About Japan Baptist Fellowship
JBF History
The Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society (CBFMS) formally entered Japan in 1947, but the work actually began in 1935, when Mildred Craig came to Jumonji, Akita prefecture, to start a church there. When CBFMS formed in 1943, she joined the mission and helped to sponsor CBFMS in Japan after World War II. CBFMS, under the name of Japan Conservative Baptist Mission (JCBM) entered rural Northeast (Tohoku) Japan to launch a ministry that has emphasized church planting, theological training and publishing.
Early members of the Jumonji Church suffered persecution during World War II, but stayed steadfast in their faith.
As a rural, inland mission, JCBM started churches in Akita, Fukushima, Aomori, Yamagata, Miyagi and Iwate counties in the early years. In 1964 the CBA of Japan (Domei) was formed. In the 1970s, church planting expanded to the Kanto area, entering Tochigi, Ibaragi, Chiba counties and Metropolitan Tokyo. Through the 100 Church Program in 1976 and the Double Double Program in 1995, churches have grown from 22 to 85 in number with roughly 3000 in membership. Since the 1980s, church planting has spread to Saitama, Kanagawa and Nagasaki counties. Launched in 2000, the Domei’s Harvest 2010 Program is in full progress addressing the needs of a maturing church association with churches at various stages of growth.
Current church planting missionaries partner with CB churches in a team approach to see healthy national churches planted.
Seeing the need for evangelical commentaries and scholarly books for pastors, JCBM launched the Seisho Tosho Kankokai in the 1960s, which published over 100 titles prior to turning over the ministry to Word of Life Press in the 1980s.
Training leaders for the church has always been at the heart of Conservative Baptist work in Japan. The Sendai Baptist Seminary (SBS) began in 1964, and has trained several dozen pastors, evangelists and missionaries. Beginning with a night school, then moving to a day program and its own campus, SBS continues to keep its focus on raising up leaders. A correspondence school began concurrently, and has been used to train hundreds of Christians throughout Japan. In recent years, SBS has shifted its emphasis towards Church-Based Theological Education (C-BTE), developing a curriculum that uses the local church as the training center. The Christian Leadership Training Center was launched in 2004 in Tokyo to train church leaders in a balanced way impacting the head, heart and hand.
The mission has also been involved in video sign-language Bible translation, putting the Bible into a DVD format for the Deaf church.
In 1968, JCBM started Kinshuko Bible Camp, now C-On Kinshuko, in the hills of Iwate county for evangelism, training and fellowship.
In 2003, CB Japan, a missionary sending agency, was established by the Domei with a separate board. Currently it assists missionaries in Peru, Nepal, the Congo, Korea, China and Turkey. It has also sent short-term teams and individuals to the Philippines, Hong Kong, Guatemala, Cambodia and Mongolia.
In 1994, JCBM began a partnership with the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptists International from Canada.
In 2002, JCBM set out to develop a strategic plan for the mission. As a result, clear vision, purpose directives, facilitating functions and goals were established. Four teams were created: Church Multiplication, Creative Ministry, Member Development and Kaizen. The mission also changed its name to the Japan Baptist Fellowship (JBF). The name reflects its partnerships with FEBI and the Domei.
Through the Creative Ministry Team, compassion ministries have been launched, including Wheelchairs of Hope, which recycles used wheelchairs from Japan with the gospel to other countries in Asia.
In recent years the field has appointed a full-time Short Term Ministries Coordinator, and through her efforts has seen an average of 30-50 people come to Japan individually or in teams to effectively minister here. JBF and the Domei are highly committed to investing in short-term and mid-term ministry.
CBFMS changed its name to CBInternational in 1990, and two years ago changed to WorldVenture. The WorldVenture missionaries with JBF are referred to as JapanVenture missionaries.