When I asked a pastor friend about whether he had considered helping to support new church plants in his area, he expressed his desire to do so, but acknowledged it would be difficult given the challenges in his own church. He shared that his church and others in his city would surely be excited to participate in church planting together if they could gain help in revitalizing their own churches. For pastors and churches like these, church revitalization is not an alternative to church planting, but rather an indispensable means for church planting.
Joy of Japan Center: Hosting a Church Revitalization Conference
The Joy of Japan Center was founded with a vision of supporting Japanese pastors in the work of church planting and church revitalization. The Japanese church is currently facing many challenges (aging pastors, shrinking congregations, etc.), and there is a growing conviction that many churches need revitalization. However, church revitalization is not easy and there is not yet a clear definition of what church revitalization includes in Japan. CBI aims to host a conference for 50-100 pastors featuring leading Japanese experts in this field to help define church revitalization, cast a vision for that hard work, and equip pastors for this calling. This project includes the conference as well as several follow up events that will be planned.
The total cost for this project is $70,000.
Continue reading about how CBI plans to develop translation capability.