Our Pastors
Fumi Chito
Fumikazu (Fumi) Chito is one of the founding pastors of Crossroad. Born and raised in Osaka, he has a unique voice to people who live in Kansai area.
Fumi grew up in a Christian environment, had a hard time getting to know Jesus personally as a teenager, but finally became a committed Christian at the age of 20. He started to go to a church called Kobe Bible Fellowship (KBF), which later sent him and a team of 15 people to Nishinomiya to start Crossroad in 2004.
Fumi learned from Pastor Rob in KBF about the ABCs of walking with Jesus, becoming a servant leader, and how to pastor a healthy church. At KBF, he was the main worship leader and singles pastor, as well as other responsibilities. In his former life, he wanted to become a rock star, but that has been replaced by a passion for establishing a healthy local church.
Fumi graduated from Kwansei Gakuin University, where he studied sociology. The theme of his graduation paper was “Why does the consumerism-oriented society need a healthy church of Jesus Christ?”.
He loves reading (especially the Bible and Christian books), playing music (guitar and piano), and fishing. (Watch out! He always exaggerates the size of the fish he caught!).
Fumi has a beautiful wife, Michiko, who he married in 1998. They have a son and daughter, Kazuki and Minori, who are both in elementary school. He considers his family to be his greatest joy and most valuable part of his life.
Mark Benton
Mark Benton came to Japan from Seattle, Washington, in 1991, leading a team of 8 missionaries. His wife, Kathleen, was raised in Kyushu as a missionary kid and introduced Mark to Japan just after they were married. Since that introduction, Mark has had a burning desire to reach Japanese people with the gospel and help establish strong local churches. Even though Christianity has not seen a lot of success in Japan, he believes that a new generation of Japanese Christians is getting ready to spread the gospel like never before.
Before coming to Japan, Mark was a pastor for several years in the Seattle area. He also attended Bible School and was involved in a wide variety of ministries. His first church in Japan was actually a big failure, but he learned a lot from that disappointment and ended up at Kobe Bible Fellowship (KBF) in Sannomiya. There, he served as a pastor and learned lots of valuable lessons from Rob Flaherty about doing church in Japan. He also met Fumi at KBF and their two families have become very close over the years.
Mark loves sports and is constantly in agony that he cannot watch American football in Japan. Fortunately, Ichiro plays for his beloved Seattle Mariners, so he gets a chance to catch their games from time to time.