Rural Japan Church Planting
Network Founding Meeting
Part A 3 to 5 PM
•Overview of Church Presence/Absence
(Unchurched Japan = Rural Japan)
•Overview of Distribution of Missionaries/Rural
Outreach
•RJCPN Introduction and Projects Overview
•Ways urban missionaries and churches can help
reach rural Japan (Presentation, Q&A/Panel
Discussion, and Open Discussion)
•Next Steps for RJCPN? Q&A, Survey, Discussion
•Commitment form
Rural Japan Church Planting
Network Founding Meeting
Part B 7 to 9 PM
•RJCPN Planning Discussion– How can
RJCPN help mobilize, sustain long-term,
and resource rural Japan workers and
mobilize and equip urban partners?
•Season of Prayer for Rural Japan
•RJCPN Near-Term Goals and Action
Items
•Rural worker info and idea exchange—
Mutually sharing what we are finding
works well and what struggles we are
facing in our ministry.
Overview of Church
Presence/Absence
Four Missiologically Distinct Japans;
3234 Distinct Communities
Churches - Percent Christian
status
1-2%
10s to 100s of
churches in each
city
50K to 1 million
0.3 - 1 %
Urban areas
1 to 10s of
(Mixed/Transitioning)
churches in each
area
0-1 churches
< 0.1%
Rural areas
3K - 50K
(Pioneering)
(2400 Total RAs. 14 million in 1505
1500 are URAs; URA's have NO
Note: URA =
Unreached Rural 900 URAs 6K-20K) church or
outreach
Area
JAPAN UPG
SEGMENT
Mega-Cities
(Finishing)
Highly isolated rural
area (IRA).
Segment
population
> 1 million
< 3K
Typically no
church or
sustained
outreach
Typically none
Missionary
resources
Abundant
Total population
Abundant
66 million in 442
urban communities
Scarce
34 million in 2443
rural communities
(only 938 have a
church)
Absent
600,000 people in
325 areas
27 million in 12
MegaCities
C
H
U
O
R
V
C
E
A
H
R
B
V
S
P
I
E
R
E
N
E
W
C
S
E
E
O
N
F
C
E
/
Out of 2400 rural communities
3K to 50K in population, approx.
1500 do not yet have a single
church (see yellow).
Yellow=no church; unchurched rural area =
URA; 3K-50K population
Green-no church; ＜3K pop
Blue=church; Rural Area; 3K- 50K population
Purple=church; >1,000K pop.
Pink=church; 50k-1000K pop.
Orange=church; ；＜3K pop..
% of Communities in Prefecture
that are URAs (excl. <3K)
60-77% URAs
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Nagasaki 76.4 •
Saga 73.9
•
Akita 72.5
•
Kumamoto 71.4
•
Aomori 70.0
•
Niigata 68.6
•
Mie 68.2
•
Tottori 64.9
Kagoshima 64.0 •
Miyazaki 63.2 •
•
Gifu 62.7
Yamagata 61.4 •
Fukui 61.3
•
Hiroshima 61.2
Iwate 61.0
Oita 60.9
Tokushima 60.0
50-59.9% URAs
Shimane 59.6
Ishikawa 59.5
Tochigi 57.3
Fukushima 56.6
Okayama 55.4
Gunma 54.0
Kochi 53.7
Miyagi 53.6
Yamanashi 52.9
Nagano 51.7
Shiga 51.0
Yamaguchi 50.0
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
40-50%URAs
Fukuoka 48.4
Toyama 48.1
Hyogo 46.7
Wakayama
46.7
Kyoto 46.5
Hokkaido 46.4
Aichi 42.9
Kagawa 41.9
Nara 41.7
25-40%URAs
• Ehime 39.3
• Ibaraki 38.1
• Chiba 33.8
• Okinawa 33.3
• Shizuoka 31.5
• Saitama 28.1
3-24%URAs
• Kanagawa 16.2
• Osaka 13.6
• Tokyo 2.9
TOKYO
A
K
I
T
A
Martin Ghent’s Talk
Relationship between URAs and
Missionary Distribution
All 47 Prefectures —Missionaries (red)
and URAs (blue).
Prefectures in order of %of URAs.
500
450
400
350
300
Series1
250
Series2
200
150
100
50
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47
Inverse Proportion of URAs and
Missionaries
500
450
400
# of Missionaries in Prefecture
350
300
250
Series1
200
Linear (Series1)
150
100
50
0
0
-50
10
20
30
40
50
# of URAs in Prefecture
60
70
80
90
The 27(23) least churched prefectures
have almost no missionaries
80
70
60
50
Series1
40
Series2
30
20
10
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
% of Communities in Prefecture that are URAs
(Prefecture, # URAs, # of Missionaries in Prefecture [most in cities])
Purple = Less than one unit (couple or single) in whole prefecture per every 5 URAs; Green = 1 unit in
prefecture per 3 to 5 URAs; Orange = 1 unit per 1 to 3 URAs; Black = 1 to many units per each URA.
60-77% URAs 50-59.9% URAs
About 700 unchurched
areas; only 160
missionaries (80 units).
Nagasaki 55 10
Saga 34 4
Akita 50 2
Kumamoto 60 25
Aomori 42 19
Niigata 72 7
Mie 45 14
Tottori 24 0
Kagoshima 55 7
Miyazaki 24 9
Gifu 47 14
Yamagata 27 3
Fukui 19 4
Hiroshima 41 17
Iwate 36 0 (16?)
Oita 28 5
Tokushima 24 4
392 unchurched
areas; only 232
missionaries.
Shimane 28 2
Ishikawa 22 15
Tochigi 43 23
Fukushima 47 8?
Okayama 36 14
Gunma 34 15
Kochi 22 2
Miyagi 37 46
Yamanashi 27 10
Nagano 46 63
Shiga 25 30
Yamaguchi 25 14
40-49% URAs
336 unchurched
areas; 450
missioanries.
Fukuoka 45 38
Toyama 13 7
Wakayama 21 2
Hyogo 42 104
Kyoto 20 63
Hokkaido 85 119
Aichi 36 77
Kagawa 18 6
Nara 15 43
25-40%URAs
143 Unchurched
Areas; 400
missionaries
Ehime 22 0
Ibaraki 32 30
Chiba 27 97
Okinawa 14 77
Shizuoka 23 57
Saitama 25 140
0-24%URAs
0 to 13 unchurched
areas; 600 missionaries
Kanagawa 6 126
Osaka 6 56
Tokyo 1 439
Proportional Needs and In-Prefecture
Resources Impact Potential Strategies
Many new lead church
planters needed; CP Teams
with multiple other FT
CPAs/Ms needed; cluster of
URAs approach needed. Few
nearby churches in region
limits potential partnership.
<1 M unit/cluster of 5 URAs.
Akita
Ehime
Fukui
Fukushima(?)
Gifu
Iwate (pre 3/11*)
Kagoshima
Kochi
Mie
Miyazaki Nagasaki
Niigata Oita
Saga
Shimane
Tokushima
Tottori Wakayama
Yamagata(?)
Scant but potentially
sufficient resources (1
unit/cluster of 2 to 5
URAs) within prefecture
to finish job via cluster
of URAs/ church
partnership approach
Aomori Fukuoka
Gunma Hiroshima
Hokkaido Ibaraki
Iwate (post 3/11*)
Ishikawa Kagawa
Kumamoto
Miyagi(?) Nagano
Okayama Shiga
Tochigi Toyama
Yamaguchi
Yamanashi
Intentional action just by FT
CPers/Ms already
in/headed for prefecture
could finish job even w/o
cluster of
URAs/partnership
approach (>2 units/1 URA)
Aichi
Chiba
Hyogo Kyoto
Nara
Okinawa
Saitama Shizuoka
No URAs left, essentially
(100s of missionary and
almost no URAs)
Kanagawa
Osaka
Tokyo
Introduction to the
Rural Japan Church Planting Network (RJCPN)
The need is tremendous.
Human resources are often scant and mostly
latent—yet in many cases sufficient if activated.
More human resources are also needed.
The status quo alone is not getting us there in most
prefectures.
Many things we are doing or could do as individuals,
teams, agencies, and so on.
But are there not also things we can do better
together? If so, in such areas, a network can be one
part of making a difference.
RJCPN is being launched as a forum to explore and
pursue research, prayer, awareness, and collaboration
regarding the unchurched communities in rural Japan.
Introduction to RJCPN—Vision Statement
RJCPN exists as a forum to facilitate and promote awareness, idea exchange,
fellowship, prayer, connection, and free and diverse collaboration among equal entities
(whether groups or individuals) to increase awareness and engagement with the gospel of
Japan’s unchurched rural areas which are a large, but for the most part almost completely
neglected, segment in a country that as a whole is still in large measure unreached.
Vision Statement ビジョンステートメント
The vision of the Rural Japan Church Planting Network (RJCPN) is
the presence of a lasting local gospel witness
in each of the unchurched rural areas throughout Japan
so that
the maximum number of rural Japanese now and in future generations
have a meaningful opportunity (in their own community)
to come into relationship and continue to walk with God in this life and for all eternity as
disciples of Jesus.
ビジョンステートメント RJCPN（日本地方教会開拓ネットワーク）のビジョンは、日本中の教会がまだ
ない地方の地域のそれぞれに、永続的にその土地の福音の証し人が存在することである。それは
現在も将来の世代においても地方にいるできるだけ多くの日本人が神との親しい関係に導かれる
ための意味のある機会をもち、キリストの弟子としてこの地上でもまた永久的に神と歩み続けるた
めである。
Introduction to RJCPN: Mission Statement
Mission Statement
ミッションステートメント
The mission of the Rural Japan Church RJCPNのミッションは、これらを尊重す
る環境における協力をとおして、日本
Planting Network is to facilitate the
の教会がまだない地方の地域へ伝道
reaching of Japan’s unchurched
を促進することである。
rural areas (URAs) via:
-- 祈りへの動員、
-- prayer mobilization,
-- 働き人の動員、
-- worker mobilization,
-- 意識の構築、
-- awareness building,
-- データの調査と分かち合い,
-- data research and sharing,
--アイデア交換、
-- idea exchange,
-- 相互の教授と励まし、
-- mutual equipping and
-- 多様なアプローチ
encouragement, and
(伝統的か非伝統的融合的など）
-- collaboration in an environment
that honors diverse
approaches (whether traditional,
non-traditional, blended, etc).
Scope of RJCPN
Some specific things are already envisioned.
That said, the types of projects and
collaboration possible via RJCPN are intended
to be very broad and diverse with no
preconceived limits
so long as the focus is directly or indirectly
related to reaching the approximately
1500 communities in Japan that, prior to the
recent decade of city/town mergers,
had populations of 3,000 to 50,000
and
currently have no established Protestant
Christian church.
Introduction to RJCPN: CORE VALUES (Draft; partial list).
In a Nutshell:
Broad and Diverse
•RJCPN is open to Christians who affirm the statement of faith.
•It is for both foreigners and Japanese, male and female. As equal partners.
•It is for missionaries, pastors, and lay persons.
•It is for those working in rural Japan, urban Japan, and abroad with a heart for rural Japan.
•It is for individuals, groups, churches, agencies, associations, and so on.
With a Facilitating and Inclusive Mind Set
•Default is to be as non-exclusive as pragmatically possible.
•Participation in one RJCPN aspect/activity does not require or imply endorsement or participation in any other aspect.
•This allows for maximum diversity of collaborative potential, rather than exclusion of activities not all are interested in.
That Honors Diversity.
•RJCPN seeks to see rural Japan reached with the gospel in any God-honoring Biblical way.
•It is not prescriptive in nature. We have no canned program we want to propagate.
•RJCPN is not intended as a forum to preferentially promote or discourage any particular approach, method, or paradigm. RJCPN
recognizes God works through various people and groups in highly diverse ways so does not seek to promote any given paradigm
as the 'best practice for all.’
•At the same time, we recognize the value of and facilitate idea exchange/learning from one another .
RJCPN is what WE make it.
•RJCPN is not limited just to the specific plans already envisioned, but is intended by its very nature to be open to a largely
unlimited range of possible collaborations/projects except as factors like limited volunteer resource pragmatically limit what is
pragmatic at any given time.
•Share specific ideas you'd like to see facilitated and help facilitate via RJCPN at any time by emaling RJCPN@hotmail.com..
Introduction to RJCPN: Structure
RJCPN is comprised solely of volunteers mutually committed to working together in good faith to
the degree each member deems collaboration in a specific activity to be synergistic.
RJCPN is a loose network, it is not an organization.
As such, members do not exercise authority over one another.
Rather, any member in good standing (meeting RJCPN's membership requirements) can freely mutually collaborate
via RJCPN in a given activity or aspect of RJCPN without incurring any obligation to participate in any other
RJCPN activities. Further, no RJCPN leader or member can obligate any other RJCPN member to any
activity. The basic leadership structure of RJCPN exists to coordinate and facilitate the network's function for the benefit of the
members as it pertains to their common goal of increasing outreach in rural Japan, not to seek to impose activities on members.
Rather, each
RJCPN member freely chooses which activities to commit to and which not to be
involved in.
1)RJCPN Founder/Coordinator: Dawn Birkner.
2)RJCPN Advisory Council (3 to 5 members): Dawn Birkner, Martin Ghent, Heather Nelson. NonVoting Participant: One of the Klines. To express interest in serving in this way or to nominate someone else, contact
rjcpn@hotmail.com
3)RJCPN Consultation Advisors (supplemental advisory pool): John Mehn, Donnel McLean, Don Wright
4)Specialty Roles: When concrete needs for various functional roles emerge (e.g. prayer bulletin coordinator) or
specialty focuses arise, volunteers will be sought to fill those roles. Those interested in offering to serve in a specialty role are
welcome to email to express and describe their interest.
5)General Membership: open to any Protestant Christian who adheres to the statement of faith, agrees to
operate within RJCPN activities that they choose to participate in in accordance with the core values, lives out their Christian faith in
their practical walk, and has a heart for rural Japan. Subject to approval of the RJCPN coordinator and advisory council. Please fill out
the membership commitment form today or email RJCPN@hotmail.com to join. Members receive updates by email and are free to
submit ideas, proposals, and input or participate in various RJCPN activities at any time.
Introduction to RJCPN: Projects Overview
Prayer Mobilization (also a key aspect of awareness building)
A) 47 overseas prayer groups, where each one is committed to praying for the URAs of one adopted prefecture. Overseas
portion well underway. Several continents involved. Underway.
B) Quarterly prayer bulletins for URAs. Underway.
C) Bilingual prayer bulletins. Future goal.
D) 47 in Japan prayer groups, where each one is committed to praying for the URAs of one adopted prefecture. Future
goal.
E) Prayer requests for prayer bulletins supplied by 47 prefectural representatives in Japan. Future Goal.
Research/Stats/Mapping
A) Initial Phase--Mapping project showing all URAs in each of Japan’s 47 prefectures. Over 20 done and on line at RJCPN
website. 17 more should be online within a week or two. And the last nine to follow soon.
B) Database of URAs (based on pre-merger community delineations) and outreaches among them. Ressurrected from
hard copy information, database completed, and now online as a downloadable Excel file. However, more info on church
plants and outreaches in URAs still needs to be gathered. (Note: From 1999 to 2012 when most rural towns or villages in
Japan were amalgamated and legally merged with largely unrelated distinct towns/villages or large cities in the
region). The database contains information by region and prefecture on each pre-merger community name, its
population, whether or not it has at least one established Protestant church, the larger post-merger entity (city) with
which it has been merged in recent years, and any known outreaches or church planting activitiy in the subset of
communities that are URAs. Kanjj, hiragana, and romaji names are given for the pre-gappei communities and kanji
and romaji are also given for the larger entities with which these communities have been governmentally merged. The
URA column/field indicates whether the community is deemed an unchurched rural area for RJCPN‘s
purposes. Submissions of corrections and new information updates are welcome at any time.
C) Inclusion of rural Japan statistics and maps online and also in the upcoming Operation Japan update.
D) Distribution of missionaries relative to URA locations. Future goal.
E) Ongoing database and map updates.
Other
A)RJCPN website development. Work in progress, but underway. www.rjcpn.upgjapanmissions.com. Provides place to
post research/data/maps; openings for missionaries in rural Japan; and news/prayer letters/links for ministries in URAs.
B) Development of the RJCPN Advisory Council.
C) RJC Conference in U.S. in February
RJCPN Projects Overview
Proposals or Ideas under Discussion or Consideration:
A)2012 or 2013 East and West Japan regional rural Japan church planting workshops
(proposed by John Mehn; would be taught largely by Martin Ghent and Dawn Birkner),
in cooperation with JEMA, IF sufficient interest).
B)Annual or bi-annual rural worker’s retreat/conference (proposed by Dawn Birkner).
C) Info exchange/resource exchange forum for rural Japan missionaries(but how?).
D) Cross-agency internship opportunities in rural Japan for first term missionaries
(concrete possibilities probable in a few prefectures among a few agencies).
E) Inter-agency rural church planting teams.
F) Greater involvement of Japanese pastors/churches (a few interested individuals have
been identified, but this has not yet been broadly pursued; translation issues first need
to be addressed).
G) Greater involvement of the missionary community/identification of more
missionaries already working in rural areas.
H) __________________________________________________? It’s up to you (and
other participants). RJCPN exists to help facilitate, not to push a pre-determined
agenda. Share your goals; see what collaboration with others might emerge.
K
A
G
A
W
A
RJCPN Website and Contact Information
The email address for RJCPN is rjcpn@hotmail.com.
The website is www.rjcpn.upgjapanmissions.com.
Some of the website content includes:
• Database (as downloadable excel file) that summarizes the RJCPN Japan
church status database.
•A nationwide color-coded map showing all the URAs in Japan at a glance.
•Detailed color-coded maps for each prefecture that show all URAs
remaining in each prefecture.
•Volunteer opportunities to help in RJCPN’s logistical operations.
•Prayer Bulletins. Quarterly(ish) prayer bulletins posted online and sent to
prayer groups.
•Place to post missionary opportunities (ST or LT) in URAs.
•Place to post prayer/newsletters/links related to URA ministries.
Until auto registration is set up, just email RJCPN if you want to register so
you can post missionary openings or prayer letters in URAs.
Introduction to RJCPN: Endorsements and Acknowledgments
RJCPN is endorsed by:
**International Ministerial Fellowship (IMF)
**Operation Japan
**Reaching Japanese for Christ (RJC)
**Reaching Japan Together Association (RJTA)
Acknowledgments and Thanks. Projects underway and pre-launch preparations were possible due to the
efforts of the following individuals and groups:
•Individuals: Gary Bauman, Dawn Birkner, Roberta Birkner, Cindy Dufty, Aukje Dykstra, Karen Ellrick, Dan
Earner, Angela Fukutome, Natsumi Gallant and friends, Martin Ghent, Yukio Hanazono, Japanese friend of
John Mehn, David Junker, Joshua and team with YWAM DTS, Stephenie Li, George McFall, Donnel McLean,
John Mehn, Karen Myers, Hugh and Heather Nelson, Keiko Obayashi, Lana Oue, Madi Robb, Brent Rogers,
Viki Rousell, Tom and Dorene Rutherford, Joey Stoll, Yoshihiko Taniguchi, Deborah Ruth Trotter, Wendy, Don
Wright. Though volunteering as individuals, these people are missionaries in Japan serving with COC,CTEN,
CW, IMB, MUP, OMF, TEAM, and WEC; others in Japan and affiliated in some way with CIS, IMF, JCF, or
YWAM DTS; tentmakers and independent missionaries in Japan; former/retired missionaries to Japan;
foreign Christian living in Japan; Japanese laypersons living in Japan and the U.S.; pastors affiliated with AOG
churches in Japan (pastor); and lay persons form and Calvary Chapel churches (lay persons) in the U.S.
•Groups: Brigada; Church Information Services; Japan Church Planting Institute; Japan Harvest Magazine;
Operation Japan; Reaching Japanese for Christ; prayer groups in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
Japan, Europe/UK, Africa, China, and the Phillipines.
Logistical Volunteer Opportunities
1) Foreign Prefectural Prayer Groups.
2) Japan Prefectural Prayer Groups.
3) 47 Japan Prefectural Representatives—people in each
prefecture who are broadly aware of outreach in their prefecture,
willing to do occasional research, and who gather or provide
quarterly prayer requests for URAs in their prefecture in
Japanese, English, or preferably both. Seeking suggestions or
someone you know perhaps?
4) Logistical volunteers (in Japan and abroad) in areas of IT,
research, translation, graphics, writing, editing, promotion, data
entry, administrative assistance, prayer coordination, web design,
or other logistical support to RJCPN’s overall function or various
special projects.
5) Open to additional nominations for advisory council.
Reaching Rural Japan from the Cities
Several Factors Impact Partnering
Strategies with Urban Churches
Distance
•Too Close (within 30 minutes)
•Just Right (30 min. to 1 hour)
•A stretch but doable (1 hours to 1.5 hours)
•Too Far (>1.5 hours) (exception: Tohoku)
Transport--For most URAs, lack of a car is a significantly limiting factor
Other Factors
•Too busy (some urban pastors in somewhat rural prefectures pastor 2 or 3 churches
and can’t take on anything else)
•Motivated vs. Unmotivated (outreach not a priority)
•Retired Japanese Pastors as Major Resource?
•Experienced as pastors but inexperienced in church planting
•Insensitivity to rural differences, pragmatic and cultural
•Attitude—antiforeigner, anti-church planting, ‘not my responsibility,’ expectations of
‘city’ results in unplowed rural ground, denominational issue, charismatic/noncharismatic issues, “too hard to bother’, urban comparisons, etc.
Reaching Rural Japan from the Cities
From Tokyo and Osaka (more than 1 to 1.5 hours away from a URA—or a bit further for Tohoku)
Prayer, Encouragement, and Awareness Building:
a) Japan Prefectural Prayer Groups (pastor’s association?)
b) Regional missionary and pastor prayer meetings with intentional inclusion of rural workers.
c) Representing rural Japan needs in networking settings (which tend to be in the city)—awareness building.
d) Phone prayer partner/encourager/informal place of retreat for rural workers.
Short-Term Teams
•
Sharing/Loaning part-time short-term teams from abroad to the countryside church planting teams.
•
ROTATING Japanese short-termers—one weekend or one week a year times 52 people or one weekend or
week a month times 12 people.
•
Church-based Japanese short-term teams sent to help rural church planters and/or sow initial seeds
(tracting, music, special programs/meetings, CP-based community service activities, etc.)
•
Mini-furlough/vacation coverage to rural church planters
Seminary/Bible School
•
Training
•
Awareness
•
Field trips (short-term teams) and longer rural (unpaid) internships.
Other
•
•
•
City to country returnee training (yasumi, permanent by chance, permanent intentional as vocational home country Ms)
Translation support to URA church planting missionaries
Logistics support to RJCPN
Reaching Rural Japan from the Cities
Those Within 30 min. to an Hour or so (too far and too close have serious downsides):
•
As a missionary, believer, pastor, church, English teacher/JCF, give a small amount of your time and ability
quarterly, monthly, or weekly to assist a lead church planter who is focused on in a URA or contiguous URA cluster.
•
If no lead church planter, carve out a significant chunk of your time to be a part-time lead rural church planter
from the city or raise up someone to be such or even relocate to a nearby URA to CP while also continuing your
city ministry part-time via a commute from the countryside
•
Help lead URA church planters to mobilize city churches to assist.
•
“Give” willing ‘starting core seed members’ to a rural CP—and shave a few years off the CP time in the URA while
also reducing attrition of CPers. Or lead a CP in a URA where your church already has ’seed members’ among its
commuters.
•
Attend or hold classes/clubs/activities in URAs to make contacts, then evangelize and also connect to local CP
events
•
Teach city church members to witness to their relatives/friends who live in URAs.
•
Short-term teams/outreaches with follow-up by a URA CP or by your church if there is no CP underway yet.
•
Help identify and connect clusters of people with interest? (JCF, CPer, pastor, city Ms, etc.)
•
Encouragement and a place of retreat for rural workers/Intentionally making room in your life for rural workers
•
Raising up pastors and lay church planters to plant churches in URAs
•
Take care not to inadvertently undermine a fragile core or otherwise unintentionally do more harm than good
•
Be sensitive to differences in urban and rural settings (car vs. train, variety vs. too much gimu--fliers, fancy vs.
sustainable, etc.)
•
Distribution to help CPers
•
Door to door work (with care to not appear to be JWs) to help CPers or to sow seeds where there is no CP
•
JW outreach specialty work.
•
Don’t compare with city ministry less you get discouraged or cause discouragement—Pioneer seed sowing and
water/harvest stage settings are apples and oranges.
•
Rural “Gospel” choirs/classes?
•
If interested in connecting with a rural CP, I probably know of concrete opportunities in Kagawa, Kochi, Iwate,
Aomori, Hokkaido, Ibaraki, N Chiba, and Nagano, to name a few.
RJCPN DISCUSSION TIME
• Participant Q&A and Panel
Discussion
• RJCPN—Open Discussion of what
you want RJCPN to do and become
• Survey. Will send a link to it if you
signed signup sheet.
• Commitment.
Rural Japan Church Planting
Network Founding Meeting Part 2
•RJCPN Planning Discussion– How can
RJCPN help mobilize, sustain long-term, and
resource rural Japan workers and mobilize
and equip urban partners? Near-Term Goals
and Action Items?
•Season of Prayer for Rural Japan
•Rural worker info and idea exchange—
Mutually sharing what we are finding works
well and what struggles we are seeking to
address in our ministry
RJCPN Planning Discussion
RJCPN Planning Discussion– RJCPN’s goal is to see how collaboration in various forms can help achieve the goal of rural
Japan having lighthouse churches in each community.
How can we via RJCPN help
1) In the area of data preservation, updating, research? How make results widely available? Map where Ms are relative to URAs?
1) To increase awareness and prayer for URAs inside Japan? In NA? Outside Japan and NA?
2) To encourage willing redistribution of some workers? To help mobilize and equip new rural workers (foreign NA, non-NA, and
Japanese) and the next generation of rural workers? Help agencies not already working in rural Japan get a start in rural
Japan? Are cross-agency rural internships feasible? Types of personnel needed, where find?
3) To help connect people with interest (JCF, urban missionaries, urban pastors, retired missionaries and pastors, ex-career
military mid-termers, returnees, urban lay persons, etc.) in same clusters in a region in rural Japan with a lead church planter
for the cluster?
4) Sustain rural workers long-term (attrition issues)? Cluster of clusters? Inter-agency teams? Prayer partners? Mentors?
Relevant member care? MK issues?
5) Rural worker retreats?
6) Help few people reach many URAs? Multiple locations, 1 unit per cluster plus partners?
7) Mobilize and equip urban partners (foreign and Japanese) to assist rural church planters?
8) Rural church planting one day workshops? Workshop in West and East Japan—if do, how get enough interest and how
advertize?
9) Encourage ST teams (in Japan, foreign) to go to rural areas?
10) How facilitate idea exchange among rural workers?
11) What tackle in what priority order? Near-Term Goals and Action Items? More distant goals? What do you mainly want to see
happen via RJCPN? How do you want to personally contribute to RJCPN? How do we get more aware of and involved in
RJCPN-missionaries, Japanese padtors, Japanese lay persons?
Season of Prayer
Rural Missionary/Pastor
Info and Idea Exchange
Rural worker focus and Idea Exchange (45 min)
a) What are you doing and planning to do?
b) What are one or a few things you think worked
well that you’d like to share with others?
c) What are some challenges you’d like to hear how
others addressed? (starting core, MK issues, etc.)
d) What would help you?
e) What can you offer to help raise up, equip, or
sustain more rural workers?
f) What else do you want to discuss?