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The
May 10, 1948
minutes from the EFCA Board of Overseas Missions, read as follows: “An urgent request has come from General Macarthur and
other Christians in
Japan
, that now is the time to send missionaries to Japan…”
Thus began of
the ministry of the EFCM in
Japan
and the resulting
Evangelical Free Church of Japan (
EFCJ
).
On
September 13, 1949
Rev. Calvin B. Hanson and his wife Muriel, arrived at
the
Yokohama
harbor, in
Japan
. They immediately began their study of the Japanese language. Rev. and Mrs. Hanson followed, going
to
Urawa
City
, near
Tokyo
and started worship services in a rented conference
room in the city government office. A
US
military captain conducted an English-speaking
Bible study for young people. Rev. Hanson eventually developed this
Bible study into the first church, Urawa EFC.
Later, upon the arrival of another
EFCM missionary, Rev. and Mrs. David Hesselgrave, Rev. Hanson moved to
Kyoto
to start the Kyoto
EFC. By 1950 the Evangelical Free
church was established both in the
Tokyo
area (
Urawa
) and in the
Osaka
area (
Kyoto
). By 1953, three
additional church plans were started (Warabi,
Takatsuki
, and Yamazaki).
EFCMJ
missionaries
planted most of
the churches
from the 1950’s through
the end of the 1960s. While missionaries from
North
America
began the
process of planting
churches, the next stage included an
increasing number of church
plants by the
EFCJ.
In 1966, the
EFCJ
National Conference made the decision to start the first
EFCJ
church
planting work. In 1969 Rev. Hideo Ojiro was sent to establish a
church in
Nagoya
where no
Evangelical Free Church existed.
In the 1970s, the
EFCJ
National Conference and the EFCM established the Cooperative Evangelism
Committee (CEC) and the two organizations
cooperated
as partners. Church planting then expanded to much wider areas of
Japan
. In this cooperation, the “church
house” plan was used, in which the Japanese side bought the land, and
the EFCM in
Japan (
EFCMJ
) built the church
building which also
included a where
the missionary lived. In addition, some churches,
sometimes in partnership with other Evangelical Free churches, and
districts continue to establish daughter churches without missionary
assistance.
From the late 1970s until the
present time, the
EFCJ
and
EFCMJ
have
continued to partner together to plant churches under the direction of
the
EFCJ
, a
district or local church(es). Missionaries
work along side Japanese pastors, or in some cases lead the work for a
few years until a Japanese pastor can be called to the church plant. The financial responsibility of
the
EFCMJ
has
gradually lessened and in some cases financial assistance has been
provided to the
EFCMJ
by the
EFCJ
, district,
or local church.
Currently there are 61 autonomous
churches and an additional 24 preaching points. The
EFCJ
has also send out
missionaries, mostly
through other mission organizations, to foreign lands to spread the
gospel. While there has been growth in the
EFCJ
, there is
a need. The need is for more young
people to commit to training and full time ministry as a number of
pastors reaching retirement age.
The
EFCMJ
currently
has 25
missionaries (15
households) involved in church planting, English teaching, worship
ministry,
discipleship, and supporting the work of building
God’s church. Some are full support
missionaries, others tentmakers.
Together, we cooperate with the
EFCJ
to
establish Evangelical Free Churches in
Japan
for the
more than 99% of the 125 million people living
in
Japan
do not know Jesus
as Lord and Savior.
Edited from material written by Rev. Tanishita,
Rev. Furuyama and Diana Reuter by Mark Bowman.
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