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.
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| Pastor of Admin. |
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| Pastor of Worship |
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| Pastor of Teaching |
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| Pastor of Outreach |
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| 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
