It's been an exciting season in our work here in Japan. One of the priorities since I've been back has been to secure a place for our church to meet. This had seemed like a challenging task because the city is big, expensive, and not necessarily asking for new churches. People are often weirded out by a religious group wanting to meet in their building. Within just a short time of moving into his new apartment, our guy Jay found a potential place on his street. The long story short is that the location would become the location we are launching this church!
The place is a foreigner themed sports bar called Strikers. We will meet on the second and third floor of the building. The main room isn't huge, but they have some open space they rent out for parties....and now a church. It's got some lighting, sound, and projection equipment we can use, and it's in a very convenient location. I think it's a great fit for our first place.
It's been fun to see the different reactions of people when I've invited people to church and they find out it's a sports bar. Most Japanese people have never been to church, and their impression of church is that is either a place designed for pretty weddings or that it is an archaic, stuffy place. I'm hoping that this place won't fit their paradigm for church, and that they will be more likely to check out what these Christians are up to.
We are hoping to show Japanese people (and keep in mind ourselves) that church is about people, not a fancy building. Church is people coming together to encounter/worship God and encourage one another in the faith...and that can happen anywhere.
