Japan Evangelistic Band
Encyclopedia
Shikoku
is the smallest and least populous of the four main islands of Japan, located south of Honshū and east of the island of Kyūshū. Its ancient names include Iyo-no-futana-shima , Iyo-shima , and Futana-shima...
but missionaries worked among Japanese living on the West Coast of Canada and the USA, and in the UK. In 1999 the organisation in the UK adopted the name Japan Christian Link for their operations in the UK, while work in Japan continue under the name of JEB.
Foundation
The JEB was founded by the Rev. Barclay Fowell BuxtonBarclay Fowell Buxton
thumb|Japan, 1937.Rev. Barclay Fowell Buxton was an English evangelical Christian missionary in Japan.Buxton was the son of Thomas Fowell Buxton and Rachel Jane Gurney and grandson of Sir Thomas Buxton, 1st Baronet...
and Paget Wilkes
Paget Wilkes
thumb|180px|[[Juji Nakada|NAKADA Juji]],Paget Wilkes,MITANI Tanekiti,1902Alpheus Paget Wilkes was an English evangelical Christian missionary to Japan who was one of the founders of the Japan Evangelistic Band in 1903...
at the Keswick Convention
Keswick Convention
The Keswick Convention is an annual gathering of evangelical Christians in Keswick, in the English county of Cumbria.- History :The Keswick Convention began in 1875 as a catalyst and focal point for the emerging Higher Life movement in the United Kingdom. It was founded by an Anglican, Canon T. D....
in 1903 as an evangelising agency to assist existing missions and churches and to organise Christian Conventions for Bible Study and Prayer. Buxton had been an independent missionary in Japan with the British Church Missionary Society since 1890 and had invited Wilkes to join him as a lay helper there in 1897. They worked together at Matsue in Western Japan, before returning to England. Buxton and Wilkes were joined by a small group of friends at the Keswick Convention who shared their concern for evangelism. The group included Thomas Hogben, who had founded the One by One Working Band, a group devoted to personal evangelism. Initially the new mission was known as the One by One Band of Japan, being dedicated to personal holiness and aggressive evangelism. Nine months later, the name was changed to Japan Evangelistic Band.
Wilkes imagined "a band of men ... who detaching themselves from the responsibilities and entanglements of ecclesiastical organisation, would give themselves to prayer and ministry of the Word...". The JEB was set up as a non-denominational fellowship of Japanese and expatriate missionaries who came from North America, South Africa and Australia as well as the British Isles.
Growth
In October 1903, Wilkes led the first missionary party to Japan, serving briefly in YokohamaYokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
and Tokyo, before moving to Kobe
Kobe
, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
, which became the centre of JEB activity. In 1905 the Kobe Mission Hall and the JEB Kansai Bible College were initiated to train an indigenous ministry to carry on the work in the long-term. By the 1920s the JEB decided to launch its own forward outreach work since other missions were then finding their own experts in evangelism and making less use of the JEB. Small teams comprising an overseas missionary with a Japanese worker would participate in pioneer evangelism. They did this in many rural areas as well as in some of the larger towns which had not been exposed to Christian work. Churches were started in about 100 centres and full salvation and missionary literature was printed and circulated. The JEB were anxious to avoid creating another denomination, intending that their churches would be linked with existing Japanese denominational churches. However, the JEB churches conferred and decided they would prefer to be linked in their own denomination. In 1938 many of them withdrew from the denominations they had joined and formed a separate denomination called the Nihon Iesu Kirisuto Kyokwai (NIKK) or Japan Church of Christ.
World War II and other factors held back progress, but some Japanese members were able to continue limited evangelistic activities during the war. A bombing raid in 1945 destroyed both the Mission Hall in Kobe and the Kansai Bible College, although both were later rebuilt. JEB missionaries returned to Japan in late 1947 and started work on the new housing estates that were growing up on the outskirts of cities. Irene Webster Smith opened up a centre for students in Tokyo. In the 1950s new outreach programmes went into Wakayama Prefecture
Wakayama Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on the Kii Peninsula in the Kansai region on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Wakayama.- History :Present-day Wakayama is mostly the western part of the province of Kii.- 1953 Wakayama Prefecture flood disaster :...
, first to Susami and Kushimoto in the far south, then to Minoshima and Kainan and later to Kozagawa. Other programmes were to Shikoku Island where work began in Tokushima Prefecture
Tokushima Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on Shikoku island. The capital is the city of Tokushima.- Tokushima Prefecture and Myodo Prefecture :Long ago, Tokushima City belonged to a region known as Myōdō-gun...
at Tachitana then in Hanoura and Naruto. A separate venture was begun in Shido
Shido
Shido can refer to:*A 'slight' or minor penalty in judo*Ali Shido Abdi*Shido Fuyuki*Shido, Kagawa*Matagu Shido and Haruko Shido from the Please/Onegai anime seriesShidō can also refer to:* Shidōkan* Nakamura Shidō* Sidoh...
, Kagawa Prefecture
Kagawa Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on Shikoku island. The capital is Takamatsu.- History :Kagawa was formerly known as Sanuki Province.For a brief period between August 1876 and December 1888, Kagawa was made a part of Ehime Prefecture.-Battle of Yashima:...
and work also started in Wajiki. Churches were established in Tachitana and Naruto. There was another outreach in the 1950s to Northern Hyogo Prefecture
Hyogo Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region on Honshū island. The capital is Kobe.The prefecture's name was previously alternately spelled as Hiogo.- History :...
and then over the prefectural boundary into Kyoto Fu, where work began in the mountainous districts around Amano Hashidate.
In the UK, JEB members worked among Japanese seamen arriving at the docks in Birkenhead
Birkenhead
Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...
. Conventions were held regularly at the Hayes Conference Centre
Hayes Conference Centre
The Hayes Conference Centre is a group of buildings in Swanwick, UK which are used for conferences and other functions. The building which now houses the centre's reception was built in the 1850s as a private residence and named Swanwick Hayes...
at Swanwick, Derbyshire
Swanwick, Derbyshire
Swanwick is a village in Derbyshire, England, also a Parish within the Amber Valley district, with a population of 5,316 at the 2001 census.It has a number of shops, pubs and other businesses, a Church of , as well as Methodist and Baptist churches...
in June, and at Southbourne, Dorset
Southbourne, Dorset
Southbourne is a suburb of Bournemouth. It is the most easterly part of the borough, between Boscombe and Christchurch, Dorset. The area was previously known as Stourfield....
in August. From its early days the JEB was actively working with children. There was a Young People's Branch of the JEB called the "Sunrise Band" it was renamed the "Japan Sunrise Fellowship" in 1977.
Organisation
Barclay Buxton was the first Chairman of British Home Council the parent body of the JEB, and he was succeeded by his son Godfrey BuxtonGodfrey Buxton
Barclay Godfrey Buxton MC was a casualty of World War I, who compensated for his inability to follow the family tradition of missionary service by founding and running missionary training colleges....
. Eric William Gosden became Chairman in the late 1970s. Among the subsidiaries reporting to the British Home Council were Regional Committees, the Japan Christian Union, Seamen's Work in Birkenhead, and the Sunrise Band Committee. In 1947 the British Home Council appointed a Publications Committee to 'co-opt, plan, produce and supervise all publications of the JEB and the Sunrise Band'. From September 1955 this committee was known as the Literature Committee. In the early years, the JEB had its British office at 55 Gower Street, London. In May 1962, it purchased property at 26 Woodside Park Road, North Finchley, London as the British headquarters and office. This property was sold in 1983, and the JEB bought new headquarters at 275 London Road, North End, Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
. In 1999 the renamed Japan Christian Link refocused its work on expatriate Japanese, mainly in Europe
The Japan Council directed work in Japan. There was always a majority of Japanese members, usually five Japanese with three expatriates. Work in Japan continues to be known as the JEB, and is now under the direction of Japanese workers.