Surviving and Thriving in Rural Japan

Few serve on Japan’s final frontier: 1,800 rural areas lack their first church.¹ One reason is member care. Some organizations hesitate to place missionaries in a rural setting because of the isolation. Yet sending big teams to each unchurched area is rarely viable initially, nor sustainable long-term. It’s also missiologically inefficient. A more realistic goal is one missionary or family committed to a cluster of 1 to 5 towns for 20 years, with intermittent help. Effective member care of rural workers doesn’t protect workers from isolated settings, but equips and supports them to survive and thrive in those settings. Here are some tips for rural worker support and self care.

Rural worker support

Placement

• Most suited for rural ministry are those between 35 and 55 without children, or who have no children between 8 and 18 at the time they begin.
• Qualities in a good rural worker: someone who relates to a broad age range, not prone to depression, has perseverance and commitment.
• First termers should serve with someone experienced, whether someone from your agency or another.
• Foster realistic expectations (slower harvest, less fruit), yet with faith.
• Calling is key. Honor calling, trusting God to empower.

Member care

• Pray. Help rural workers find a phone prayer partner.
• Affirm. Ministry in rural areas holds many sources of discouragement (e.g. slow fruit, deeply-entrenched gospel barriers, zero feedback environment), even for the strongest worker. Affirmation reassures and encourages.
• Listen. The same worker will struggle more in a rural setting than they would in urban Japan. Expect mild depression, loneliness, discouragement, or insecurity. A tendency to be especially sensitive to criticism, unsolicited advice, or imposed help is common. They will often be wary of big/outside groups. Avoid over-reacting to what you hear. Instead, listen, providing a non-judgmental affirming environment to process struggles.
• Coach. Provide first termers with an experienced rural worker coach. Rural Japan is at a different stage missiologically. Conventional wisdom from urban settings (and even rural tsunami zones) rarely directly applies. It takes years in rural Japan to grasp ministry realities.

Provide fellowship

• With urban workers or Christians. Plan fellowship opportunities to include them. Welcome them when they come to the city, and visit them. Build deep relationships—let them talk about things that can’t be said to locals, bounce ideas off you, or use you as an outlet to release months of unshared things.
• Among rural workers. Help them find or interact virtually with others who understand rural ministry—informally, as prayer partners, or via retreats. Check out RJCPN (Rural Japan Church Planting Network) www.rjcpn.upgjapanmissions.com.
• For families. Getting together with other MKs (missionary kids) is important. Regional social MK activities or joint retreats also help. Help MKs master enough Japanese for deep communication with rural peers.

Pragmatic help

• Adapt policies for rural needs—car, distance-based conference transport scholarships, short frequent furloughs, coverage of responsibilities while away from their area.
• Assist. For example: pulpit supply, furlough coverage, short-term teams from Japan/abroad, flyer distribution, maintenance, IT, secretarial, translation, musicians. Offer help humbly in a sensitive non-threatening way. Do not presume and don’t impose yourself or your help on your rural colleague.
• Become a “backup church.” Churches in the region could commit to specific help on a weekly or monthly basis. Take care the help does not overwhelm or create discontentment with what is locally sustainable.
• Let a rural worker bless you back! Though counter-intuitive, busy rural workers benefit from occasional “outside opportunities” like speaking in another church/ outreach/conference.

Self care

Know:

• Your calling—this sustains and brings assurance that challenges are part of fulfilling God’s will.
• Your mission is to be the aroma of both life and death.
• In God’s eyes, ministry success is faithful obedience, not numbers.
• God’s character empowers following at any cost.
• His faithfulness lets you just follow, leaving results with Him, knowing your labor is not in vain.
• You can’t do what God has called you to do; God can through you. Trust God’s empowerment. If others don’t, they doubt God, not you.
• You are not alone. Other rural workers are out there too. Jesus is always with you. Within God’s will, Jesus plus one equals a majority.
• God alone is enough. Let Him—not success, results, acceptance, or work—be your source of identity, affirmation, guidance, fellowship, and comfort. Fight idols of success, acceptance, approval, reputation, and accomplishments with the gospel.
• You will encounter spiritual warfare. Learn to recognize it and be prepared.

Cultivate:

• Heart-level, direct accountability to God.
• God-dependence in all things.
• Spirit-led initiative and grace-inspired hard work.
• Perseverance. Focus on the positive, and the not yet seen.
• Contentment in ministry. Remember the basics: you have enough to eat and drink, and God by your side.

Learn to:

• See His big picture plan
• Boast in weaknesses and in Christ
• Be intentional about self-care, including “time away”.
• Invest time for a healthy family
• Relate to people of all ages
• Teach church members to depend on God

Consider:

• Being for others (or finding for yourself) a mentor, virtual prayer partners, etc.

Pioneer ministry is exciting yet isolating, and includes discouraging seasons. One light is better than none in a place of total darkness yet can easily flicker or be snuffed out by a strong wind. The innately isolating nature of work in rural Japan is windy. Encouragement and God-reliance are powerful windbreaks. 

Tips contributed by Heather Nelson and John Mehn.
1. RJCPN statistic based on pre-merger CIS data [note, post-merger data is not representative of the missiological needs in rural Japan].