Learning from Pastors’ and Missionaries’ Perspectives
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”
– Matthew 16:18
When Jesus promised to build His Church, He made it clear that the initiative and authority for this task are His. But He also says He will use Peter and the confession of faith he has just made. When we work to build the Church, we are in an amazing partnership with our Lord Himself. We know that He wants us to work with Him to make disciples and see them gathered in local expressions of His one Church.
OMF is committed to planting churches in Japan and this research project is focussed on that task. How can we do better at planting churches here in Japan? How can we partner well with others to see more churches started? What wisdom has the Lord given to brothers and sisters working in this area that we can learn from? Japan is changing, and existing churches face many challenges. How can we face these challenges and still work to plant churches that go on to plant churches?
The results of this research which identifies key areas for us to pay attention to as we plant, highlights different trends in how Japanese pastors and missionaries may think and gives us recommendations for partnering well together.
Thank you to everyone who took part in this research, giving their time, expertise and encouragement. Thank you also to the team at Eido Research for their wisdom and enthusiasm in designing the research, analysing the results and writing this report. I am grateful to the OMF Research Reference Group and other OMFers who prayed, researched, interviewed, translated and more to make this possible.
Our prayer is that this report will help OMF and the wider church in Japan to learn and grow together so that we might see many more churches planted here to the glory of God.
Chris Pain, OMF Japan Field Director
