John MacLean

2007

Outline : Advice For Expatriates Working With Japanese Churches and

Preparation For Success
1. Know the country - culture
2. If possible take your time. Prepare in advance.
3. Think through your personal needs; goals. Will they be compatible? What concessions
can be made?
4. Learn as much of the language as time and energy permits.
5. Frequent church / community before long term decision and plans made.
6. Pray, fast as necessary
7. Speak with experienced missionaries for advice and possible contacts.
8. Anticipate if things seem to good to be true than they might be.
9. Realize as much as possible the church/ ministry environment.
a. get details
b. do not accept fudged replies or excuses regarding questions and details. These are
red flags.
c. Be ready to evaluate honestly your compatibility.
10. Find out all the expectations and responsibilities up front.
11. Financial arrangements need to be clear.
12. Free time/ vacation and ability to interact outside of church and ministry must be
clarified and understood and agreed upon by all parties beforehand.
a. I cannot overstress the importance of this.
b. 6 day work week plus Sabbath day usually being extremely long.
c. Workaholism a severe problem in Japan.
13. Find out how you will be viewed in community.
a. Will you be given a title? (Sensei) Some missionaries refrain from this title. Once
given one is immediately put on a pedestal and one is viewed in a certain way.
b. English teachers are given the title sensei. But if one is a missionary or church
leader this is a more austere title that some missionaries would rather not have.

14. How much contact will you have with other westerners?
a. Isolation is a large factor.
b. How many people speak English?
15. How controlled will the environment be?
a. Inherent in Japan by western standards is a high degree of control.
b. Danger of domination and expectation of radical submission.
16. What role will women play in authority positions?
a. Find out how many men are active participatory members. How many men
involved in youth and early adult age groups.
17. Be aware that when the church describes members this does not equate to how many
people attend the church services or activities.
18. If beginning ministries from scratch have realistic goals and expectations agreed
upon within responsible timeframes.
a. Find out who in community is available to help and aid one in work.
19. Realize that churches are often very formal by American standards.
20. What help is there in translation.
21. If expectations for preaching what are the guidelines here? Is there a format used and
expected?
22. What do you do if you perceive red flags?
a. What is cultural?
b. What is manipulation?
23. Will you be allowed contact and interaction with other churches or missionary
groups?
a. Many churches would perceive this as a threat and or taken as possibly
disrespectful.
24. Inquire as to visa situation independently with other missionaries in Japan.
25. My advice is if at all possible to work with an international church.
a. If one has some level of mastery of the language and culture then working with an
all Japanese church would be acceptable.
b. There should be some regular interaction with a westerner or two on a frequent
basis for the church to be appropriate for an American who is going to be there

for the first time.

c. If more than one westerner is going the environment changes as they would have
each other as support and would not be as dependent.
26. If teaching English one should find out details beforehand.
a. Previous experiences in the church. Who is doing this now- Japanese?
b. What format? Private group.
c. What is your budget? What expectations? Prices charged? What is your
commission or pay?
d. Realistic goals.
e. If you teach 5 year olds to 80 year olds you could have 5, or 6 or 7 different
levels. These require different textbooks and different strategies and requires
planning and time in choosing proper material and some trial and error.
f. This can also involve a few hundred dollars in money up front for materials.
g. Make sure you are adequately compensated because once one has a significant
amount of students this is a fair amount of work and is tiring.
27.

How much of the church activities will you be required to attend?

a. All church services?
b. All meetings?

28. Emphasis needs to be maintained that one is not normal church staff. Expectations
cannot be exactly the same as with Japanese. This might seem obvious but the
tendency in Japan is for no exemptions or exceptions to standards either spoken or
often unspoken.
a. This is important at the outset as the patterns set at the beginning will quickly
become the norm.