sunday church
On Sunday I went to church with the Smiths at Mitaka Evangelical Church, where Ralph is pastor. It meets in a home, which, while good-sized, still makes for cramped quarters, especially with a congregation of over 100 people, a large congregation by Japanese standards.
The church service is a fairly typical Reformed worship service with a call to worship, confession of sin, declaration of pardon, the Lord's Prayer, a pastoral prayer, a responsive reading, the Creed, a Scripture reading, a sermon, holy communion, and the benediction, interspersed with various sung Psalms.
The church service is followed by a shared lunch for everyone. Due to my visit, a couple of hours had been set aside in the afternoon for me to speak to the congregation and to interaction with any questions or comments they had.
The first Sunday I was there, I talked about the adoption of children. A number of families in the congregation have adopted children and face some of the difficulties and struggles that often arise with adoptive kids, particularly during the formative years in which they are attempting to come to terms with their identity. Since I am myself adopted I was able to speak from my own personal experience, as well as some of the literature on the topic. I also attempted to provide a theological interpretation of the Christian practice of adoption in light of God's adoption of his covenant people, giving them his name, inheritance, and other gifts, and calling them to live in terms of that identity.
Since the church building itself is rather small, we moved to a nearby rented space with cushions on the floor, making for a fairly intimate and comfortable environment which worked well for the topic. I think I only spoke for about 20 minutes and left the rest of the two hours for questions and interaction. I hope it was encouraging to the congregation, particular those who are having difficulties with their children.
That evening there was a party for Emeth at the home of some church people so that her English students could give her a good send-off as she headed for the States for further education. After the previous day's lectures, church, an afternoon of somewhat emotionally draining discussion, and the party, I slept rather well.
(continue to next post: dinner and drinks)
The church service is a fairly typical Reformed worship service with a call to worship, confession of sin, declaration of pardon, the Lord's Prayer, a pastoral prayer, a responsive reading, the Creed, a Scripture reading, a sermon, holy communion, and the benediction, interspersed with various sung Psalms.
The church service is followed by a shared lunch for everyone. Due to my visit, a couple of hours had been set aside in the afternoon for me to speak to the congregation and to interaction with any questions or comments they had.
The first Sunday I was there, I talked about the adoption of children. A number of families in the congregation have adopted children and face some of the difficulties and struggles that often arise with adoptive kids, particularly during the formative years in which they are attempting to come to terms with their identity. Since I am myself adopted I was able to speak from my own personal experience, as well as some of the literature on the topic. I also attempted to provide a theological interpretation of the Christian practice of adoption in light of God's adoption of his covenant people, giving them his name, inheritance, and other gifts, and calling them to live in terms of that identity.
Since the church building itself is rather small, we moved to a nearby rented space with cushions on the floor, making for a fairly intimate and comfortable environment which worked well for the topic. I think I only spoke for about 20 minutes and left the rest of the two hours for questions and interaction. I hope it was encouraging to the congregation, particular those who are having difficulties with their children.
That evening there was a party for Emeth at the home of some church people so that her English students could give her a good send-off as she headed for the States for further education. After the previous day's lectures, church, an afternoon of somewhat emotionally draining discussion, and the party, I slept rather well.
(continue to next post: dinner and drinks)
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