Japan: A Renewed Partnership

Faith & Fellowship Magazine
Written By Tim Mathiesen

September/October 2025

Japan: A Renewed Partnership

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Featured
A Matter of Family
Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, Japan
A Matter of Family
Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, Japan

Why does the CLB pursue mission endeavors in places unreached with the gospel? It’s a matter of family! Not just the family in Christ many of us have been privileged to know over the years, but the brothers and sisters we don’t know yet. 

Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, Japan
Renewed Vision for Mission in Japan
Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, Japan
Renewed Vision for Mission in Japan
Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, Japan

The Church of the Lutheran Brethren, through her international missions department, have always prioritized sending missionaries to serve in unreached places and among unreached peoples. Even considering the discouraging reality of the status of the Church and mission in Japan, it did not seem right that LBIM should shrink back from this mission, but rather should lean into it, and further invest in it.

Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, Japan
Partnership Prepared in Advance
Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, Japan
Partnership Prepared in Advance
Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, Japan

Since LBIM began its mission in Japan in 1949, we at JLBC have received the blessing of the gospel through many missionaries. Together with these missionaries, the Japanese Church has built its foundation.

Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, Japan
Interdependence
Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, Japan
Interdependence
Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, Japan

Since LBIM began its mission in Japan in 1949, we at JLBC have received the blessing of the gospel through many missionaries. Together with these missionaries, the Japanese Church has built its foundation.

Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, Japan
Passion: What I learned from you
Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, Japan, Lutheran Brethren Seminary
Passion: What I learned from you
Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, Japan, Lutheran Brethren Seminary

Since I studied at Lutheran Brethren Seminary, I have never forgotten the love we received. If it weren’t for your love, I might have burned out along the way. But when I thought about your prayers, I was able to stand up again and again. Now, after all this time, I am grateful that, once again, I have the opportunity to work directly with the CLB.

Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, Japan, Lutheran Brethren Seminary
God Is at Work in Red Deer
Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, North American Mission, Church Planting
God Is at Work in Red Deer
Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, North American Mission, Church Planting

We had heard about how God was at work in Red Deer, and we wanted to see it for ourselves. We also wanted to be part of what God is doing, but we did not know how that might happen.

Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, North American Mission, Church Planting
Church Planting & Childlike Faith
Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, North American Mission, Church Planting
Church Planting & Childlike Faith
Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, North American Mission, Church Planting

This past July, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit a church plant, The River, in Red Deer, Alberta, with a group of people from my home church, Good Shepherd, in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. God softened my heart through these children and opened my eyes to see what childlike faith looks like.

Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, North American Mission, Church Planting
Regional Conventions
Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, Regional Conventions
Regional Conventions
Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, Regional Conventions

From March to June, regional conventions were held across North America, bringing CLB regions together for business proceedings and times of fellowship.

Faith and Fellowship Magazine, 2025-05, Regional Conventions

Tim Mathiesen
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