A new paradigm in Japanese ministry: God at work through Southern Baptists in the Pacific Northwest.

Japan is a country roughly the size of California. Yet, it has a population that equals half of all the people living in the United States. It is a technologically and economically advanced country, able to wield much power in the world economy; yet, less than one percent of Japan's citizens are professing Christians, despite the efforts of many missionaries over many years. But God is doing a great work among the Japanese (1) living in the United States, especially in the Pacific Northwest.

Japanese International Baptist Church (JIBC) in Portland, Oregon, was the first Southern Baptist Japanese church organized in the Pacific Northwest, and was also the first Japanese Southern Baptist congregation since World War II to build its own building. (2) Although the Japanese population in Portland numbers only in the thousands, (3) JIBC currently has 180 in attendance, making it one of the largest Japanese churches in the United States. Furthermore, JIBC helped plant more than ten churches in the last ten years, a number that continues to grow. Such growth, especially in a state known for its hostility and/or indifference to religion (Oregon was ranked "the most unchurched state in the U.S. in 2003"), (4) is phenomenal and can only be the work of God. This paper traces JIBC's short history and offers a glimpse into the future of its ministry.

Beginnings

Prior to 1979, "Portland, Oregon, had almost no Japanese ministry except small home Bible study groups. At different homes, women from mixed marriages and students gathered together to study the Word and have fellowship." (5) A Japanese Southern Baptist church in the city was finally begun, (6) when John T. Kamiyama and his family moved in 1979 from Okinawa, Japan, to Portland, to work among the Japanese population there. (7) Kamiyama's work would eventually produce the first Japanese Southern Baptist church in the Northwest, currently known as JIBC.

In the late 1970s, racial prejudice was still strong, and Kamiyama visited several churches without informing them that he was a pastor from Japan. He wanted to see how receptive and friendly each church would be toward ethnics. This plan helped determine which church might be most helpful in partnering to reach the Japanese. Metropolitan Baptist Church, pastored by Wayne McDill, was the only church to send its deacons to visit Kamiyama's family. Because of Metropolitan's stance toward ethnics, Kamiyama decided to work with Southern Baptists in the planting of a church and to partner specifically with Metropolitan.

In August 1979, Kamiyama's ministry to the Japanese living in Portland began with five people, namely, him and his family. During the next eleven months, he attended Japanese business associations, frequented Japanese restaurants and parks, and passed out tracts to anyone who looked Japanese in order to share the gospel with them and invite them to attend church. He and his wife struggled to do the ministry while working bi-vocationally as janitors. They also received $40 a month in support from Metropolitan Baptist Church. (8)

In May 1980, Kamiyama received a calling to start a new Japanese church in Salt Lake City, Utah. By the time of his departure, the Portland fellowship averaged fourteen in attendance at its meetings, six of whom held membership at Metropolitan.

The fellowship's next pastor, Shiro "Jimmy" Sasaki, was a doctoral student at Western Conservative Baptist Seminary. (9) During his pastorate, key people came to Christ through his ministry, people who are still members of JIBC. Despite seeing people attend their meetings and experience conversion, Sasaki noted that his group quickly became a noncommitted gathering of Japanese Christians from different churches. In order to form a more stable ministry, he developed an organizational structure for his ministry and officially organized the group in 1983 as the Japanese Mission of Metropolitan Baptist Church. Many in the group were not willing to commit to Metropolitan, and some left to attend Japanese fellowship groups led by other Japanese seminarians.

Doctoral studies, conflict in the church, and caring for his pregnant wife and two children took its toll on Sasaki. He planned to return to Japan after completing his doctorate and contacted Hiroaki Yokoi, asking him to take over as pastor of the mission, which had grown to twenty-four in attendance and fourteen in membership under Sasaki's leadership.

Yokoy (upon receiving his United States citizenship, Yokoi changed his name to Mike Hiroaki Yokoy) came from Tokyo, Japan, in 1982 to study for his M.Div. at Luther Rice Seminary in Florida. (10) He, his wife, and three young children arrived in Portland in May 1983, and Yokoy became the pastor of the Metropolitan Japanese Mission. Yokoy also transferred to Western Conservative Baptist Seminary and finished his degree there in 1986.

The Birth of JIBC

In 1988, the pastor of Metropolitan approached Yokoy with the suggestion that the Japanese Mission become an independent entity. Yokoy felt the church was still too ill-prepared for such a move. But in a matter of months, by the grace of God, on February 12, 1989, the Japanese Mission of Metropolitan Baptist Church officially became the Japanese International Baptist Church, with forty-four charter members. (11) Thus was born the first Southern Baptist Japanese church in the Pacific Northwest.

Prior to 1989, the mission members had a vision of having their own church building and property. They began giving in 1986 to make this vision a reality, and by 1990, they had accumulated almost $35,000. With a concerted fund-raising effort by its members and a loan from the Home Mission Board (now known as the North American Mission Board), they purchased four acres of property in Tigard, Oregon, for $190,000. With the help of Volunteer Christian Builders from Texas and Arkansas, JIBC completed its 7000-square-foot building in March 1996 and thus became the first Japanese Baptist church west of the Mississippi, post-World War II, to construct its own church building. (12)

Looking Outward

According to Albert W. Wardin, Jr., Oregon Baptists were unable to establish any lasting work among the Japanese during most of their history. (13) While this fact is true of the first one hundred years of Baptist history in the Northwest, the founding of JIBC finally broke the drought. But the new church refused to remain in the comfort of success. Yokoy led the congregation to look outward, to plant new churches, and to continue its mission of going out into all the world.

The first of those sent from the church was Masaomi Takeuchi, a Japanese businessman who came to Christ through JIBC in 1987. After a brief return to his home country, he enrolled in the Pacific Northwest campus of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in 1989. He graduated in May 1993 with an M.Div. During Takeuchi's years in seminary, JIBC began its first new church plant in Tacoma, Washington. Yokoy drove from Portland each Monday evening to preach at a Japanese home Bible study. On July 4, 1993, the Bible study became a church, the Japanese International Baptist Church Mission of Tacoma. The new church called Takeuchi as its pastor. (14) This church has since become autonomous and is currently in the process of constructing a building. In 2002, it planted another church in Lynwood, Washington.

During the last ten years under Yokoy's leadership, other new Japanese Baptist churches have been started in cities across the United States, including Boston, Massachusetts; Phoenix, Arizona; San Jose, California; Chicago, Illinois; Ontario, California; Indianapolis, Indiana; Glendale, California; and Eugene, Oregon. To facilitate future church planting, Yokoy, Sasaki, and other Japanese pastors formed the Japanese Church Planting Network (JCPN) in 2003 with the vision of having one Japanese Baptist church in each of the fifty states. JCPN is currently led by Sasaki and holds annual meetings to encourage and equip pastors, to invite new workers from Japan to pastor the new church plants, and to support each other financially and through prayer.

With a Bible school and an English-language school currently in the making, JIBC is still expanding its vision to reach Japanese people in the Northwest and around the world. Yet, the vision has not been limited to Japanese alone. The number of ethnicities and cultures within the church has been growing as well. Korean, Chinese, and Caucasian Americans are among those holding current membership in the church. JIBC has made efforts to reach all people in its neighborhood with the gospel. In 2002, Kenji Yokoy became the church's English pastor. In order to minister to the needs of the non-Japanese in the church, he began an English-speaking worship service on Sunday mornings, held prior to the Japanese service. The process of growth of JIBC has been unconventional for a Japanese congregation. The church has had many failures along with great success. Many seeds have been sown in order to reap the harvest of joy. The ministry of JIBC continues today, and by the grace of God, it will continue to serve Him.

(1.) For the purposes of this paper, the term Japanese refers to first- or second-generation Japanese- speaking people with strong ties to their home country.

(2.) Mike Yokoy, pastor of Japanese International Baptist Church, interview by author, April 27, 2004.

(3.) Japanese Consulate of Portland, interview by author, April 20, 2004.

(4.) Shelby Oppel, "The Separation Between Church and Oregon," The Oregonian, September 18, 2002, A01.

(5.) Shiro Sasaki, "Various Problems and Biblical Solutions Facing the Japanese Ministry in the Pacific Northwest" (D.Min. project, Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1983), 3.

(6.) Southern Baptist Japanese language work existed in the Northwest before 1979, as well as non-Southern Baptist Japanese churches. For example, the Japanese Baptist Church (American Baptist) in Seattle was organized in 1897. See J. C. Baker, Churches of the Northwest (Philadelphia, PA: American Baptist Publication Society, 1912), 248-49, 344-48.

(7.) John T. Kamiyama, interview by author, April 12, 2004. Though originally from Okinawa, Japan, Kamiyama studied English in Dallas, Texas, before his arrival in Oregon.

(8.) Ibid. In the interview, Kamiyama requested to have a statement in this paper expressing his heartfelt gratitude to the members of Metropolitan Baptist Church for their support and partnership during that time.

(9.) Ibid. Interestingly, Kamiyama and Sasaki had known each other in Texas. Sasaki finished his M.Div. at Southwestern and pastored a Japanese congregation at Gambrell Baptist Church (the church is now the First Japanese Baptist Church of' Fort Worth). Kamiyama studied English in Dallas and often attended Sasaki's church. Sasaki was also the one who recommended Kamiyama to the ministry in Utah. Sasaki himself had been offered the post, but he planned to pursue a doctorate at Western Conservative Baptist Seminary in Portland, Oregon.

(10.) Sasaki returned to the United States sixteen years later following an invitation from Yokoy to pastor a church plant in Phoenix, Arizona.

(11.) James L. Watters, "Japanese Congregation--Newest NW Church: Ceremony Attended By Local Mayors and Congressional Staffers Marks a New Departure for Ethnic Work in the Northwest Northwest Baptist Witness, February 28, 1989, 5.

(12.) Yokoy, interview.

(13.) Albert W. Wardin, Jr., Baptists in Oregon (Portland, OR: Judson Baptist College, 1969), 357.

(14.) James L. Watters; "Graduated ... Ordained ... Called to Serve: Japan's Masaomi Takeuchi Finds His Pilgrimage Tough, But Oh, So Wonderful," Northwest Baptist Witness, June 25, 1993, 3.

Michitsugu (Mitch) Yokoi is music and youth minister at the Japanese International Baptist Church in Portland, Oregon.