God gave us this dream.
“We build a Heavy Metal Church in Japan”
It has started without even knowing.
People coming from all over the world, seeking Rocking Jesus, and we play&pray together.
There are several things we have to do in order to build our Heavy Metal Church.
First, we have to build “Heavy Metal Worship”.
For that, we need musicians, heavy metal bands, who dedicate themselves to serve God. You need not only musicianship, but also discipline.
We need to write songs: Heavy metal worship songs in various styles. (We like classic, traditional style metal music but it can be any style in metal genre.)
For now, our band Imari Tones can do this job. Because we play heavy metal songs that praise God.
Second, we have to build “Heavy Metal Church Service”.
We have to build a church service that doesn’t reject rockers and metalheads. What does it look like? What does it sound like? We will try and see. Maybe we can find some inspirations in the Bible.
Third, we need a pastor.(pastors)
A pastor who does not conform to the world, both musically and spiritually. (Please don’t play pop music!)
Someone who loves and knows heavy metal music very well. Someone who can lead metalheads, both musicians and music fans, to the light.
And someone who believes Rock’n’roll is a gift from God. Someone who believes Jesus is the Rock.
Fourth, we need people.
Because people are the most important asset of the church.
We have to spread the word and let people know about this “Heavy Metal Church in Japan”. And hopefully, musicians and music fans who seek spiritual truth will gather. What kind of people will attend this church? We don’t know that yet. But we expect outsiders, outcasts, misfits to come. We are not doing this for cool people. We are doing this for those people who are struggling in the world.
And finally fifth, after all these things, we will need an actual location and a church building. Where will it be located? Is it big? We don’t know that yet. But hopefully, we will have a place where we can go loud. Some place we can play music as much as we can. That’s where we will follow His Faith. That’s where we live in accordance with His will.
Those things are not easy to achieve.
We don’t know how it will happen.
We don’t know when it will happen.
But we believe it will happen in His timing.
If God says “right now”, everything happens right now.
We will have a Heavy Metal Church event on October 28th.
That is the very first event and our first step towards the dream.
But we already have #1) Heavy Metal worship music. Because that’s the kind of music we’ve been making all these years.
We are working on #2) Heavy Metal church service which we will show you at the event.
To our surprise, we have a heavy metal pastor. A pastor who loves metal music is coming all the way from Nagano prefecture. That checks #3.
Oh wait, do we already have #4: People who support this project?
We expect our friends to show up on October 28th. We promise we will show you something you have never seen before.
As for #5, Asao Christ Church (Kawasaki, Japan) is our starting point.
This church is small (almost dying and Pastor Yabe came here to revive it!) but they have all the facilities we need. One problem we have is we can’t really go loud due to its location. (Japanese metropolitan housing situation)
But we should say it’s a blessing from God that we are given a chance to play this place.
We think we will take this “Heavy Metal Church” event to other places, such as regular music venues in Japan.
Because that way we can bring church to music fans and we don’t have to stay in one place.
But someday, we believe, God will give us a perfect location and proper church building.
Thank you very much for your passionate support!!!
Again this is the detail for the October 28th event.
We will livestream the whole show.
(October 28th 5PM Japan time)
On Imari Tones Facebook/Instagram and possibly YouTube.
It’s Japan time but don’t worry you can watch the archive later.
+++
Heavy Metal Church vol.1 Genesis
場所: 麻生キリスト教会(小田急線百合ヶ丘)
日時: 10月28日(土)
Open 16:30 Start 17:00
20時頃終演予定
Fee: 1,000yen (教会への寄付となります)
演奏: Imari Tones, The Spicky Heads, Funky Sunday Party (from USA), オオハラシンイチ
説教: 荻野倫夫牧師
日本にヘヴィメタルチャーチを作りたい。その思いから始まるイベントです。
日本初の本格的クリスチャンヘヴィメタルバンドであるImari Tones(伊万里音色)が中心となって企画します。
テーマは「愛と信仰を貫くこと」
ヘヴィメタルチャーチと言いつつもジャンルは様々です。
場所の関係上、音量は控えめになります。安心してご来場ください。(将来的には爆音でやりたいです!)
ソーシャルメディア上のライブ配信も行う予定です。
– photos at Asao Christ Church
Jonathan from Aqaba Gulf (Christian metal project)(from UK, currently based in Switzerland. He is metal.)
Scott from Funky Sunday Party (from USA. He is not really metal but he rocks.)
Praying for your project and fresh approach to spreading the Gospel. I hope to be able to attend a service and participate.
Blessings to all of you.
Thank you very much, Donovan. Please pray for God’s guidance for our church project. God bless you.