Tokyo Baptist Church

What a busy day! My feet are definitely hurting.

I woke up this morning and met Rachel and Mariko at Shibuya Station. The trains weren't especially busy this morning and Shibuya, what some people compare to NY Times Square, was actually rather docile compared to most days. I even had time to go grab a frappacino from Starbucks. Always a great way to start your day.

We hopped on a local bus to take us to the Tokyo Baptist Church and as soon as we arrived, I knew we were in Baptist Country. People were singing and clapping at the doors and it looked more like a festival outside in the parking lot than a church gathering. We were greeted and immediately escorted to the front of the church (the last place I wanted to be). It was obvious that there were many foreigners in the crowd and as soon as I saw the Pastor, I knew we were in for a treat. He was about 5'6", 50 or 60 y/o, with strawberry red hair. He was a little spitfire with a southern accent and a heart and soul for rejoicing. "AMEN!" "ALLELULIA!"

After singing some 'engrish' soul songs, we were immediately veiwing TWO baptisms. "PRAISE JESUS!" All I could do was sit. And watch. The preacher that followed up on the baptisms immediately talked about how we are to be disciples and "CONVERT!"

He lost me at disciple. I love me some good soul hymnals and dancing, but evangelism...not so much. I was anticipating the sermon to be...interesting. And I really enjoyed it, though I was a bit gaurded at first. There were, of course, some points/opinions stated on behalf of the pastor that I disagreed with and questioned, but I figured that since it was my first time in their church, I would keep my mouth shut. Not to mention, I really didn't want to hear their answer. It is always the same. Someone begins to preach about what you have to do to live a good life and what is good and bad and what we should and should not do.... All the answers. "Because the Bible says so..."

Check out the Church Website @:

http://www.tokyobaptist.org/news/

You can even listen to the sermon for 4/19/2009.

Enjoy!

Afterwards, we made our way back to Shibuya Station where we met some of the students. We ventured to a park where a phtographer from the French Embassy was waiting for us. I am not sure why they wanted to take our pictures. Maybe and Anti-American ad? HAHA. No, but really, they took all of our pictures for something that the Embassy is creating. It was all very nice. Free. Loving. Peaceful. They said that they would send us some of the pictures soon. So, be looking for them on the blog.

Love and Peace from Tokyo,

Seth