Minamimachida Church Pastoral Agenda for 2026 Pastor: Hwang Chang Seong
Church Motto: Church on the Rock
“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)
Pastoral Direction and Goals:
Christ is the head of the church. Therefore, the church does not belong to any individual or organization, but to Christ himself (Colossians 1:18).
Christ says, “I will build my church.” Here, “build” does not refer to the construction of a physical building, but to the forming of a spiritual house made up of “living stones” joined together by faith (1 Timothy 3:5). In other words, the church is not a fixed structure, but a living house that God is still building even now. In this sense, Minamimachida Church is the house of the living God. Its foundation is laid upon the rock of faith. Therefore, it is a community against which the gates of hell shall not ultimately prevail.
Furthermore, the church is the people of God gathered as a called-out assembly, and as the house of God, it is given the mission of being the pillar and ground of the truth. Therefore, Minamimachida Church is not merely to maintain gatherings, but to walk as a community that bears witness to the truth and lives in the presence of God through worship and prayer.
In 2027, the church will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its founding. Without forgetting a single one of the works God has done, we will remember his many blessings and celebrate this occasion with joy, gratitude, and hope.In light of the above, Minamimachida Church seeks to pursue the following three goals as a community committed to the restoration of worship and to the deepening and widening of prayer.
1) A Church That Builds a Loving Community Like a Family
The church is a community of those who belong to the household of God (Ephesians 2:19). Therefore, Minamimachida Church does not seek to be a gathering bound together by blood ties or mutual interests, but a community in which those who have been born anew in Christ receive one another as family, love one another, and serve one another.
① The body of the church consists of those who have been born anew through faith in Christ, and they love and serve one another as family.
② Mutual support through gifts and roles: Each church member bears a different role, and as the various parts of one body, they help one another, supply what is lacking, and grow together.
2) A Church That Serves Its Neighbors and the World
The church is not a place of inward comfort and self-containment, but is sent into the world to embody the love of God in concrete ways. Therefore, Minamimachida Church seeks to be a church that walks with its neighbors and serves within the local community and society.
① Supporting the building of healthy families: The church helps faith to bring order, restoration, and continuity to family life, so that it may be passed on to the next generation.
② Serving the local community and walking with neighbors: The church turns its heart toward the needs of the community and walks with its neighbors through concrete acts of service and involvement.
3) A Church That Proclaims the Gospel of Life
Since the church is called the pillar and ground of the truth, it has the mission not only to preserve the gospel entrusted to it, but also to bear witness to it and deliver it to others. Minamimachida Church seeks to be a church that speaks the gospel, shares it, and lives in mission.
① To nearby neighbors: The church proclaims the gospel through both word and life to neighbors who do not yet know Christ.
② Beyond national borders: The church does not remain within the boundaries of this country alone, but prays, supports, and sends others so that the gospel may be proclaimed overseas as well.
Pastoral Plan and Guidelines for Action
1) Sunday Worship: Worship Offered in Spirit and in Truth
Principle;Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Therefore, worship is not merely one element of church activity, but the very center of the church.
Moreover, worship is not simply a religious act, but an event grounded in a living relationship with God. Therefore, Sunday worship is to be ordered as a place of response to God’s invitation, with the restoration of the relationship with God as its goal.
2) Purpose
Sunday worship is soundly formed when the following three elements are clearly joined together:
- Expectation: the expectancy of faith that God will speak and act
- Encounter: meeting God himself through the Word and the Holy Spirit
- Response: concrete response in repentance, trust, dedication, praise, and prayer
These three elements should permeate the whole service—calling, praise, prayer, the Word, offering, and sending forth—so that worship may become a living practice of relationship in which we hear, receive, and respond.At this point, the purpose of worship is that worshippers may understand why they worship, and that they may offer worship on the basis of that understanding. In other words, the purpose of worship is the setting of its direction. When worship has the right direction, right passion arises within the worshipper, and dedication becomes not a matter of compulsion, but a voluntary response. If the goal is clear, worshippers gain both the reason and the way to offer themselves to God; thus, the restoration of worship becomes concrete through purposeful worship.
Conversely, if the goal of worship remains unclear, worshippers easily lose sight of what they are to expect, whom they are to encounter, and how they are to respond. As a result, tension may arise in worship, it may no longer be received as grace, and worship may remain at the level of form or habit, with weakened spiritual fruit. Therefore, for the restoration of worship, it is necessary to set a clear and concrete purpose and theme for each Lord’s Day service, so that it may be understood why we worship.
Furthermore, worship is the most important, the most urgent, and the most glorious event. In light of this perspective, drawn from Karl Barth, the church is called to preserve and order worship as its highest priority. To give worship first place does not mean to belittle other ministries or activities, but to reconnect all works to the relationship with God from which worship springs, and thus to clarify the central axis of the church.
Therefore, regular attendance at Sunday worship is an important indicator of the health of one’s life of faith. Yet attendance itself must not become an end in itself. The essence of worship lies in God’s calling, speaking, meeting, and leading his people into response. Accordingly, Minamimachida Church seeks, by making the purpose of worship clear each week, to help worshippers experience the restoration of their relationship with God within the movement of expectation, encounter, and response, so that both the quality of worship and the life of worship may be rightly formed.
3) Implementation Plan
(1) Worship Schedule
- Sunday Worship: 7:20 a.m. / 10:30 a.m.Sunday International Worship: 1:30 p.m.
- Visitation and Home Worship: Migiwa Home Morning Worship; Sister Kato’s Home Worship
- Wednesday Online Prayer Worship: 7:30 p.m.
- Officiating and Preaching: Pastor Hwang Changseong / Pastor Nishida Hiroko / Ms. Osanai Taeko
(2) Basic Principles for Worship Design
The elements and order of worship are important in shaping worship as an event of restored relationship with God. Its basic flow is: God’s calling, the Word, response through thanksgiving and dedication, and sending forth. Worship is the heartbeat of the community that gives rhythm to the life of faith, and it contains within itself the movement by which the people of God are sent from within the church (ekklesia) into the midst of the world (diaspora). Therefore, worship must not end with the mere act of gathering, but should be connected to life and witness in the places to which believers are sent.
In Sunday worship, the pastoral prayer offered by the officiant is a central act by which the church stands before God as a community. The objects of prayer should include the world and Japan, the whole Christian church, the concerns of Minamimachida Church, and the needs of church members. As a rule, the content should be structured around thanksgiving, intercession, and petition.
Likewise, the offering prayer is not a personal prayer but the prayer of the community. Therefore, personal emphasis should be restrained, and the prayer should clearly express matters to which the congregation may give united assent.Worshippers should remember that worship is not merely an act of attendance, but a response to God. As a basic practice, they should be seated by five minutes before the service begins, and prepare themselves in stillness and prayer. Preparation for worship—through prayer, attentive silence, and expectation—is a shared responsibility that shapes the quality of worship.
(3) The Purpose of Each Worship Service
① Sunday Worship;Sunday worship is the central worship service of the church, in which the people of God who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior gather together and give glory to God. Praise in Sunday worship is offered as vertical worship, directed toward the glory and worthiness of God. Prayer is grounded in the prayer taught by the Lord, and seeks to be not merely formal, but deep and earnest. Preaching concentrates on the recovery of the biblical message, so that worship may be ordered according to the flow of calling, the Word, response, and sending forth. In addition, the resumption of the Lord’s Supper is an urgent matter. Because the Lord’s Supper is the symbolic center within worship in which the cross and resurrection of Christ are most powerfully remembered, proclaimed, and received in grace, and because it supports the worship life of the church, it should be administered in a planned manner, including significant occasions such as Easter, Reformation Day, and Christmas.
② Sunday International Worship: Evangelistic Worship Centered on Thanksgiving
International evangelistic worship is indispensable not only for the nurture of those within the church, but also for providing an opportunity for people in the world to hear and receive the gospel. Human beings need to encounter the truth, return to God, and partake of the grace of the forgiveness of sins. Praise is a major pillar of worship, helping the truths of the Word to be inscribed upon the heart through song, and deepening learning in both spirit and mind. Therefore, this service places importance on worship through praise while also strengthening elements of faith formation.
Guidelines;1.To praise God with all one’s heart.
2.To value communal prayer, with the praise leader guiding the congregation in prayer.
3.To offer worship marked by variety, including testimonies from believers.
4.Offering and thanksgiving prayer led by Ms. Osanai.
③ Wednesday Online Prayer Worship: A Gathering for Training in Prayer
Wednesday Online Prayer Worship is a service in which believers learn prayer grounded in the Word and in which the church is united in prayer (officiating and preaching: Pastor Hwang Changseong). The sermon should take as its theme the biblical text itself, and prayer should be cultivated as a rich practice including praise, thanksgiving, supplication, intercession, silence, and repentance. Prayer is central to the life of faith, and abiding in the Lord takes concrete form through concentrated devotion to prayer and the Word. Making use of the online format, this service seeks to widen access to participation while continually strengthening training in prayer.
(4) The Connection Between Worship and Mission
Worship is open toward sending. Therefore, each church member should be encouraged to express the joy of the gospel in daily life and to walk as light in the world. Whether or not one holds an official appointment, all church members are called as witnesses of Christ. As a concrete expression of this, special services—such as sacramental services, Easter worship, Christmas worship, and evangelistic services—will be planned and carried out with the aim of restoring the vitality and spiritual impact of worship. At the same time, the next generation (church school, junior and senior high school students, and young adults) will be taught the importance of sharing the gospel, and prepared both spiritually and practically for evangelism.
4) Service Structures That Support Worship and Church Administration
(1) Worship Volunteers (Reception, Guidance, Parking, Offering, etc.)
These ministries help ensure that worship is offered in order and peace, and that first-time visitors may also feel at ease and be able to focus on worship.
- Offering service: offering box, assistance with the offering prayer, and coordination in offering management
- Reception and guidance: welcoming newcomers, seating guidance, bulletin distribution, and assistance with difficulties or questions
- Parking guidance: ensuring safety, showing consideration for neighbors, and organizing traffic flow during busy times
- Preparation before and after worship: preparing necessary items and checking movement flow and the worship space
(2) Doctrinal Study Meetings for Church Officers
“Doctrinal Education Integrated with Daily Life” (Led by Pastor Nishida Hiroko)
These meetings aim to study historic orthodox Reformed doctrine as a framework for rightly understanding the Bible, and to enable such learning to be applied to daily life rather than remaining merely theoretical knowledge.
- Doctrine is positioned as a means for understanding Scripture, helping believers grasp the full scope of the Word.
- Rather than one-way lectures, these meetings emphasize dialogue and shared reflection, connecting doctrine with real-life issues.
- Church officers will share common understanding and vocabulary, thereby establishing sound standards for judgment in pastoral care, education, and service.
(3) Promotion of Family Worship
Kamimizo Family Worship (four times in 2026)
Valuing the accumulated witness of a long walk of faith spanning 130 years, this ministry supports the intergenerational passing on of faith and testimony.
(4) Aromatherapy Education and the Formation of Healing Space (Led by Pastor Nishida Hiroko)
Paul Tillich’s theology of correlation shows a way in which pastoral counseling and theology need not be set in opposition, but may instead be brought into complementary relationship. Kazuhiko Higuchi likewise explains that “theology is fundamentally based on listening to the revelation of the Word of God, whereas clinical pastoral training is fundamentally based on listening to human words, especially the words of those in crisis and in situations of suffering and limit, words that are no less important than the Word of God.” In this way, he positions clinical pastoral education within theology as training in listening to human words.
In the contemporary context, there is a need for structures in which issues of human relationship and understanding of the gospel are received as pastoral concerns through such means as case studies in pastoral settings, so that theory and practice may be organically joined. In this sense, the incorporation of education in aromatherapy and the creation of spaces of healing can become an effective form of clinical pastoral training. Such practice carries both a horizontal dimension, in that it helps restore the balance of body and soul disturbed by stress and fatigue, drawing out the natural healing power with which human beings have been endowed, and a vertical dimension, in that it leads people to reconsider value and ultimate meaning in relation to God.Before worship, aroma may help prepare the heart before God; and after worship, its grace may continue to extend into the spheres of home, school, and workplace. In this way, aroma serves not only during the time of worship itself, but also contributes to forming spaces in which daily life may be lived as an extension of worship.
(5) Evangelism
The church seeks not only an evangelism that merely speaks words, but an evangelism that is truly received and understood. As a central direction for this, the church will promote relational evangelism (Oikos Evangelism).
Concrete Methods
- Books and media: making use of books, videos, and other resources that introduce faith and the teachings of Christ in order to create openings for conversation
- Internet evangelism: widening points of contact through the livestreaming of worship services
Structure for Promotion
- An evangelism team will be organized so that the church may engage in this ministry continuously.
- Overseas mission: once each year, a designated Mission Sunday or time for mission will be observed in order to foster interest, while throughout the year the church will continue regular prayer and written evangelistic outreach.
(6) Visitation of Church Members and Migiwa Home
This ministry seeks to prevent isolation and to respond with care to spiritual, emotional, and practical needs.
Visits will be made to church members and to those connected with Migiwa Home. In cases of greater urgency, such as illness or crisis response, priorities will be discerned according to the circumstances at the time, and determined in cooperation between the pastors and church officers.
(7) Service and Support Activities
① Internal Service
Cleaning of the sanctuary, office, kitchen, restrooms, and other spaces, as well as the management of supplies and environmental upkeep, will be carried out in a planned and orderly manner.
② External Service
The church will participate in outside service activities such as donation efforts for Migiwa Home and visitation ministries to welfare organizations. The funeral committee will also take an active role in funerals related to church members and to Migiwa Home, supporting both bereaved families and the community.
③ Financial Support
Areas in which financial support is needed, both inside and outside the church, such as scholarships for students, will be identified, and appropriate support will be provided with transparency and care.
(8) Use of the Second-Floor Salon (A Place of Fellowship)
Through conversation between church members and newcomers, the church seeks to share faith and values, and to support deeper rootedness in the community. The second floor of the church will be used as a salon, a place of fellowship, where study meetings, retreats, and times of spiritual refreshment may be planned.
(9) Public Relations
① Distribution and Archive
Worship services and various gatherings will be recorded in video and audio formats, and communication through the church website and related media will be further activated.
② Publications
Church introduction posters, pamphlets, and similar materials will be produced and managed for use in welcoming newcomers and for evangelistic purposes.
Church Calendar and Events for 2026
- Epiphany (Feast of Glory): Tuesday, January 6 Ash Wednesday: Wednesday, February 18
- Lent: Wednesday, February 18 – Saturday, April 4 Palm Sunday: Sunday, March 29
- Holy Week: Sunday, March 29 – Saturday, April 4 Maundy Thursday: Thursday, April 2
- Good Friday: Friday, April 3 Easter: Sunday, April 5
- Ascension Day: Thursday, May 14 Pentecost: Sunday, May 24
- Advent: Sunday, November 29 – Thursday, December 24
- Christmas: Friday, December 25
