Why Japan?
Japan is the second largest unreached people group in the world. Less than 1% of the country is evangelical Christian. The churches that do exist there are small, and the pastors are stretched really thin. The people walking through their doors are carrying the same things people carry everywhere... anxiety, broken marriages, addiction, grief, shame. Most of those pastors have never had anyone show them how to counsel from the Word.
That's why we go. For 5 years now, Soul Care Network, under Matthew 13:23 Ir Ministries and Biblical Counseling Japan, has traveled to Japan every year since 2021 to train believers in biblical counseling, and in discipleship and evangelism too. By God's grace, over 1,000 people have been trained in biblical counseling, with over 30,000 attending evangelism training and evangelistic outreach. Those 1,000 people who have done biblical counseling training are still there. They're still growing in biblical counseling, and even more of them are out doing evangelism. They're in their churches right now, counseling and discipling people in a country we could never reach on our own. We flew home after every trip, but the work honestly didn't stop when we did.
Upcoming Events 2027
Here is our 2027 Plan The believers we train can't fund this. Most Japanese churches run on a handful of families. So we cover the travel, the materials, and the training, and that's where you come in.
Track Record
• 5 consecutive years of trainings
• Over 1,000 believers trained in Biblical Counseling/Discipleship, 30,000 in Evangelism
• 100+ churches covering Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Iwaki
Want your church's missions committee to consider funding part of this trip? Donate on the website here or contact Bryan Tantzen, President of Matthew 13:23 Ministries at btantzen@gmail.com
Intermediate Class (History of Biblical Counseling) Ochanomizu Christian Center
June 24, June 25, June 26
Fundamentals of Biblical Counseling at Tokyo Christian University
June 30, July 1, July 2
