The Church of God Mission
The Church of God Mission in Japan is comprised of career missionaries and special assignment missionaries commissioned by Church of God Ministries whose headquarters are in Anderson, Indiana USA. “The Church of God began in 1881 as a movement emphasizing unity and holiness. Early leaders sought to forsake denominational hierarchies and formal creeds, trusting solely in the Holy Spirit as their overseer, and in the Bible as their statement of belief. These individuals saw themselves at the forefront of a movement to restore unity and holiness to God’s church. Their aim was not to establish another denomination but to promote primary allegiance to Jesus Christ and transcend denominational loyalties”.1
Work of the Church of God in Japan was begun in 1908 by A.U. Yajima, a Japanese pastor who had traveled to the US for health reasons and found the church’s newspaper left on a train. Identifying with the emphasis on holiness and unity, Yajima contacted the church and soon returned to Japan with the vision of God’s people serving as one beyond the man-made barriers of sects and creeds. One year later in 1909, Yajima asked the church in America to send missionaries to help in the work. From the beginning, the work of the Church of God Mission in Japan has always been in direct cooperation with and at the request of the Japanese national church.
Presently, mission staff includes one career missionary and 6 special assignment missionaries. All are involved in educational ministries and all serve in local Japanese Church of God congregations. Career missionaries have been involved in congregational leadership and pastoring. Tamagawa Seigakuin Girls’ Junior and Senior High School in Tokyo is an important work of the church in Japan. There are 16 congregations of the Church of God in Japan from Okinawa to Hokkaido, along with two other congregations associated historically and currently in direct cooperation with the national church. Reverend Satoru Kanemoto is the elected chairman of the Japanese Church of God.
1 http://www.jesusisthesubject.org/our-history/
More information about the church’s mission work can be found at:
http://www.chogmissions.org/
The Japanese Church of God website is:
http://xn--u9j463geip7pa94cc38by5dpv1d.com/