North Shore Japanese Church began as a house church, holding weekly Bible studies, and was founded on May 3, 2003 as a church plant of Mennonite Japanese Christian Fellowship with the intention of ministering to the Japanese community in West and North Vancouver. Takahiko “Yoshi” Yoshiyuki, pastor of the mother church, was also the pastor of the daughter church.

The North Shore Japanese Church rented West Vancouver Baptist Church from May 2003 to December 2006, holding services on Saturday evenings. At the beginning of 2007, the congregation began conducting worship services on Sunday mornings at Harry Jerome Recreation Centre in North Vancouver. In 2010 the group returned to meeting as a house church. In addition to the Sunday morning service, the congregation meets for Bible Study on Wednesday mornings, and meets again for prayer time on Friday evenings.

A particular focus of the church has been to connect the next generation to the gospel. The children’s Sunday school is in English, and they have started bi-lingual Sunday school services for the children to help teach them the language. While the children understand some Japanese, the group members feel it is important to teach them Japanese in order to have them better understand their cultural heritage.

In October 2006, North Shore installed Jong-Sun Kim, a Korean who can speak Japanese, to lead the congregation, with Yoshiyuki serving as co- pastor until March 2008, at which point he returned to Japan. Given the often strenuous relationship between Korea and Japan, the church felt that this was a positive step towards reconciliation.

Membership in 2006 was 11, in 2010, 9, and in 2012, 5-6.

Pastors & Years of Ministry

Membership