17. Reflecting Heavenly Multicultural Reality in a Tokyo Church Planting Project
Forthcoming. Japan Harvest, Nov 2025. © Dale Little
The opening pages of the Bible depict a monocultural earthly garden (Genesis 2:4-14) and the closing pages a multicultural heavenly city (Revelation 21:9 - 22:5). This means that God’s people through the ages, including we who follow Christ, are journeying toward a multicultural metropolis. We might as well get used to an eternal urban motif, albeit perfected by God himself.
When we think of cities, we probably imagine crowds of people perhaps much like we jostle at Shinjuku station—and that might not thrill us. But the future heavenly city will be very different than our earthly cities. For one thing, its architect is Jesus Christ who is preparing it for his people (John 14:2-3). For another, the city is his beautiful, pure bride—the church (Revelation 21:9). Furthermore, one of its key features is the river that flows through its center. On both banks of this river is planted the one, single tree of life (Revelation 22:1-2) that miraculously produces twelve different “crops” throughout the year. So this divine city transcends our metropolitan image because it also seems very much like a wonderful garden or park based on our Lord’s master plan. It will be qualitatively different than any city we have experienced.
This city is where Jesus Christ dwells with those whose names are written in his—the Lamb’s—book of life (Revelation 21:27). It is inhabited by the redeemed people of God. They are countless in number and reflect the international variety of all created peoples (Revelation 5:9; 7:9; 21:3-4, 24-25). They are a multicultural heavenly community, the fulfillment of the earthly mission of God.
The portion of that mission that unfolds between the first and second comings of Jesus Christ includes the proclamation of his gospel. The book of Acts shows that such proclamation results in the founding of new churches that can be understood as interim microcosms of the heavenly city. In their proclamation of the gospel to the world and in their love for the people of the world, these churches become agents of God’s mission. As God’s missional community, they showcase his new redeemed re-creation, pointing toward the future heavenly city wherein lies their ultimate eternal home and true citizenship. Churches reflect the nature of that heavenly city when they intentionally welcome the foreigner because they are celebrating its international character.
Missional church planting in places where there are expatriates should value the multiculturality embedded within the logic of the gospel. In the eschaton we will worship and serve in a diverse environment, so we might as well learn how to do so now. In our church planting we should celebrate the fact that God has raised up a people for himself from among the nations and is now scattering them as his witnesses at an unprecedented pace among those same nations.
Actually, God has been sending out his people since the beginning. In Old Testament times he sent Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Ruth and Daniel, etc. But that sending or scattering comes into clear focus in the New Testament. For example, in Acts 1:8 Jesus prophesies, “…you will be my witnesses…” Consequently, in Acts we see Jesus through his Spirit sending his people to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the Roman Empire. Extrabiblical sources show that apparently all the apostles except one served and died (most by martyrdom) in such places as Italy, Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Iran, and India. So God sends his people, even involuntarily as in Acts 8:1.
It is through this scattering that God is advancing “his story” from the monocultural garden of Genesis to the multicultural garden-like city of Revelation. The breathtaking scope of God’s mission from the time of the ancient garden to the eschatological city should shrink our petty differences such as race, nation, language, church affiliation, and mission organization. It compels us to think together, worship together, do mission together, and educate together across these differences that are ultimately not so significant.
Tokyo Multicultural Church is perhaps one attempt to celebrate the cultural diversity that is so valued within the gospel of Jesus Christ and the mission of God. Dale and Ann Little launched TMC in their Sumida Ward apartment complex in April 2013. It now rents the first floor of a business building between Kinshicho and Oshiage stations. TMC hopes to demonstrate the value of people from diverse cultures and languages worshiping and serving the Lord together alongside Japanese believers. In the midst of a country known for its cultural conformity, TMC is trying to become a Christ-centered, Bible based, disciple making church that celebrates the God given cultural diversity of the world's largest megacity. In addition to Japanese people, we are trying to reach expatriates in Tokyo. We believe that God has intentionally scattered some of his people among the foreigners who have come to Tokyo from other cultures, nations, and languages. They may think they have come for work, study, marriage or even recreation. But we believe Jesus is scattering them to Tokyo so they can learn to be his witnesses.
TMC Sunday worship service attendance fluctuates from 25-50, with people from about a dozen countries. We are trying to establish a church planting team that is as culturally diverse as TMC attenders and members. So our mostly part-time and/or bivocational church planting missionaries/pastors come from five countries (Macau, China, Zambia, USA, Canada) and are sent by five different mission agencies or have no mission agency affiliation. If required, they receive a stipend. Their ministry profiles focus on English, Japanese, or Chinese ministries, often serving in more than one language.
We prefer English for our leadership language because it tends to be more of a horizontal language than Japanese. So English tends to be more welcoming to foreigners than Japanese. Foreigners in Japan with Asian faces probably feel this difference more than Caucasians. Nevertheless, in our leadership team discussions we sometimes use Japanese or Chinese alongside English.
TMC currently has ministries in three languages: English, Japanese, and Chinese (mostly Mandarin). We hold joint English/Japanese or Chinese/English worship services through interpretation on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month. On the 2nd Sundays we hold an English worship service. On the 4th Sundays we have three separate language-specific worship services: Japanese at 9:30am, English at 11am, and Chinese at 2pm. The Chinese fellowship meets each Sunday afternoon when there is nothing else scheduled. An English group meets twice a month and a Japanese one once a month. We hope to launch ministries in other languages too.
Dale and Ann had the privilege of launching TMC with a small core nucleus out of the English Department of Musashino Chapel Center (Tokyo Musashino Evangelical Free Church) near Kichijoji station where they were serving as the interim pastoral couple. At that time there were some naysayers among Japanese MCC leaders. But MCC has since become TMC’s strongest partner church. We have also recently been encouraged by pastors of other Japanese churches, including being given a recommendation for a Japanese pastoral candidate. We have also been encouraged in the early stages of our application to become a member church of the EFC of Japan. Perhaps multicultural churches in Japan are finding a niche.
It is possible that TMC as a multicultural church planting attempt will fail in monocultural Japan. If so, it will not be the first time the gospel in Japan has been buried as in quicksand. Two major challenges from the beginning have been leadership and finances. TMC’s budget is currently 520,000 yen/mo., with 320,000 of that for facility. Our church planting fund in Canada subsidizes monthly budget shortfall when required but in the last two years we have only accessed that subsidy a few times. However, both English and Japanese pastors might onboard soon, and we might expand our rental space, resulting in a budget increase possibly to 670,000. Furthermore, we’d like to give away some money. In addition, we’d like to launch TMC #2 somewhere else in Tokyo. So challenges and dreams go hand in hand at TMC.
As we “do church” together at TMC we have tried to emphasize a leadership style characterized by humility, gentleness, patience, and love, believing that putting effort into developing those attitudes invites spiritual unity within diversity (Ephesians 4:2-3). We can testify that the Lord has graciously met our needs. But whether or not TMC is “successful,” we want to somehow faithfully point toward the future multicultural heavenly city. Perhaps we are practicing for Christ’s return and for heaven, where people of all nations, cultures and languages will confess that he is Lord.