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 where I’m going! 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 spent much of the next 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! Then, in the Summer of 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. I served and received training under Awakening Tokyo, a new international charismatic church plant in the city, from summer of 2021 until spring of 2026. There I grew in evangelism, in ministering with Holy Spirit, among other things.
While I loved the passion for God and faith for the supernatural that Awakening Tokyo carried, I gradually began to feel led by God to get reconnected with my passion for contextualization, and made the decision to leave Awakening and pray and consider where God would have me serve next. God has opened several wonderful doors for ministry, and I am currently exploring those options. I will more fully update this page once I have a clearer idea of what my next season of ministry will look like.
Studying with Fuller Theological Seminary
To fully equip me to do the ministry that God has called me to. I felt from the Lord and from mentors that a seminary program would be necessary. 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 since starting this program in 2021, it has been invaluable in growing my understanding of the intersection between the gospel and culture and what Christ-centered cultural redemption can look like. Some of the ministry efforts that I am pioneering now would not have been possible without the growth and wisdom that this program has given me. I have just finished my 10th class and am now exactly halfway through this program (as of June 2026), doing courses online on the side while I serve in Japan.
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 beloved children of God and temples 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. Though I’m just starting out, here is a bilingual blog I have started that centers around this topic.
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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