Urban & Rural Church Planters, Japan
JP0506-05
LocationJapan
To Do What?
Evangelism, discipling, preaching and forming a group of new believers into an emerging church, eventually to hand over to Japanese pastoral leadership.
Possible Tasks
There may or may not be a committed nucleus of believers to begin for form a new church, but in any case the church planter will take the lead in training to reach out into the neighbourhood by any means at his or her disposal, from literature evangelism and door to door visitation to cooking and other craft classes. They will keep a focus on training local believers, and so will seek to use reproducible methods of reaching and befriending non-Christians. Individual and small group Bible studies will form the core ministry of challenging seekers from the word, and building up new believers. The emerging church will be developed along the patterns of church life already established by the Japanese churches with whom OMF works in Japan. These churches practice believers baptism, are reformed in doctrine and tend to be suspicious of Charismatic emphases, working in a close association in the Japanese Evangelical Churches Association
For how long?
Long term
When?
All the time
What's required?
Language?
Japanese
Type of person
In the early stages therefore the biblical gifts of evangelist, preacher, pastor and teacher are all needed to some degree. A willingness to work hard in visitation, an openness to befriend people, perseverance to keep going in the face of repeated disappointments and a continuing flexibility to adjust to new people and new situations seem to be qualities of paramount importance. The church planter needs to be able to recognise gifts in others and encourage the development of those gifts, handing over responsibility commensurate with spiritual maturity. Church planters are not a one-man/woman/couple band! Some basic administrative understanding will help as the emerging church establishes its organisation
Other Background Information