麻豆传媒官网

We Served Side By Side

In reaction to the United Church of Christ compromise with Shinto worship during World War II, a small group of churches banded together to form a new denomination that professed adherence to the Westminster Standards. Contacts between RCJ leaders and Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC) personnel serving in the Allied Occupation forces in Japan led to a formal relationship between the RCJ and the CRC. In 1950 these two churches agreed to begin a joint mission effort to spread the gospel and build churches in Japan.

The CRJM began in 1951. At the heart of the mission/church cooperation was the close partnership of missionary couples with Japanese pastors and their wives as they served together, side-by-side, in team ministries to begin new churches. The mission and the church grappled with questions about mission principles, policies, strategies, cultural contextualization, disagreements and organizational models. Two major policy issues stood out: how to apply the indigenous principles of self-support, self-government and self-propagation to the mission enterprise in Japan and how to balance church planting with other 鈥渟upporting鈥� ministries such as the education of missionary kids, radio evangelism, disaster relief and leadership development.

During the twentieth century, the priority was starting new churches while also devoting significant resources to radio ministry and the education of missionary children. In the twenty-first century, the focus shifted to leadership development and disaster relief, but the distinguishing mark of the CRJM/RCJ cooperation in mission was the side-by-side model of serving together.