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Pushing up leaders
Yoshiaki Tamura was not prepared to pastor. He explained this to his mentors who wanted him to lead the congregation in Asahikawa, Japan. Still, they told him to go. He went. Today, more than 30 years after his pastoral career began, the 75-year old Tamura is looking for another to take his place at Furano Mennonite Christian Church. One problem: Like Tamura in the past, the congregation's young people say they are unprepared to lead. The situation in Furano is symptomatic of the wider Hokkaido Mennonite Conference in northern Japan. The current leaders come from a generation swept along by the early Mennonite missionary waves of the 1950s and 1960s. Now they are aging. And few young people remain in Hokkaido churches, despite the best efforts of the congregations. Leaders of Shiroishi Mennonite Christian Church in Sapporo called Hiroaki and Nobuko Ooyama, both in their 40s, to reach out to young people. Elder members have volunteered time and money to remodel a church building specifically for children. But churches continue to reflect a paucity of believers in their 20s, 30s and 40s.
Without a Japanese Mennonite seminary, many Japanese Anabaptists worry about how their young people will be trained. Some students study abroad, often in the United States, but Japanese leaders say foreign learning is not enough. Students must receive Japanese training to be effective ministering in their homeland. Yukari Kaga, an itinerant minister for seven churches of the Tokachi region in Hokkaido Mennonite Conference, earned degrees from Eastern Mennonite Seminary and Tokyo Biblical Seminary. She said being a leader in Japan requires theological training and spiritual mentoring, but leadership is more than just knowledge; it requires true commitment and true call. "You can't just mass-produce pastors. They need to be called both by God and from within the church," said Mary Beyler, who has served in Japan for 32 years. "Discernment, commitment and call are all important." Hokkaido hopes to train its own leaders, but Mennonites disagree about how that should be done. Some push for a residential seminary in Hokkaido. Only by committing to intensive study, they suggest, can future leaders learn how to guide the church. Hiroaki Ooyama, who pastors in Sapporo, received seminary training. He stresses that part of leaders' full surrender to God includes sacrificing for full-time study. Two distinct incarnations of the East Hokkaido Bible School once provided leadership training with a full-time, residential program, but the seminary dissolved decades ago. In addition, since most young leaders are working to support families, which sometimes include parents and even grandparents, few seem willing to commit to full-time study. In this issue: Features Highlights Viewpoints |
