Case Study: Church Multiplication in Japan

A New Model to Build a Movement

Asian Access has developed a new model in Japan to help launch a church multiplication movement across that nation.

Link Between Leader Development and Church Multiplication

Asian Access starts with developing leaders. We foster a vision for church multiplication as we train pastors. Over the two-year in-service leadership development sessions within regional training networks, pastors begin to see the need to be church multipliers. Often they come into our program with a mega-church vision, but they graduate with a multi-church vision.

Three-Year Cycle of Church Planting by Networking

Once pastors are ready to move into church planting, we network three or more of these pastors together. They meet together for 3-4 years, during which time each pastor aims to reproduce a congregation.

Sometimes with Missionaries, Sometimes Without

In certain situations, Asian Access comes alongside of them with missionaries to help them achieve their vision to multiply churches. In 80% of the networks, we don't use missionaries, which makes the model reproducible. When missionaries are used, they serve as catalysts. In both cases, this is contrary to the model most mission agencies and church planters have employed in Japan.

Typical Model of Missionary Church Planting

Missionary Plants Church then Transitions it to a Japanese Pastor

Traditionally missionaries in Japan would go into a new area to work alone as an individual missionary or as a missionary family. Often times they would work for many years to gather together a small congregation. They would then spend many more years trying to develop a pastor who could assume the leadership. In many cases the congregation would not experience any further growth once this leadership transition had been made. As a result, church planting was often seen as a lonely, tedious, and relatively fruitless endeavor.

The Asian Access Model of Church Multiplication

In that context, Asian Access developed a model for missionaries to work in partnership with and under the leadership of visionary and capable pastors. From the very first day of a church multiplication project, it was known that a Japanese leader was already in place to provide the ongoing leadership for the church. It was also known that the project had a limited duration of just three years. Thus, with a clear vision and with strong partnerships, Asian Access has been able to accelerate the process and increase the fruitfulness of church multiplication by linking church planting missionaries and congregations into cohesive teams.