John 15:1-16 presents a Biblical and covenantal outline for Christian fruit-bearing, one of the major concerns of Christian missionary work. Jesus commissioned His Church to convert the world (Mat. 28:18-20) and also taught the method: "baptizing them and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded."

As we see through the example of the apostles in the book of Acts, the Great Commission is fulfilled through the establishment of local churches. The apostles never preached the Gospel without working to build a local church. The notion of independent Christians who do not worship God with other Christians did not exist.

By establishing local churches, the apostles were creating the core of the kingdom. As the number of local churches grew, eventually the Roman Empire, the greatest pagan empire in the world, was transformed — not entirely converted to be sure, but so fundamentally changed that the world was astonished. The process took hundreds of years and devotion unto death on the part of untold numbers of Christians. But the conquering power of the Gospel was manifest in a way that has become the paradigm for the Church through the ages.

Our aim here is to do what we see the apostles doing in the book of Acts — establish local churches that can have a multi-generational impact. With that in mind, let me try to answer a few of the questions that some of you may have.

Why Tokyo?

To begin with, we need to remember that generally speaking, Paul visited cities and planted churches in large metropolitan areas, from which the church grew and spread to the surrounding less populated areas. That does not mean that all missionaries are required to go to cities only, but it does suggest that when there is pioneer work to be done in a great civilization, the city is a good place to start. Tokyo, Japan, is one of the largest cities in the free world (c. 12 million) and the hub of Asia.

The present growth of freedom in China and the booming underground Church there suggest that China may become the center of Asian Christianity, but even if that is the case, it will not be happening soon. China still persecutes and oppresses Christians. The kind of culturally broad application of the Gospel that we seek is not permissible in China now and may not be for quite a long while.

Korea has a significant Christian population, estimated at about 30%, and a large number of them are Presbyterian. Ralph and Sylvia traveled to Korea once for a series of lectures and we hope to see some of our material translated into Korean in the future. The Korean people are enthusiastic Christians, zealously evangelizing all over the world. The Korean Church has grown considerably and has less need of missionaries than other parts of Asia.

Tokyo is similar to other great cities in Asia in being a center of politics, business, fashion, and education that draws to its environs men and women from every nationality, race, and creed. It differs from the others in offering far greater freedom to minister, on the one hand, and, on the other, by being spiritually the least responsive. Since the Japanese are so cordially indifferent to the Gospel, this is one of the most difficult places in the world, but the door is wide open. Tokyo, where one-tenth of the population is concentrated, is the key to Japan. It also offers opportunities to reach people from all over Asia.

If God has called the Church to disciple all the nations, someone has to come to Japan also. If God has given His Church an open door in this great city, someone must take advantage of it. If Tokyo offers the opportunity to access other parts of Asia, it is strategically important for a broader outreach. If it is hard soil, someone must build the kind of ministry that will last for generations.

What Is the Strategy?

How can we break through the hardness of Japan and establish a center here, which can reach out to the rest of Japan and Asia?

A long-term strategy means founding local churches. The local church is the God-ordained means for building His kingdom (1 Tim. 3:15). This does not necessarily mean that other forms of Christian association are wrong. It does mean, however, that no other form of association can replace the local church. Nor should any other association compete with or detract from the local church. Christian hospitals, charity ministries, education, campus groups, and other sorts of associations are all rooted in the fellowship of the local church. Without the unity of worship and truth being jealously guarded by local churches, none of these other ministries can continue - a truth that Japan bears eloquent witness to, for this is a nation with literally hundreds and hundreds of schools founded by Christian missionaries, virtually all of which have departed from any distinctly Christian testimony or service (though some of them continue to have times of worship and even classes in "Christian doctrine" taught from a liberal perspective). For over 20 years, we have concentrated our efforts on faithfully preaching and teaching the Word — the whole counsel of God — to establish young families. Now the time seems ripe for us to expand our ministry.

Our vision is a fellowship of local churches. The goal for which we are praying and working is to have 2 local churches established within the next 10 years, and a total of 5 within the next 20 years.

These local churches must function as more than Sunday meeting places. One of the greatest reasons for the failure and weakness of the Japanese church is the loss of such a large percentage of its youth. Compared to the American schools, the public schools here do a better job of teaching kids math and just as good a job of training them to think in terms of the bias of secularism. To establish churches that remain, we need to use them as training centers for the family, Christian education centers for the children, and evangelistic centers to reach out to the community around us. Charity ministries, too, are going to become more and more important, as the economy continues to suffer and the population of aged Japanese continues to increase dramatically.

Our strategy is to establish our churches in the same general area, Western Tokyo, along the Chuo train line. By creating a network of churches that are geographically close enough to be able to cooperate and communicate, we trust that the overall impact of the testimony on the surrounding society will be greater. It also means that when it is helpful to have a multiple churches working together on something, we will actually be able to work as a group. This should mean greater opportunity and efficiency in doing education, charity, and evangelistic labors, since they can be shared by the larger group or by any number of churches within the group.

Who Will Do the Work?

We will also need more workers. If we have 5 churches 20 years from now, we will need 5 pastors and at least 2 elders and 1 deacon for each church, a total of 20 men who are competent to teach and lead. Of course, we will be going through a generation change during this period as well. We hope that many, if not all, of these future leaders will come from the 55 children and young people who are members now. If God wills, we also hope that we can find a co-worker or co-workers from the States to help us here. Once we have our own church building, it might be possible to get help from short-term missionaries. Tent-making mission work in Tokyo is a very real option since English-teaching jobs are always available; they open many doors to preaching the Gospel.

The need for workers ties into our whole educational program. While we do not have a church-spon-sored school and we do not require a specific form of education, we do emphasize the need for Christian education for our children. We have 50 children now under the age of 20 and 5 young people in their early 20s. Not all of these children will grow up to be pastors or elders, but they can all grow up to be serious Christians who work for the kingdom of God. Most of our families are doing homeschooling of some sort or another. But as the children get older, the need increases for competent teachers and cooperation among parents.

One of our main problems now is that we have no place that we can use as a facility during the week. The Kou family has been opening up their home every Sunday for over 20 years. For many years before our local church began, Mrs. Kou opened up her home for student meetings and church groups. From Monday to Saturday, we have no facility at which to hold classes. Now, we rent a single room for an office, but it is too small for a large class, and multiple classes at the same time are impossible. We need a building to build for the future.

Buildings?

Educating the children that we have now and establishing 5 churches in the future means that we need facilities. First, we need one building, which can function as a center for worship, fellowship, education, evangelization, and charity activities. In order for us to buy land and own a building, however, we have to be recognized by the Japanese government as a religious organization. Although it would be possible to buy land as a private individual and to use a private home for church meetings, the taxes on a private home are quite high, and the problems related to passing on land and property from one generation to the next are considerable, for there is a very high inheritance tax here and the law requires that property be evenly divided among the children. The elders here have come to the conclusion that to establish a long-term ministry that is stable, we need to obtain government recognition and buy land and a building.

One of our basic problems is the cost of land. The kind of church center that we have in mind will cost at least one million U.S. dollars. Two million dollars would enable us to build a modest facility more like what we desire. That is just for the main facility. Over time, if God blesses us with the kind of growth we are praying for, we will need other facilities, too, though they would not have to be as expensive as the main church center. It is also possible, if necessary, to begin with a smaller facility and do what we can with it, buying the larger facility later. This would decrease our need for money in the short run, but it might also slow down our growth, since the facility would presumably not be able to support the kind of activities we believe that are important.

If God wills, therefore, we pray that we will be able to raise enough money to buy land and a building large enough to accommodate the activities we believe to be needful for the future growth of the ministry.

What about the Money?

We have been saving money here, of course, for some years. But we still have a long way to go. Our plan is to begin an internet project that will help raise money for our ministry. How much can we raise? We are not sure.

The idea is that if we provide a service in addition to asking for help, perhaps we can get more people to donate. What kind of service do we have in mind? We intend to offer lectures on the kind of subjects that we teach here.

By June of 2003, we intend to set up our internet site so that people will be able to donate directly into our building fund. I will offer lectures on the Christian worldview and comparative religion, subjects that I have been working on for a number of years now. I will also offer lectures on Shakespeare. We have been doing studies in Shakespeare here at our research institute since the late 1980s. We hope that these might be helpful for American families doing homeschooling or just looking for supplemental material. The more donations that we can get, the sooner we will be able to buy a facility. We need to get enough of a head start so that the small church here will not be overly burdened with financial responsibilities.