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Stephen Gabriel Falke

Partner with me to bring Jesus to the Japanese!

Hey! My name is Stephen Gabriel Falke, and I am passionate about Jesus and Japan! Below is a summary of my story, my calling, where I've been, and the ministry I have been a part of since 2021! Check it out!

"I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven."   Matthew 8:11 ESV

My Story

I was born and raised in northern Virginia in a Christian family of seven sons! And from as early as middle school, I’ve felt called to bring the Gospel to the Japanese. I first began studying the language in 2006, and went on my first mission trip there in 2007. Since then, God has continued to cultivate my faith and my calling and my Japanese linguistic and cultural fluency through university, Urbana ‘09, a one year study abroad, the outpouring of mentors and the prayers and support of my family and friends and church community at home, and 5 years of teaching English in Japan from kindergarten to high school, with lots of spiritual and cultural pressing and crushing along the way ; )


I believe that God has specifically called me to break the lie over the hearts of the Japanese people that Christianity is an inherently Western (i.e. not for the Japanese) religion, by proclaiming and embodying the truth that the God of the Bible is the God of the Japanese, that the Creator made the Japanese in His own image, and that following Jesus ought to complete Japanese identity, not be at odds with it. I also believe in the importance of partnering with Holy Spirit to bring the Japanese into life-changing encounters with the love and truth and power of the Living God, as Jesus often did during His time on earth.

Though this is what I have felt genuinely called to, I have spent much of the past 8 years going between the US and Japan, teaching English, studying Japanese, and paying off student debt. In 2020, I paid off all of that student debt!


In Summer 2021, believing that God was leading me into a new era where I could more freely pursue what He has called me to, I quit the English-teaching profession and began a new era of ministry and study in Tokyo.


Ministry with Awakening Tokyo

Awakening Tokyo is an amazing new church plant I got connected with in 2020. I had several opportunities to visit and serve alongside this church in 2020 while I was working my English teaching job, and the more I spent time with them, the more I knew this was where God wanted me next. This church was Japanese-led, Holy Spirit-filled, has a deep sense of community and family, and is passionate to see lost souls reached and willing to try fresh new things to make that happen. It is like my dream church! I am so excited to come alongside this church and serve with them to bring Christ to the Tokyo area!


We currently rent out and meet on the third floor of a cafe / bed and breakfast in central Tokyo. Our bilingual services have attracted a community of young Japanese and Internationals who are hungry for an encounter with God. We do different outreach and evangelism events to bring new people into the church and into the faith, as well as creative and prophetic events to encourage and equip the church in Tokyo. We also place a big emphasis on discipling those who are part of our church to become more like Christ through accountability groups and 1-on-1 mentorships. Pray with us for Holy Spirit to touch those we reach to hear and be transformed by the Gospel, and that Holy Spirit would strengthen us to embody that Gospel with our lives.


Check out Awakening Tokyo's church website!

Studying with Fuller Theological Seminary

I feel that I am not fully equipped yet to do the ministry that God has called me to. There is no doubt that hands-on ministry training on the ground is a vital part of that equipping, I also sense that God is leading me also to get equipped through a seminary program over the next several years.


I have always had a passion to try to understand Japanese culture better so that I can communicate and live out the Gospel in a more culturally effective way, so that I can help the Japanese connect their cultural identity to their spiritual identity in Christ. Though this has been a passion, I have not had the opportunity to focus on this pursuit until now. One of my mentors suggested to me Fuller Theological Seminary’s Intercultural Studies Program, and when I looked into it, it really felt like something that would connect with my passion and help me wrestle with the issue of how to connect Japanese culture to Kingdom culture, both on deep unseen levels, as well as practical levels. Fuller’s program is available online, so that I will be able to do it while ministering with Awakening Tokyo.

Take a look at the program I am looking into at Fuller Theological Seminary!


The Vision

I want to see a movement birthed in Japan around the simple idea that following Jesus is a Japanese thing. To that end, my hope is to start a school in Japan that would raise up Japanese believers in their identity in Christ as a child of God and a temple of the Holy Spirit, and that would connect those believers' identity in Christ to their cultural identity as Japanese in a way that is healthy and honoring to God and empowers the Japanese to become who He created and destined them to be. This school would also be a cultural center that would produce music and art and culture that is both Japanese and Gospel-centered. This season of ministry and study in Tokyo I am stepping into is about preparing to see such a school and movement happen in Japan that would bring a whole nation to Jesus, all for God’s Glory!


Though I'm just starting out, here is a bilingual blog I have started that centers around this topic.

Treasure Hunters


This is a God-sized vision. There's no way I can do this on my own. I need people back at home to support me both in prayer and financially, and I need a community here in Tokyo, a band of brothers and sisters together with whom we can run after Jesus together and contend to bring His Kingdom to this nation that God loves and wants to see saved!

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