Surprising Startup in Japan!

I met with a very nice surprise yesterday.

Preached at Hope Chapel Tokorozawa in Tokyo. Before service I met a man named Marc Renton. The surprise was that he had planted a church under Hope Toko but I never heard about it.

Seems that he had read my book "Starting A New Church" and got excited about starting something new. At the time he was in the US military stationed in Japan. He called our office to see what we had going in Japan. They connected him with Jeff MacKay, one of our pastors in Osaka.

Jeff connected him with Corey Grinder, who was pastor in Tokorozawa at the time. He also hooked him up with John Bacigalupo, a former gunny sergent in the Marine Corps. John planted a church in Okinawa while still a Marine--he pastors it 25 years later. 

Between them all, our pastors encouraged Marc and he planted "All Nations Fellowship" in Masawa. He's now out of the military but working in Japan for a Department of Defense school for kids living on military bases. He is also trying to build up a small Bible College in Tokyo.

What's so cool about this is that it all happened without me knowing about it. Better yet without any church organization giving "permission" for someone to make disciples and carry out God's work. I totally love this aspect of this story...

Marc and his life are examples of what I call "normal Christianity." It is natural for Christians to advance the Kingdom of God through church planting--and it is not all that hard. You might want to try it yourself????