- Tokyo Baptist Church
Tokyo Baptist Church (organized in
January 5 ,1958 ) is an English speaking internationalBaptist Church located in Shibuya, situated in downtownTokyo ,Japan . Tokyo Baptist has 6 services every weekend (including a youth service on Sunday and an extra service on Saturdays) with an approximate attendance of 1,000.History
Beginnings
The church originated as as Baptist fellowship of military personnel who felt led to begin a church which would meet the needs of English speaking Christians in Japan. On
January 5 th,1958 when the church was begun, W.H. Jackson, Jr. was called as the first pastor of Tokyo Baptist Church. On this day Tokyo Baptist Church became the first church outside of theUnited States to be supported by theSouthern Baptist Convention . In February of1959 , ground was broken for the present structure and was dedicated onNovember 1 st,1959 .http://www.tokyobaptist.org/magnification/services/Pastors
Throughout its history, Tokyo Baptist Church has gone through a total of 9 pastors. These, listed with the dates they were called include:
*W.H. Jackson, Jr. (January,1958 )
*Milton Dupriest (November,1959 )
*Marion Moorhead (October,1963 )
*Roy Edgemon (May,1971 )
*Marion Moorhead (October,1975 )
*Richard Horn (1981 )
*William Warmth (Interim,1990 )
*Norman Wood (March,1993 )
*Dennis Folds, (June,1999 )Offshoots
Two times in the history of Tokyo Baptist church have members decided to organize themselves as a separate church so as to better serve the Japanese and Chōfu areas respectively. These churches are:
*Chofu Baptist Church (organizedMarch 7 ,1965 )
*Shibuya Baptist Church (organizedNovember 9 ,1975 )Current
Tokyo Baptist Church has recently taken part in the
Purpose Driven program, officially announcing itself as a Purpose Driven church. As a part of the Purpose Driven movement TBC has instituted many structural changes, such as modelling ministry or the youth program after that ofSaddleback Church 's, promoting smallgroups and encouraging its members to begin new ministries.atellite Churches
*TBC Saitama - A satellite church in
Saitama Prefecture Trivia
*On
January 5 th,1958 Tokyo Baptist Church became the first church outside of theUnited States to be supported by theSouthern Baptist Convention .
*In August of1964 Tokyo Baptist Church became the 101st member of the Japan Baptist ConventionExternal links
* [http://www.tokyobaptist.org/] Church Website
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.