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Church-planting in Japan
Starting a church in
Japan can be a very slow, arduous, and often discouraging task.
Historically, Japan has not been a Christian nation, so for various reasons,
Japanese people are reluctant to embrace Christianity wholeheartedly. While
readily accepting the moral teachings of Christianity, they often won’t
place their faith exclusively in Christ. Typically, even in very large
cities, there are few churches and the number of members is small.
 The
Geisler family came to Japan in January 1998 and attended language school
for one year. Our first two years in Japan we worked with BBF missionary
Kenneth Board, and the Kitakyushu Bible Baptist Church. Then in 2000 we
move to the nearby farming community of Kurate. There we started holding
English outreach meetings and Bible studies in our home.
Eventually we began
holding Sunday morning worship services in our home. To
advertise the meetings, we passed out thousands of tract/flyers in the
community. A nucleus of a church was started called the Kurate Baptist
Mission, that continued for over a year. When we returned on furlough in
June 2002, we directed those attending to other works in the area. Many
lives were touched with the gospel and we gained valuable experience in
church planting.
Upon
returning to Japan in 2005, we moved to a new location—the city of Kumamoto,
a city of about 700 thousand people. Again we began outreach classes
teaching English and started holding Bible studies in our home. Various
materials have been used for the Bible studies including some we have
written ourselves. The Christmas studies have been especially interesting
to the Japanese.
Then in
April 2007, we began holding Sunday morning worship services at a rented
location. There is a Sunday school time for children followed by a worship
service. It is all done bilingually, Japanese and English, and attracts
those interested in the English language. The services are attended
sparsely, with an average attendance of about 12. We are praying that God
will raise up an independent Baptist church from those attending these
“Christian Meetings.”
Testimonies
Rick
- I was saved at age
22 and baptized at Forest Hills Baptist church in Titusville,
FL.
I felt called to preach and went to Arlington Baptist College in
Arlington, TX. My
freshman
year I felt led to missions. I met my wife in Bible college and after graduation we
married. Later, we moved to
Houston, TX, where I served as a youth leader and Christian school teacher
for 4 years at the Helmers St. Baptist Church.
Then, I resigned my teaching position and prepared to go to the
mission field. We joined
Maranatha Baptist Mission in Natchez, MS, and after deputation went to
Japan. We served in Japan for one term and returned to the US for
furlough. During this
furlough time, I felt led of God to change mission groups. We initially joined ABWE but later resigned to return to Japan as
local-church-sent missionaries, using LAMP, Landmark Mission Projects,
Fort Worth, TX to handle our offerings.
Sharlyn
- I was saved as a child at the Lakeview Park Baptist Church in Humble,
TX. I felt the Lord tugging on my heart for missions several
times in my youth. After high
school, I attended the Arlington Baptist College in Arlington, TX, where I
met my husband. In college we
both felt called to missions and waited for God’s leading as to where
and when. We moved to Houston, TX, and worked with the youth at Helmers
St. Baptist Church. Our children, Rachel and Jonathan, were born in Texas
during that time.
When we felt led of God to go to the mission field, we prayed much
and both felt God’s peace about serving in Japan.
After
serving in Japan for one term we learned to love the country and
the people. On furlough our third
child Bethany was born. We are now
serving in Kumamoto, Japan on our second term. Our oldest
daughter Rachel, (now 21 years old), remained in the States
Our Goals in
Kumamoto, Japan
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Build
relationships with the Japanese through teaching English
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Do
personal witnessing and passing out flyers door-to-door
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Start
Bible study meetings in our home
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Lead
Japanese people to Christ and baptize them
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Work
with national pastors and other missionaries in evangelism and church planting
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Teach
new converts the whole Bible
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Begin
holding worship services and eventually establish Baptist churches
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Guide
these churches into becoming independent and calling a national pastor
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Train
national men to evangelize and to lead churches
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Teach
churches to be mission supportive and eventually send out their own
missionaries
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