Discipleship in a busy world

“Wow, what a vision! We want to be a part of it! This is what our heart longs for!” That was our reaction in 2018 when our mission shared their new strategy to establish discipleship centers in strategic parts of the world: “The goal of discipleship centers is to bridge the sometimes wide gap between the spiritual life of a local church and formal theological education and to provide opportunities for Christians to grow together with other Christians and listen to God’s voice more deeply.”

Before this meeting, we had been leading a youth outreach center for 10 years. Out of this youth ministry came the Ai HOPE Church (愛ホープチャーチ), which we started in 2014 together with a young Japanese pastor.

One key focus of our ministry has been leading young people to Christ and helping them grow as Christians. We have used many different discipleship materials in many different types of discipleship groups. For example, we invested a lot of time in one-on-one discipleship groups (one disciple and one leader). We prayed together, studied the Bible, shared our struggles, discovered gifts, talked about visions for the future (job, partnership, etc.), ate and played together, and more. To sum it up, we shared life together. We witnessed young Christians growing in character and faith, investing their gifts in the church, and sharing their faith with friends and family. In a city sometimes called the “graveyard of missionaries,” more people than we expected became Christians. We are still a small group but with much potential.

Twice a year, we held a vision day as a church to listen more deeply to God’s voice and share ideas on how to meet the needs of the community and share the gospel. As leaders, we shared more and more responsibility for the church with young Christians, culminating in some beginning to lead small groups and help with baptism classes. We also encouraged laypeople to give short messages. For our elders’ meeting, three new elders were appointed each year in an alphabetical rotation of the church membership (including the pastor and missionaries) so they could experience what it meant to lead the church for a year.

Through this kind of church ministry, we have gained experience and expertise in discipleship. At the same time, we have seen that specifically for Japan, what Jesus says is true: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Luke 10:2 NIV). We have seen that there’s a huge need for laborers, both laypeople and pastors, to bring in all the harvest out there.

One goal is to bridge the gap between the spiritual life of a local church and a Bible school education, offering Christians a program to help them listen quietly to God’s voice, teach them the richness of God’s word, and train them to live as authentic Christians in their daily lives. After completing the year-long program, participants can continue to work with even greater passion in their home churches or begin a new chapter in their lives by attending Bible school to become a part-time or full-time minister.

In 2022, we had a half-year trial launch to see if Christians were interested in such a ministry. A total of eight Christians attended the trial program. We met once a month on weekends at different church locations to have a time of worship and sharing, to learn more about the topic “Who is the God of the Bible?”, to have an extended personal quiet time with God (e.g., while sitting on a red chair that symbolized the lap of God), and to reflect together on certain topics in workshops such as nine ways to encounter God, the Bible and art, and Christian life in the daily routine. We had a very blessed time. We saw that Japanese Christians are interested in a discipleship program like this, which we have named the Christian Seicho Center. In addition, we learned once again that Japanese are very busy, and we need a lot of flexibility to create a program that Japanese Christians are willing to attend. (For more information, see page 25 in the resource section.)

Right now, planning is underway to launch the first one-year program in 2024. Please pray for the launch. If you know someone who might be interested in participating, please encourage him/her to do so.

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