Samurai Projects: training the next generation

For those of us from an English-speaking background, the adage “time stands still for no man” is familiar to many. It paints the picture that we are all subject to the inevitable passing of time. We cannot stop the ageing process or the inevitability of death itself. It’s a sobering thought and a challenge to the rhetoric of the age that says you can, and should, be young forever. We all need to be spurred on to address this march of time that is threatening the future of Christ’s church in Japan.

By 2030 the average age of a Japanese person is predicted to be 52.1, rising from 48.4 in 2020.¹ However the average age of a Japanese pastor is already close to 70!²

This is a sobering thought. The United Church of Japan is candid about its “2030 problem”: if these trends continue, the denomination estimates that half of its churches will have to close by the end of the decade.³ And another reality, I’m told, is that many seminaries are severely short on numbers.

Despite these factors, ageing pastors continue to faithfully teach Christ’s church, often doing so at great personal cost to themselves. I’ll never forget the church we attended where the pastor’s wife was joyfully serving, despite weekly dialysis appointments for her kidney failure.

Where are the young leaders?

Where is the next generation of servant leaders for Japan’s church? Why are so few young people training for full-time ministry? What is needed to encourage people to step out in faith?

One of the key issues facing young Christians in the church in Japan is that the jump from pew to seminary seems too big. In many cases they have never had an opportunity to try out their gifts, in particular to see if they have teaching gifts. One young person now preparing for seminary reflected, “In a previous church my only area of service was on the church cleaning roster—it was a joy to serve but it wasn’t going to give me the chance to see if I could make it as a pastor!”

For many of us serving in Japan, our first taste of leading a Bible study at church or in campus ministry and seeing the Lord work through his Word was an early step towards entering ministry full time. Jesus has given to his church all the gifts necessary—presumably this means there are many young people with the gifts and character to be pastors and teachers, but they haven’t had the chance to discover this yet.

Samurai Projects

To help address this problem, The Samurai Projects (samuraiprojects.com) partners with local churches to promote the idea of a two-year, pre-seminary, church-based internship. The Samurai Projects Handbook explains:

The goal of the Samurai Projects is for interns to learn from an experienced trainer, as they have a go at ministry in their own church context. We believe as people try out their gifts in various ministries God will provide them, and their churches, with opportunities to see where they can be best used in the future.

Since its relaunch in 2021, Samurai Projects has been blessed to partner with eleven interns from nine churches in a variety of denominations. We hope this is win-win—a win for the “current” church (who get a staff member now, albeit one in training), and a win for the “future” church as the internship leads to more well-trained church members, some of whom will go on to be the pastors.

Serving in their church

Each intern spends four days a week serving in their own church (or sometimes in a parachurch ministry). Practical service is a component, but a key requirement is for the interns to be involved in teaching ministries, whether one-to-one (Bible study), Sunday school leaders, or even preaching.

In addition to these ministry opportunities, each intern has a designated “trainer-pastor” from their church—and this is vital to the success of the internship. One aim of input and feedback from a trainer is growth in ministry skills for the intern. Another equally important aim is to provide a realistic idea of what church ministry is like. A third aim is to develop godly character. One intern recently commented, “My experience has been less of a trainer-trainee relationship as much as two brothers trying to become more like Jesus.” Indeed as Paul modelled to Timothy a life of servant-hearted leadership, faults and all, Timothy grew in confidence. And as Paul saw the work of Timothy he too was bolstered in his own faith in Jesus and his ability to persevere. That has been our experience at Samurai.

Samurai Projects aims to encourage and support these trainers. For many churches, employing an intern is financially difficult, so we also provide match funding—it’s the church’s responsibility to set the intern’s stipend, but we are able to provide bursaries up to half this amount.

Training outside of the local church

Alongside work in their churches, interns gather twice a week for fellowship and classroom-based sessions. These times are for fostering gospel convictions, godly character, and growth in ministry competence. More than 30 experienced pastors and missionaries are involved in the training, and we deliberately try to cultivate an ethos that we are a group seeking to train the next generation. One particular focus is giving people the confidence to teach the Scriptures faithfully in 21st century Japan.

This year we have been working through Mark’s Gospel and Philippians. Twice a term, each intern gives a practice talk to the rest of the class. They are then given feedback, training them to be open to seeking advice and feedback in the future. One intern realized, “I used to jump straight to thinking how to make the Bible relevant to people in my church; now I realize the importance of trying to understand what the author himself is saying, and teaching what God says is key.”

Our trainers don’t all teach in a traditional way. For example, we have also seen puppets make an appearance in class! CMS Australia missionaries Helane and Adam Ramsey and their team from Oyumino Church presented a vision of teaching the Scriptures to children in a way that is relevant and grace-driven. One participant commented, “I was particularly struck to think that the whole program (including the songs, craft, and games) can be used to explain the gospel to children.”

Looking to the future

Whilst we’re praying that the Lord will raise up many full-time workers for the harvest fields, we know that many others will faithfully serve him in companies, schools, and the home. If someone does a church internship and then realizes full-time ministry is not for them, we also regard this as a success! We trust that their time as an intern still enables them to serve Jesus more wholeheartedly wherever they are called.

Samurai Projects is currently limited to the Tokyo area, but our dream is to see similar schemes set up in other regions. The opportunity to meet and study with other interns has been a key part of the Samurai experience and so we have resisted requests to make the classes available online. However, the intern element is in many ways more important than the formal classes and so from April 2023 onwards we’re experimenting with a hybrid method to allow interns from outside Kanto to join, with monthly in-person gatherings.

Besides finding interested partners, we also have to be flexible since training methods vary in effectiveness depending on context and subculture. Of course we’re not there yet. When my husband presents the work of the Samurai Projects he often shows a picture of tonkatsu. Tonkatsu—a world-renowned Japanese dish—apparently entered Japan in the Meiji period as the humble pork cutlet. However, many decades of refinement have produced something that is molded to the Japanese palate. The commandment to train the next generation of workers is thoroughly biblical,⁴ but the culturally appropriate methods will vary.

As the government of Japan confronts the prospect of a growing elderly population, they are no doubt caught in moments of despair. In the church, we too may be tempted to similar hopelessness. But time for Christ’s people does not march hopelessly to inescapable death. Rather it ascends heavenward to an age that will never end. We are hopefully praying and working towards a future of more and more servant leaders being raised up for the harvest fields of Japan.

1. “Japan: Median age of the population from 1950 to 2050”, Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/604424/median-age-of-the-population-in-japan (data released July 2019).
2. Beneath the Surface: 30 ways to pray for Japan, (Singapore: OMF International, 2020), 19.
3. “聖霊刷新協議会　教団議長招き「2030年問題」で研修”, KiriShin: The Kirisuto Shimbun, http://www.kirishin.com/2019/08/01/27708 (August 1, 2019).
4. E.g. 2 Timothy 2:2, or Matthew 9:37–38 in context (noting that Jesus instruct that we pray for workers, and then at the beginning of chapter 10 instructs (i.e. trains) and sends out the 12).
Photos submitted by author