The Big Plan

Over the last several weeks several people have asked about my vision for Kyoto, and our ministry. This is the ministry plan that God gave me one night for our work here, so I would like to share it with you all this week. This is what we are going to attempt here in Japan for the Glory of the Lord. We want to see His Name lifted high! Lord Bless!

The Plan

“Expect Great things from God; attempt great things for God.” ~ William Carey

The plan God has given me has multiple stages, so I will try to lay it out as simply and succinctly as possible. Let’s start with the immediate plan, and then look at the 3 year,

5 year, 10 year, 15 year, and 20 year plans.

Important Big Picture Info

My Immediate plan begins with the big picture. I am looking to build a church with 5 pastor positions. The reason for this comes from a multitude of scriptures, (Acts15:4, Acts 15:22, Acts 20:17, James 5:14, and 1 Peter 5:1), all of which refer to the plurality of Elders in the churches of Jerusalem, and Ephesus. I believe this leads to a healthy church where there is encouragement, edification, and insight among the leaders, which will help in spiritual purity for the leaders, and an ability to better minister to the entire flock of God as one may be gifted in a certain area more than the others, and is thus better equipped to handle situations or duties and vice versa.

Pastor of Admin. 

Pastor of Worship

Pastor of Teaching

Pastor of Outreach

Pastor of Youth

Each Pastor will have equal respect but varying amounts of responsibility and duties. Each Pastor would be encouraged to develop their own personal plan of ministry and vision for their ministry, so long as they are all ultimately striving in agreement to reach toward the BIG VISION of a Great Awakening in Japan, by fulfilling the mission statement in their own way. All decisions affecting the church body would be through a majority vote and discussion, but final say will stay with the senior teaching pastor.

 The Pastor of Administration would be responsible for the Administration of the Church, Eikaiwa(‘s), and ***Coffee Shop(s). This pastor would also be responsible for his weekly “Sectional Relational Evangelism”, discipleship classes, and area’s small group. 

The Pastor of Worship would be responsible for all aspects of Worship. This position is very important in the church, as worship allows us to draw close to our heavenly father in a uniquely intimate way, and worship can help prepare the hearts for the teaching that follows. This pastor would also be responsible for his weekly “Sectional Relational Evangelism”, discipleship classes, and area’s small group. 

The Pastor of Teaching would be the Head Pastor, and responsible for the weekly messages. This would incorporate all aspects of the message including visual displays and media. This pastor would also be responsible for his weekly “Sectional Relational Evangelism”, discipleship classes, and area’s small group.  

The Pastor of Outreach would be responsible for mobilizing the church into effective ministry outreach teams and for overseeing and setting up ministry opportunities in Kyoto and for the Kyoto people. This pastor would also be responsible for his weekly “Sectional Relational Evangelism”, discipleship classes, and area’s small group. 

The Pastor of Youth would be responsible for the preparing of messages for youth and the oversight and care of Church Youth and the mobilizing of the church youth to reach out to the local schools. This could incorporate children’s ministry as well. This pastor would also be responsible for his weekly “Sectional Relational Evangelism”, discipleship classes, and area’s small group. 

You’re probably wondering about “Sectional Relational Evangelism”, so this diagram may help:

In this diagram, we are looking to split the city of Kyoto into 5 sections for ministry purposes. Each Pastor would be ultimately responsible for a certain section of the city, with each pastor rotating to a new section each year. The idea for this is three-fold.

First, the pastor would be responsible for getting out into his given section during the week to meet the people in the local area, pass out flyers, meet with foreigners, visit the Colleges or Universities in the area, and build relationships with the people of Kyoto.

Second, Prayer – Kyoto has been a stronghold for Satan for thousands of years. I would like to have all pastors include prayer walks in their weekly schedules, as prayer is our true weapon, and it will also increase our heart and burden for the people we are ministering to.

Third, The pastor would be responsible for hosting the local small group in this area. He would be responsible for finding a place of meeting and overseeing/ guiding the small groups and topics in this section. I firmly believe small groups are a very effective engine of a churches growth and discipleship, allowing for deeper relationships among the believers, and a deeper knowledge of God through a more intimate look at His Word outside of the Church Services. 

I am also looking to use Eikaiwa(s) and hopefully a coffee shop or two as ministry tools.

Let me explain briefly, An Eikaiwa is an after-school school that teaches conversational English. I have experience starting two different Eikaiwas, and they are a very effective way for meeting people and sharing ideas and the Gospel. They would also bring in some money to help support the pastors, and missionaries working with us.

The Coffee shop is also a similar idea – Japan is the number one consumer of coffee in the world, and a coffee house is an excellent way of reaching into the local community and making relationships. The idea being that small groups could meet for their small groups in the coffee shop(s) and feel more free to invite their friends and neighbors, as it will be less threatening than going to a church, but once there the Pastor will work on cultivating a relationship with the new individuals, and work on follow up, even inviting the person or people back to the coffee shop for a free coffee and a chance to talk and build a relationship.

Before I go back to my immediate plan, I would like to point out that the ministry we are looking to start is going to focus primarily on standing on three legs. Those three legs are phenomenal worship, deep teaching, and personal, open relationship building.

So with that big picture information being clarified, let me move on to describing my immediate plan.

My Immediate Plan

I understand that finding 5 pastors to start with is a stretch. So I am looking for a passionate person called to be a Worship Pastor. This will allow for teamwork, and as it says in Ecc. 4:9-12

“Two people are better than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person fails, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep the other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back to back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple braided cord is not easily broken.”

I feel very strongly that I am called to be the teaching pastor.  So we will have the base covered for building the ministry. Within the first year of making the move to Kyoto, we would focus on building the church, getting out into the city to pass out tracts, and flyers, prayer walks, building an Eikaiwa, and potentially, a coffee shop.

We hope to be able to find a very centralized location in Downtown Kyoto that would have easy access to all train lines, subways, and buses. We are looking for a 2 or three story building. On the first floor we would have the Eikaiwa and Coffee shop, and the Second floor is where we would have the church, and the third floor is where my family and I would live and also where we could hopefully build a “prophet’s chamber” for mission teams to come and stay while they help us. 

For the first 2-3 years, I would like to focus on saturating the immediate area, and going out in teams during the week to the different sections of Kyoto to build relationships and help meet people and spread the Gospel. And potentially starting a second Eikaiwa.

My Three Year Plan

My three year plan is to expand. We are looking to have found people for all five Pastor positions. I would want to be able to start the big picture plan of reaching the five sections of Kyoto, looking for more opportunities to help in the community, and effectively starting the five area small groups.  We would be looking to expand to a third Eikaiwa in a new section of the city, again for relational value and financial support for the pastors.

My Five Year Plan

My five year plan is more ambitious, but I believe with God all things are possible. By the fifth year, I am looking for all the  pastors to be full time, being fully supported by the church, and the Eikaiwas. In this fifth year, each pastor would look for an individual who is spiritually gifted and has the calling of God for ministry. Each pastor would take that individual under their direct tutelage for an intense internship and discipleship, with the idea that by the seventh year, they will be trained enough to be able to be sent out as a team to one of the five sections of Kyoto to start a new church.

This same pattern would again be replicated in both the original church, and eventually the new church, thus creating two new churches and so on, until Kyoto is fully saturated. Once Kyoto is fully saturated we would be looking to send out teams to other cities in Japan to start more churches - we would rather have many churches in local neighborhoods all throughout Japan, than one large church with limited access.

In this year we will exercise caution in accordance with 1 Timothy 5:22, but I do feel strongly that a healthy church should replicate.

My Ten Year Plan

In the ten year plan I would like to expand to starting an International Christian school, in the downtown of Kyoto. In this year I would look to start from K-4(Nursery school) and hopefully build from there. I would also like to be able to plant a third church in another section of Kyoto.

2 Timothy 3:14-15 “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing that from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

My Fifteen Year Plan

In the fifteenth year, I am looking to expand the International School from Nursery school to High School. We also plan to build or renovate a large building to be used as a homeless shelter, with between 200-400 beds, where the homeless in Kyoto will be able to find a warm bed, showers, and food. Here we would daily share and show the Love of Christ, offering counseling, and any help necessary. The desire is to see that any homeless in Kyoto would have a place to lay their head and rest without judgment, or condemnation, just acceptance and love.

“Isaiah 58:10 “ If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desires of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.”

Caring for the poor, sick, and homeless was a ministry very close to the Lord’s heart and I would like to emulate him and do likewise, for I believe our response to those who are struggling or less fortunate is a testimony of our relationship with Christ.

The Twenty Year Plan

By our twentieth year, my prayer and desire is that Christ's Love and Name will have so saturated Kyoto, that we will even be able to start and support a mission to the Yakuza, “the Japanese Mafia”. In Kyoto, on the south side of the city, there is a large Yakuza population. I am hoping and praying that the Love of Christ will reach down and save them and call some of them to the ministry. My desire is to train them and commission them for missionary work among the Yakuza. If the Gospel can penetrate the Yakuza Organization in Kyoto, then it will spread to Tokyo and Hiroshima and everyplace where darkness has ruled for so long.

Luke 1:79 “To give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

I hope I haven’t bored you yet! I strongly believe that God is getting ready to do something huge in Japan. It is going to be amazing! Unlike anything Japan has ever seen before. People for years have talked about the 10/40 window, the Iron Curtain, and the Bamboo Curtain, but little effort has been put into pushing forward into Japan, because ministry in Japan is considered so tough and slow. It’s expensive, time consuming, and at times depressing, but things have changed. Japan is still very expensive, and Kyoto is the fifth most expensive city in the world to live in, it still is very time consuming, but the Japanese people are more open then they have been since General McArthur. The Fields are ready for harvest and my wife and I are ready and willing.

Isa. 6:8 “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

This whole letter may sound crazy to you, and I thank you for taking the time to read through my scattered thoughts. I know this vision and plan sound big, and slightly impossible, and from a human perspective it is, so that is why I am dreaming big, because I am unable to do it, and that means that God has to do it!

As the famous missionary Alexander Mackay once said,

            “A powerful nation has to be won from darkness to light; superstition and idolatry have to be overthrown; men have to be taught to love God and love their neighbor, which means the uprooting of institutions that have lasted for centuries; labor made noble, the slave set free, knowledge imparted, and wisdom implanted; and above all, that true wisdom taught which alone can elevate man from a brute to a son of God. Who would not willingly engage in such a noble work, and consider it the highest honor on earth to be called to do it?”

~Mike