Reaching & Teaching, a missions organization rooted in the local church, recently began to focus on reaching Tokyo, Japan. They went to Japan and filmed a documentary showing the need for missionaries in the most populated city of the world. Each Monday, they set aside five minutes to pray for Tokyo. Evan Knies, publisher of Courier Publishing, interviewed Ryan Robertson, president of Reaching and Teaching to ask about the recent initiative: Why Tokyo?
Evan: Tell us about yourself and how you came to faith.
Ryan: I was born and raised just outside of Toronto, Canada. I was raised in a Christian family by incredible parents and heard the gospel and was converted at a young age, by God’s grace. I live in Louisville, Kentucky, with my wife, Erin, and our three kids — Avery (17), Callum (15), and Reagan (13). I serve as an elder at Third Avenue Baptist Church and as president of Reaching & Teaching.
Evan: What is Reaching & Teaching?
Ryan: Reaching & Teaching is a mission- sending organization that assists local churches as they seek to make mature disciples, establish healthy churches, and train local leaders around the world. We believe that the local church is both the means and the end of biblical missions. We desire to serve local churches as they send missionaries around the world. Reaching & Teaching serves like-minded churches that cooperate to send reformed, baptistic, and complementarian global workers to plant healthy churches all over the world, from unreached language groups to global cities. We partner together to train leaders and revitalize churches in extremely needy areas.
Evan: Why should we emphasize sending missions efforts to Tokyo?
Ryan: First, I want to acknowledge that there are many places in need of gospel workers and healthy local churches. We have team members in almost 50 countries dedicated to biblically faithful missions work. We decided to focus on Tokyo for several reasons.
First, over the last few years we’ve seen increased interest from our church partners and prospective missionaries in this region.
Second, Tokyo is an incredibly needy place. It has a population of 40 million people, with some statistics showing that only 0.3 percent are evangelical. It’s been a historically difficult place to church plant, and, yet, it’s a relatively easy place to send missionaries too, visa-wise.
Third, we’d like to encourage collaboration across churches and various organizations in a very strategic place. There is so much good work to do around the country. I love getting to support local churches as they send qualified missionaries to South America, Africa, Europe, and other parts of Asia.
I’m curious what it would look like if a number of churches went all-in together in one place. One strategic place. What if Tokyo could become a healthy gospel hub for Japan, Asia, and the entire world? Wouldn’t that be amazing?
Evan: What are some ways we can pray for Tokyo?
Ryan: Pray that the knowledge of the glory of God would fill Tokyo as the waters cover the seas. Pray that missionaries and Japanese Christians would be bold in their evangelism. Pray that the Lord would bring dead sinners to life in Tokyo. Pray that the people of Tokyo would reject the idolatry of Shintoism and Buddhism. Pray for the preparation of missionaries who are being sent to Tokyo. Join thousands of Christians every Monday, with the first five minutes of your day, to Pray For Tokyo. Every Monday, we’re focusing on one more way to pray. We’ve heard from churches, schools, and other organizations who are joining in to pray with us. Check out www.prayfortokyo.com to sign up for those prayer points and follow us on Instagram (@reachingandteaching), X (@RTMinistries), and YouTube (@RTIMChannel) for updates. Finally, we released four short documentary episodes that highlight the need in Tokyo (Episode One, Episode Two, Episode Three, and Episode Four). I’d encourage you to watch those with your family, church, or small group to learn more about Tokyo.
Evan: Ryan, thank you for taking time to do this Q&A! May the Lord bless you, your family, and the ministry of Reaching & Teaching. May Tokyo be reached with the gospel!
(Ryan Robertson is editing a volume alongside Courier Publishing that we anticipate will be released this fall called Associationalism to the Ends of the Earth. In it, he and others will be tackling the topic of Baptistic cooperation around the globe.)