Successful church planting

Japan desperately needs churches—lots of them. Statistics show that the vast majority of Japanese have never attended a church and have no idea of who Jesus Christ is. Even though this nation has had extensive missionary efforts and Christianity has become established, it remains largely unreached. Although there are many good ways to pursue evangelism, I believe that local churches are the best venue for evangelism and for impacting communities. However, most churches in Japan are stagnant or declining, and historically church planting in Japan has been very difficult.

Over the past 25 years, I’ve been fortunate to be involved in three church plants in Japan. I have to admit, though, that the first one failed, as I didn’t have a clear idea of what to do. After that, I joined a church that had been started a few years earlier and learned a lot about Japanese people and church. I then helped that church triple in size over the next eight years to about 170 attendees on Sunday. That church sent my family as part of a team of 15 to start a new work. After 11 years, this local church now has two Sunday services, with about 200 people in total attendance.

I’ve thought a lot about church planting in Japan—what works and what doesn’t (with plenty of experience in the latter!). Below, I share three characteristics of the successful local churches I’ve been involved with. I believe these characteristics are reproducible; we’ve incorporated them in our most recent work and seen great fruit.

1. A welcoming culture

Most people feel welcome at their own church. Of course, that’s usually because their friends are there and they are comfortable with the environment. However, very few ask whether their church is welcoming to someone who has never been there before or—especially important for Japan—someone who has never been to any kind of church before.

A welcoming environment has been crucial to our growth. Our ministry leaders and volunteers talk about it constantly, as do our regular members. We have tried to look at every facet of a newcomer’s experience to determine what can make their visit comfortable and, most importantly, what will make them want to return next week. The goal is not a seeker-driven service, but rather a time of Christian worship, teaching, and fellowship that is sensitive to a Japanese person who has never been there before.

One of the main felt needs of Japanese people is loneliness. In countless conversations with friends and others, I hear the same stories of rejection by family, oppressive work environments, or alienation from people who were once close. Often, my friends feel loved only when they perform as expected, but they are hungry to be accepted for who they are.

In Western cultures, one evangelistic method is to appeal to the seeker to abandon their old life of sin, come out from among sinners and be separate. While that is certainly a biblical concept, the other side of the coin is much more effective with Japanese people, who usually don’t have a strong sense of personal sin. They want to be accepted and find friends, so a message that says “Come and join us, be a part of this interesting group” is very powerful for them to hear. When a Japanese person comes to church for the first time, they probably won’t remember the message or be impressed with the music. But, they will know whether they felt accepted and will come back next week if they feel that they can belong.

At our church, we don’t pass out welcome cards to gather information or give gifts to first-time visitors, and we never ask them to raise their hand to be acknowledged. Rather, the leaders and welcome team members are always looking for new people. When they enter the building, they are greeted and helped to find a seat. If there is time before the service and certainly after, the first-timer is engaged in friendly conversation. When we learn something that indicates their social status, we introduce them to someone in a similar situation: a single person gets introduced to a single member, a mother to a mother (and we explain our children ministries), etc. The point is to help a newcomer or casual attender connect to other people in the body of Christ. If they can meet a few people who are similar to them and who will reach out to them during the week through social media, they will come back the next week because they’ve found a place to belong.

2. A bilingual environment

There are international churches in Japan and throughout the world. Most seem to have been started to meet the needs of expatriates and do a good job of that. Because of their target, the vast majority of international churches in Japan are bilingual, with English as the primary language. On the other hand, there is a category of bilingual church in Japan showing good success, but their primary target is Japanese people.

A bilingual church in Japan has several advantages. For us, an important one is a sense of excitement when foreigners are present. I’m not going to try to convince you that this is a biblical point; rather it’s a cultural one. In Japan, there is a desire to internationalize. Those of us who have lived here a while have probably scoffed at some of the internationalism efforts we’ve seen over the years, and rightfully so. However, in a church setting, having a certain percentage of foreigners in the mix adds a sense of happening. Am I talking about a marketing tactic? Well, not only marketing, but I have seen that a bilingual church is attractive to Japanese young and old, and I’m very interested in attracting Japanese people to join our church and ultimately hear the gospel.

We call ourselves a Japanese-first bilingual church. Our goal is to reach Japanese people, but foreigners are welcome and encouraged to participate at all levels of ministry, including preaching (depending on commitment level and qualification, of course). To encourage foreigners to come, everything is bilingual, but Japanese precedes English. Preaching is done with an interpreter standing beside the preacher. That provides a ministry opportunity for bilingual people in the church and an excellent training opportunity for young Japanese ministers. In fact, our lead pastor, a dynamic preacher and Bible teacher, learned how to speak in public by interpreting for other English speakers early in his career.

Our target is Japanese people, but we welcome foreigners, and they bring their Japanese students, friends, spouses, and children. We attract foreign Christians who have a burden for Japan and want to share their talents and energy to reach our nation. The result is that foreigners make up about 20% of our church, and the atmosphere each Sunday is lively and modern. If you’re thinking about church planting, please attend a few bilingual churches in Japan and see how they are effectively reaching Japanese people.

3. Effective small groups

In the book of Acts, a key part of the early church was consistent gathering for prayer, study, and fellowship. In urban Japan, people are busy and live far from each other. It is extremely difficult to have mid-week meetings where more than a handful can attend. Thus, small groups are essential.

We tried several different styles and have finally found one that works well. Small groups are limited in terms of numbers (four or five works best) and duration (one year) and they meet twice a month. When a group is formed, no new members are added without everyone in the group agreeing to it. This gives the group a chance to gain an intimate atmosphere, as the members become comfortable and secure with each other. However, to prevent cliques from forming, groups break up after a year and new ones are formed. Each meeting must include Bible study, sharing about one’s personal life, and prayer together—if one of these aspects is missing, it’s not a small group but something else.

Unlike other small-group programs, we don’t use ours to reach newcomers or add to the church. Rather, they are considered to be a key part of discipleship. When the focus of the meeting is the Bible, then personal sharing tends to be about how the Scripture has affected one’s life, rather than just talking about the same problems over and over. Nevertheless, personal sharing and praying for one another are also vital and provide an opportunity for the members of the Body of Christ to care for each other. The main role of the leader is to make sure that the meeting happens consistently and to stay in touch with each member. Leaders also meet regularly with the pastor to discuss the current situation and how best to lead their small group. Approximately 70% of our adult attendees are part of a small group. We’ve been using this pattern for the past seven years with good success.

These three components—welcoming culture, bilingual environment, and effective small groups—are easily reproducible in a variety of contexts in Japan. I have found that they help to form dynamic, growing churches whose main problem becomes lack of space. I hope to encourage other missionaries to get involved in church planting and see that the harvest is truly ripe. 

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