By Carolyn Bickerton, NZCMS Personnel Manager 

My recent trip to Japan to visit Luke and Naomi Sin­clair was sig­ni­fic­ant in my evolving view of mission. Watch­ing them serve and speak­ing with their local lead­er­ship con­firmed what NZCMS has learned: stra­tegic sending to Gospel-poor places where there is true part­ner­ship means joining in and serving under local lead­er­ship, not taking over.

The Gospel-Poor Reality

Japan has fewer than 1% Chris­ti­ans among its 126 million people, making it one of the most Gospel-poor nations on earth.

Nearly three-quarters of pastors are over 60, with many in their 70s and 80s unable to retire because there’s no one to replace them. The Sunday I attended Luke and Naomi’s local church, their 74-year-old pastor spoke in another church without a pastor in addition to his own that day!

Kir­isuto­sha Gakusei Kai (KGK) is Japan’s equi­val­ent to our Ter­tiary Stu­dents Chris­tian Fel­low­ship (TSCF) and is the Japan­ese organ­isa­tion where Luke and Naomi serve. KGK is part of IFES and aims to reach out to over 3 million stu­dents in about 800 uni­ver­sit­ies across the country! The twelve  — mostly part-time — staff members for the wider Tokyo region have to cover about 500 stu­dents con­nec­ted with KGK spread across 100 or so campuses.

The thought that all over­seas mis­sions should be done by local people comes from a well-inten­tioned but not always well-informed per­spect­ive. As one mission leader said, “In Chris­tian mission, the task is enorm­ous, but the resources are extremely limited.”

Joining In, Not Taking Over

NZCMS has a simple dis­tinct­ive: we don’t send people to join ‘mis­sion­ary teams’. When someone shows interest in a country or min­istry, we approach local Chris­tian lead­er­ship to see if there is a need. So far, we’ve never been told there isn’t a place for someone to serve. Humble, trained New Zeal­anders are wel­comed when they come with skills that are needed and a will­ing­ness to learn.

Luke and Naomi didn’t arrive with a five-year strategic plan. They joined KGK’s existing vision of training Japanese Christian students in evangelism, discipleship and leadership. They joined Japanese believers in their Church, already reaching out to mothers with young children.

From this they started a play­group and a Chron­icles of Narnia reading group. They preach when invited and serve prac­tic­ally as needed.

The impact? As their KGK super­visor told us, they bring fresh per­spect­ives on bal­an­cing min­istry and family life that encour­age their Japan­ese col­leagues. But more import­antly, they’re learn­ing. They’re being shaped by Japan­ese Chris­tian­ity just as they con­trib­ute to it.

Luke and Naomi are spoken of highly by both KGK lead­er­ship and their local church. Their Pastor speaks glow­ingly of their con­tri­bu­tion to the church’s evan­gel­istic focus, not because they’ve gone and done it all, but because they’ve served faith­fully within exist­ing struc­tures while bring­ing their unique per­spect­ives and skills to cata­lyse others to start new things.

In their min­is­tries, they operate entirely in Japan­ese, under full local lead­er­ship, and in fact had to reach a certain lan­guage pro­fi­ciency before becom­ing staff members of KGK. No short­cuts. No special treat­ment. This is what serving at invit­a­tion looks like.

How Does This Work in Practice?

In the early years of min­istry, this type of part­ner­ship is as humble learners rather than equals.

True mission requires humility that learns from and honours local Christians. It requires patience to understand context before offering solutions. It requires the maturity to celebrate when local leadership makes decisions differently than we would, recognising that God has been working in these places long before we arrived.

When Mission Part­ners join exist­ing work rather than start­ing their own, some­thing power­ful happens. Local capa­city grows instead of being replaced. KGK didn’t become depend­ent on Luke and Naomi — they became stronger because of their con­tri­bu­tion. The best measure of suc­cess­ful mis­sions isn’t how many pro­jects are started, but how many local leaders are strengthened. It’s not how much we’ve achieved, but how much con­tin­ues after we’re gone.

What Is the Sin­clair’s Impact on the New Zealand Church?

Through Luke and Naomi, the church in New Zealand gains direct insight into the chal­lenges and joys of Japan­ese Chris­tian­ity. When Luke and Naomi spoke during their home service last year, how many of us knew the dev­ast­at­ing fact of ageing lead­er­ship in the Japan­ese church?

In meeting with KGK lead­er­ship, I learned that as an organ­isa­tion, they’re keen for more workers like Luke and Naomi who have a com­mit­ment to learn­ing the lan­guage and culture in order to serve effect­ively. There are also oppor­tun­it­ies for short-term Mission Part­ners (up to 1 year) who could work primar­ily in English, reach­ing foreign stu­dents from coun­tries like China, Malay­sia and Indone­sia who are study­ing at Japan­ese uni­ver­sit­ies. Speak­ing with Japan­ese stu­dents who have come to Christ, it was remark­able to hear how many did so while on homestays or study­ing over­seas. That’s a real encour­age­ment to the New Zealand church to recog­nise this is a vital min­istry to Japanese.

Luke and Naomi provide us with more than just prayer points — they provide us with a window into how God is working in Japan, through Japan­ese Chris­ti­ans, their chal­lenges and their joys.

Beyond Japan

This model works every­where we serve. In every country, NZCMS Mission Part­ners join local organ­isa­tions at invit­a­tion. They learn lan­guage and culture before taking lead­er­ship. They serve exist­ing visions while con­trib­ut­ing their expertise.

It’s slower than starting our own work. It’s messier than maintaining control. But it’s Biblical, sustainable, and it actually strengthens the global church rather than creating dependency.

The task of reach­ing Gospel-poor nations like Japan is enorm­ous. The church in New Zealand can’t do it alone, and neither can any single mission organ­isa­tion. But when we partner humbly, joining in what God is already doing, we become part of some­thing much bigger than ourselves.

Carolyn serves as Per­son­nel Manager at NZCMS, recruit­ing and sup­port­ing Mission Part­ners serving across eight countries. 

You can learn more about our part­ner­ship oppor­tun­it­ies here: https://​www​.nzcms​.org​.nz/​g​e​t​-​i​n​v​o​l​v​e​d​/​w​i​t​h​-​y​ou/