The Young Men’s Association Headquarters held a leaders’ seminar on May 26 and 27 at Moya 38, drawing 373 leading members from the association’s directly supervised chapters, including chapter chairmen. The seminar was designed to provide an opportunity for association leaders to reaffirm their role and renew their sense of commitment to further enriching and enhancing the substance of their chapter activities.<\/p>\n
On day one of the seminar, participants listened to a lecture entitled “How Leaders of Directly Supervised Chapters Should Serve,” which was delivered by Rev. Genichiro Kato, head minister of Sendai Grand Church. They also had opportunities for presentations by chapters and for discussion aimed at helping them work together to nurture spiritual growth.<\/p>\n
On day two, Director-in-Chief of Administrative Affairs Masahiko Iburi gave a lecture on the theme of “High Expectations for the Young Men’s Association to Serve as the Driving Force.” “What is important for you is to engage in ‘spiritual construction,’ which should go hand in hand with ‘material construction,'” said Rev. Iburi while speaking about association leaders’ role and some of the vital points they ought to bear in mind. He emphasized the importance of implementing the teachings in the course of daily life and building virtue while maintaining a humble attitude. In this way, he said, they should work to achieve spiritual growth that is worthy of what they are materially blessed with.<\/p>\n
He went on to talk about Yoboku’s three guiding principles\u2015namely, “spirit of single-heartedness with God,” “attitude of hinokishin<\/em>,” and “unity of mind”\u2015which he said should guide association leaders. Explaining the first principle, he stressed the need to maintain such a deep and passionate sense of mission as to be wholly and singly committed to fulfilling Oyasama’s intention to build the Joyous Life World. As for the second guiding principle, Rev. Iburi asked the listeners to fully internalize the teaching of “a thing lent, a thing borrowed” so that their understanding of this teaching will spontaneously manifest itself in their attitude of hinokishin<\/em> in their daily lives. Moving on to the third principle, he told the leaders that since various people are drawn to their churches and association chapters, it is important for them to both bring out positive qualities in those people and achieve unity of mind among all people concerned so as to make it possible to properly determine the direction in which their organizations should move.<\/p>\n He closed his remarks by expressing his hope that the leaders would increase their enthusiasm and zeal for being at the very forefront of seeking the path and implementing the teachings while working ever more actively on their association activities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Young Men’s Association Headquarters held a leaders’ seminar on May 26 and 27 at Moya 38, drawing 373 leading members from the association’s directly supervised chapters, including chapter chairmen. The seminar was designed to provide an opportunity for association leaders to reaffirm their role and renew their sense of\u2026<\/p>\n