curiosity to conversation. From conversation to Scripture. From Scripture to Jesus Christ.
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.