Our church was newly started in March 2009 as an independent church by those of us who received God’s call to plant yet another evangelical Christ-centered church in the heart of Tokyo where the Christian percentage is less than 1% of the population of 14 million people in the city. In May 2019, we held the 10th Anniversary of our church.
We are
- Striving to be a faith community based firmly on the Bible, the Word of God in general, and in particular on the covenant of grace of the promised Messiah fulfilled in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
- Aiming at every member of the community to be a growing Christian full of grace, truth and the power of the Holy Spirit.
- A cross-cultural family-like Christian fellowship trying to overcome cultural differences and social and national boundaries.
- Called to share the Gospel of Christ passionately and prayerfully with people in Tokyo, Japan, and in the world, making Christ’s disciples in every area of their life and work.
Our Belief
We are confident that the Bible is the Word of God which leads us to His salvation in Jesus Christ. Only God can change our hearts. Only God can forgive our sins and save us from the eternal punishment, giving us faith to believe in the Gospel of Christ. We want the Bible to be central in all how we are and what we do.
We confess the historic Christian faith and proclaim the life-transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Apostles Creed
It is an early statement of Christian belief, widely used by a number of Christian denominations for both liturgical and catechetical purposes.
Lausanne Covenant
It is widely regarded as one of the most significant documents in modern church history. It was written at the First International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland, where it was adopted by 2,300 evangelicals from most of the whole world in attendance.
Westminster Confession of Faith Shorter Catechism
It was completed in 1647 by the Westminster Assembly and has continued to serve as part of the doctrinal standards of many Protestant churches.
Our Pastors
Rev. Ken and Mrs. Mariko Ogawa with three children
Pastor Ken Ogawa was trained in the Bible, theology and mission in Canada and USA (Bachelor of Biblical Studies). He was further trained at Tokyo Christian Theological Seminary and received Master of Divinity from Asia Theological Association. He and his wife Mariko, were previously missionaries with an international mission agency, have served in Africa, for almost 10 years. They have now three children. The following is Pastor Ken’s testimony.
On September 17th,1981 I was born into a missionary family. Together with my parents, for the first ten years, I moved to and lived in several different countries due to their missionary services. Since I was a child, I heard the message of the Bible and was taught that it is the Word of God. I believed that Jesus died on the cross for my sin and was raised from the dead on the third day. Probably my faith was still dependent on my parents’ faith at that time.
I made my serious confession of faith in Christ when I was suffering from infantile asthma in the primary grade 5. I feared, for the first time, that I might die in my difficulty of breathing. I had a fearful thought of myself being rejected by God from entering heaven. As I finally confided to my mother about it, she gently opened the Bible and read Romans 10:10 and 1John1:9 for me. “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. “, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” After receiving Christ in my heart even more clearly, I felt the deep, unwavering peace in my heart and soul which I had never experienced before. It was the first time that I understood the truth of the Gospel applied in my actual life. Whenever I look back on that conversion experience, I realize afresh that only by God’s grace, in His sovereign providence which surpasses my knowledge, that I was led to the confession of faith.
God’s call for cross-cultural work, particularly for Christian missionary service came to me through various steps. As a child I was somehow interested in living in different foreign countries with my parents. I often thought about how to survive in a cross-cultural situation. During my high school days in Japan I had a vague vison for some overseas work in my future. In my university years in North America, first at the Covenant Bible College (Disciple Training School) in Calgary, Canada for a year, then at the Trinity International University in Chicago, USA for three years, my desire and vision for future cross-cultural life and work did not disappear in my mind. It was real that I suffered physically, mentally, and spiritually because of cross-cultural difficulties such as in language, food, people, study, community life, and in culture-bound different perspectives in general. I still vividly remember how often I was disappointed and desperate in my life, studies, and in the actual ministries. The more incompetent I felt in my life, study and service, comparing myself with other classmates, and the more I realized my weaknesses and sinfulness before God, the more I wondered whether I could really be a full-time minister/missionary in the future or not. But I don’t know how many times the Scriptures spoke to me and I was encouraged in the midst of disappointment and desperation. Constantly God brought me back to His Word and filled me with His strength and comfort to overcome the difficulties. The vison for future cross-cultural life and service was still in my heart. Furthermore, God blessed me with many friends of the same faith in Christ. In the end I was able to be fully and joyfully involved in my studies, outreach ministries, worship, campus work and in the church activities.
After graduating from the University, I came back to Japan realizing the importance of both knowing Japanese churches, and of having friends who would become my colleagues and prayer partners in Japan as I would go overseas as a missionary. In the spring of 2005, I enrolled in Tokyo Christian Theological Seminary.
The passage which made me decisive concerning God’s call to me was Isaiah 6:5-8. Isaiah heard the call from God, after seeing God and himself before Him in the midst of national crisis of the Kingdom of Judah. Isaiah utterly thought he would die for his own filthy sin because he met God. However, God sent seraphim to Isaiah to purify the sin. It didn’t matter whether or not he was competent enough to be useful to God. What really mattered was the fact that God removed his sin. And then, he heard God’s calling and responded, “Here I am! Send me”. I was struck by Isaiah’s response to the call of God and deeply moved by the love of God through His patience with Isaiah. Then I identified myself with Isaiah. I was overflowed by thankfulness to God for His work through Christ, and was compelled by His unchanging love. This is how God gave me a heart for mission, to become a fulltime minister as a servant of God’s Word. Again and again, this passage deepened my conviction to serve Him.
The seminary study and training turned out to be another cross-cultural experience in the sense that I had to readjust myself from my North American life and study in the University to that of the typical Japanese. But the vision for missions overseas sustained me throughout the period. During the three years of seminary life I had two opportunities to go to overseas for my practical services. One in Singapore and another in Africa. Both of them helped me to taste two different cultures, one Asian and another African. They both further ensured my call of cross-cultural mission overseas which God laid in my heart.
On March, 2011 I married to Mariko who had the same vision for missionary service, and with whom I had already been praying for our future life and work together for the past few years. After much prayer and support of our prayer partners and churches in Japan, we were sent as missionaries to Africa in October. After approximately 10 years of service as missionaries, on April, 2022, we were led back to Japan to serve at Tokyo Metropolitan Grace Covenant Church, first as an Assistant Pastor and than as a Pastor since October, 2022.
Rev. Dr. Joshua K. and Eunice H. Ogawa
Pastor Ogawa was first trained in physics in Tokyo (Master of Science), and then in theology and mission in Singapore and USA (Doctor of Missiology). He and his wife Eunice served first in Indonesia (church work, student work, and theological training) and then in Singapore (Joshua being the founding Dean of Asian Cross-Cultural Training Institute<former Asian Missionary Training Institute>) as the first OMF missionaries from Japan for 17 years. Pastor Ogawa later came back to Japan to serve both as denominational and interdenominational leader for 18 years. After retiring from the former pastoral ministry, he and Mrs. Ogawa started this new church. Their first daughter and the family, and their only son and his family have been serving as missionaries with an international mission agency in Africa.
Writings
- “Living in the Mission Field: Tomorrow’s Foreign Mission” 1983. Word of Life Press.
- “Asian Mission” Publication of official magazine of Asian Missionary Institute.1985.
- “Unlimited Purpose: An Asian missionary tells his story” 1986. OMF International.
- “What It Means To Be Free” by Calvin. B. Hanson translated into Japanese. 1993. Evangelical Free Church of Japan. Publication.
- “Biblical and Doctrinal Foundations” in “Working Your Way to the Nations” 1993, World Evangelical Fellowship.
- “The Benefits and Problems of Internationalizing Missions” in “Kingdom Partnership for Synergy in Missions” 1994, World Evangelical Fellowship.
- “A Japanese Perspective on the Continuing Role of Missionaries in Japan” in. “Leadership: The Church in Japan and the Missionary” 1995, Hayama Missionary Seminar.
- “Mission Movements in Japan” in “Starting and Strengthening National Mission
Movements” 2000, WEF. - “Christian Heroes: Rowland Bingham” by J&G. Benge translated into Japanese as the editor. 2012. SIM Japan Home Council.
- “In the Hands of the Potter: Disciple Making in the World Mission” as the editor and the author. 2019, SIM Japan Home Council.
