Every pastor in Japan knows this moment.
A church member approaches after the service, a little more formal than usual, and says quietly: “Pastor, today is my last Sunday.” The pastor pauses, surprised. “Why? What happened?” And then comes the answer that lands like a slow, heavy weight: “Well, actually, a few years ago something happened that really troubled me...”
There is a particular kind of pastor in Japan that everyone respects and no one truly knows.
He preaches faithfully. He visits the sick. He counsels the struggling. He is called sensei, and the weight of that title shapes everything about how he leads — and perhaps most dangerously, how honest he is allowed to be about his own inner life.
This is not a criticism. It is an observation about a trap the culture has set, and one that the gospel alone is capable of dismantling.
There is a cultural phenomenon in Japan that many people recognize but rarely name directly. A man works for years as a salaryman, moving through the ranks with characteristic Japanese humility: bowing lower than his colleagues, speaking carefully, deferring to those above him, apologizing without hesitation. He is, by almost every social measure, pleasant and approachable. Then he gets promoted.
Japanese culture is widely recognized for its extraordinary work ethic, yet this same dedication often comes at a devastating cost. Many workers find themselves exploited by their companies, gradually sacrificing their personal lives: time with friends, spouses, and their own children. For some, work becomes the sole source of meaning and identity, to the point that losing a job, or losing the ability to find purpose in work — can lead to taking their own life. At the other extreme, Japan is also known for hikikomori — people who withdraw entirely from society, shutting themselves away from the relentless expectations and pressures of work and public life.
Japan is often admired for its strong moral culture. Many people value fairness, social responsibility, and care for others. Volunteer activities, disaster relief efforts, and community service are widely respected, and these qualities were especially evident during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Another example is the Japan national rugby union team was widely praised when players left their changing room clean and tidy after a World Cup match. In many ways, Japanese society demonstrates a deep concern for what we might call “social justice.”
When a Japanese pastor had just begun his ministry, a missionary who had recently arrived in Japan asked him: ‘Why do so many churches in Japan still follow the worship style of the US from the 1970s and 80s, even now in the 2000s? Have they not contextualised to the Japanese context?’
Puzzled by how to respond, the pastor later encountered another question while interacting with pastors from other churches and missionaries, one that seemed to lead to an answer. It was this: while Japanese pastors had faithfully reproduced the worship styles inherited from overseas missionaries, had they not largely neglected the so-called trial-and-error process of “contextualisation” – adapting it to their own culture?
Generally in Japan, change occurs gradually, and dramatic paradigm shifts are rare. There tends to be a greater emphasis on the “correct way” than on exploring new ideas or methods. One can imagine this has influenced the preaching style of many pastors today to no small degree.
Yet simultaneously, the root of the problem may lie in the fact that the initial missionaries and church leaders conveyed only the “methods of evangelism” from their own church cultures, without sufficiently explaining the context in which those methods naturally emerged. This context could be described as tools such as worldview, cultural analysis, and biblical theology, or as a sound “doctrinal foundation” and “theological vision”.
No matter how modern an approach is adopted in mission or worship styles, or how the gospel is communicated in ways most modern young people can understand and accept, as time passes and eras change, it tends to drift outside the framework of the gospel, significantly reduce its elements, or become a single form of that church's particular “obsession” or “tradition”. Having experienced this, the mentioned pastor arrived at this further question: “Could it be that Japanese churches have been repeating the same pattern for decades?” That is, the suspicion that they assumed successful overseas models would function in Japan too, applying them across generations with little contextualisation. While such models might bear fruit for a time in places sharing common conditions or contexts with overseas ones, even that approach eventually becomes tradition or form. He wondered if this was simply a cycle repeating itself. It was at this time that the pastor who read ‘Center Church’ stated the following.
My first impression was, “This is probably just another Christian manual recommending overseas missionary success stories.” However, I realised my preconceptions were mistaken almost immediately upon starting to read it. What Tim Keller addressed in this book was: 1) correcting our grasp of the gospel, that is, understanding “what the gospel is”, and 2) beginning by understanding one's own culture and context through a biblical worldview. It also made me realise that everyone carries a certain bias shaped by their own cultural background and the culture they've been immersed in. Such distorted lenses influence us, causing us to lean towards our own cultural preferences and traditions even when reading Scripture. I felt the danger that unless we first become aware of and address this tendency within ourselves, we risk not only failing to contextualise correctly but even distorting the gospel itself in our communication.
With the above questions in mind, this article will introduce some steps necessary for sound contextualisation, drawing reference from Center Church.
A Biblical Worldview Essential for Contextualisation
The first requirement, as mentioned earlier, is cultivating a solid biblical worldview. One might assume Christians naturally possess such a worldview. Regrettably, this is not the reality. The biblical worldview referred to here is a perspective for re-understanding the world's prevailing values, culture, and problems from a foundation grounded in Scripture. Naturally, this encompasses an immense scope, but let us consider one example.
Consider the question, “What is a human being?” If one cannot answer this question from a biblical worldview, it risks distorting one’s approach to nurturing and equipping people—for instance, in discipleship training.
When one pastor began planting a church, there was a missionary who held the view that “we are not born sinners”. Furthermore, she insisted, “We, having been forgiven and saved by Christ, are no longer sinners!” When asked, “When, then, do we consider ourselves sinners in our lives?”, the answer came: “From the moment we first sinned as infants”. It was clear that such a view of sin would cause problems in continuing discipleship training. That is, if sin is merely action, then the call to repentance becomes an approach that simply urges the correction of sinful behaviour.
Yet, as David clearly states in Psalm 51, we are sinners by nature. Simultaneously, Psalm 139, also by David, presents a scene of self-awareness as praise for how wonderfully we are formed and how precious we are before God. According to Scripture, we were created in God's image, yet through the Fall, we simultaneously departed from it and became broken beings (Romans 1). Thus, the Bible presents two seemingly contradictory perspectives. Viewing this tension through the lens of the Gospel allows us to confront the reality of our sin and wickedness while simultaneously holding fast to the hope that we are already redeemed and justified through Christ's cross and resurrection, and that one day Christ will return to restore all things completely. In this sense, the nurturing and growth of disciples is founded upon the understanding that we see, in everyone, a glimmer of the dignity inherent in being created in God's image, while simultaneously facing the reality of sin together. It does not end merely with correcting actions or thoughts.
Thus, our biblical understanding and judgement regarding human existence and societal problems profoundly shapes our practical actions: how we proclaim the gospel, teach, disciple, and see both ourselves and society transformed within the church.
Understanding and Engaging with Culture
Such a biblically comprehensive perspective also fosters a healthier understanding and engagement with the surrounding culture, viewed through the lens of the gospel. For example, according to Romans 1-2, culture too, through the innate conscience given by God and His common grace, manifests elements of the Kingdom's values to some degree in every culture. That is, when we engage with culture, we can discern elements worthy of praise, reflecting God's image. Yet simultaneously, completely distorted elements, far removed from biblical values, are also present. Recognising these dual aspects is vital, yet if leaders lean excessively towards either extreme, their approach to ministry and church formation tends to become equally extreme.
One church might deem all worldly cultural values utterly evil and attempt to build a church completely isolated from society. Conversely, a church that merely praises the positive aspects of culture, aligning too closely with worldly values and diluting the truth of the gospel, risks becoming indistinguishable from the world itself. Indeed, we have witnessed both extremes, and it is precisely for this reason that we recognise the temptation and struggle to either over-contextualise or under-contextualise. Furthermore, we should understand that these two extremes ultimately lead to the same problem: neither fulfils the calling to be “the light of the world and the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13-16).
This is precisely why we prioritise standing on the Gospel first. We then aim for contextualisation in a way that does not lose the Gospel itself. For the very person of Jesus is the embodiment of contextualisation. Tim Keller explains it thus:
‘And the most compelling example of all is that the Incarnation itself was contextualisation. God did not merely become human; He became a specific kind of human, a Galilean Jew with particular cultural baggage. In doing so, He made it possible for us to understand and receive who He is. Jesus is the “Word” (John 1:14) made “flesh”.’
Steps of Contextualisation
Following this model of Christ, Centre Church proposes the following steps for contextualisation.
Entering the Culture: First, just as Jesus entered our world, we too must first “enter the culture”. As mentioned earlier, rather than overtly rejecting the surrounding culture, we need to understand the position, mindset, suffering, conflicts, or stories of the people living within that culture. We should use elements worthy of praise or those we can empathise with as an “entry point”.
Challenging the Culture: Next, we must not merely praise certain aspects of the culture. Just as Jesus taught on earth, explained the Kingdom of God, and demonstrated the reality of our sin through the cross, we must also point out—with love and truth—those parts of the culture that have strayed from or distorted the Kingdom of God. We must identify the areas where it fails to provide solutions to people's life problems, true fulfilment, or joy; where it malfunctions; and where its values are contradictory. For example, in Japan, while there is a desire for peace and harmony, there is also a tendency to avoid speaking honest opinions or truth out of fear of disrupting harmony or of what others might think.
Appealing to the Culture (Audience): Within such broken values, what solution does the gospel truth—which values both harmony and individuality—offer? In Japan, which seeks peace and harmony, we can show the hope that only in Christ can both harmony and individuality be respected, thus preserving true peace and harmony. Conversely, if the fear of others' judgement prevents speaking truth honestly, there is comfort in knowing that only in Christ are we truly liberated from all bondage. Even if criticised for speaking truth, our identity – loved and accepted by God in Christ – remains unshaken. After the process of entering, challenging, and confronting a culture, it is essential to present this comfort found in Christ.
How might this step manifest concretely in your church, community, or daily life? Addressing this question is the primary responsibility for us as Christians, pastors, and leaders in the modern world as we contextualise the gospel. To do so, it is vital to reaffirm what the gospel is and what a worldview grounded in the gospel entails.
For further reflection:
For instance, when an outsider moves into a community with a very strong sense of local cohesion, what reactions might occur? They adapt by oscillating between various responses: surprise, criticism, questioning, interest, accommodation, resistance, and agreement. The process of entering a culture through the gospel, challenging it, and making an appeal varies by time and circumstance, but it does not happen overnight. One pastor joined the fathers' group at his child's primary school in such a community. What everyone looked forward to more than helping with events was the drinks gathering afterwards. Initially, he wasn't keen as it seemed to take up so much time, but gradually he became friends with them and eventually volunteered to take on the role of organiser. This was because he built a relationship of trust as a regular friend – some confided in him personally about family or marriage troubles, while others expressed appreciation for his work as a pastor. On one occasion, one of them said, ‘Well, it's all about family safety and business prosperity, isn't it?’ Without thinking, the pastor replied, ‘Yes, but what comes after that?’ Having already established trust as friends, the pastor continued, ‘You know, I look forward to meeting God.’ His friend looked utterly bewildered. Later, that same friend sent a LINE message saying, ‘Tell me a bit more about that,’ so they arranged to meet at a café near the station.
Author:CTCJ Collaborative Writing Team
In 2025, CTCJ set out a new vision to become a thought leader in the field of urban church planting in Japan. The Collaborative Writing Team (Co-writing Team) is one of the ways we are working towards this goal. The team is made up of a core group of staff members, as well as a number of writers and editors from diverse backgrounds, who work together to produce articles on topics that are useful for church planters, with the gospel as the foundation and focus.
Lately, my grown-up children have often said things like this to me: “Dad, young people don't use that word anymore.” The first time I heard it, I simply brushed it off, thinking, “Ah, so there are new buzzwords for the next generation.” But hearing it repeatedly made me realise that the culture and ways of thinking I hold dear are no longer relevant. Personally, I've always been interested in diverse cultures. I've travelled to experience different cultures, of course, and I've also engaged with subcultures like anime, manga, and games, as well as various genres of music. Yet, my children’'s comment made me feel left behind by the younger generation. How does this apply to ministry?