While Shalom House is a part of THE church, we do not operate as a church institution. Instead, we are connected through many church gatherings represented through our staff, our attendees, and the community around us.

Shalom House will use all the funds raised to pay our rent, utilities, and building maintenance fees. Anything saved in excess of those expenses will be placed into an overflow designation for use as an emergency fund.

All fees raised by classes and events go directly towards paying the expenses of those classes and events.

The ultimate goal of Shalom House is to see problems, brokenness, and weariness addressed, hope raised, community strengthened, discipleship deepened, and the joy and depth of God’s plan for his Kingdom to spread beyond the walls of Shalom House. We know we aren’t alone in this endeavor, so as long as we can partake fully in that goal, we will have succeeded. For however long God allows us to stay in our location, this will be our goal.

Currently, there are seven staff members representing four different missions agencies (TEAM, SEND, JEMS, and CTEN), and four different local church gatherings.

Chris and Tracy Pousseur - TEAM

Anna Rosengren - SEND

Kuni and Kristen Onishi - JEMS

Kim Lath - CTEN/TEAM

Tori Jansson - TEAM

We come from various parts of the world and from various cultural backgrounds: a truly eclectic and well-rooted community!

We also have a volunteer Japanese staff member who was impacted by her time at Shalom House and wanted to be a part of what we do here. She serves regularly with one of our art ministries.

Shalom House offers a variety of Art and English classes:

Eikaiwa (English conversation class)

English Art class

English Story Time (for moms and babies)

Open Art Night (time to create art alongside others)

Seasonal parties and events

Event room rental

We also offer a mix of events to support Christians in connecting deeper with God:

Open Invitation Soul Care (contemplative prayer and personal/community reflection)

Intro to Soul Care Seminars

Short and Mid-term discipleship opportunities

This is a challenging question because it boils down to one of intent. Our intent isn’t primarily to invite people to Shalom House, increase our revenue, or grow our influence. Beginning with our staff, then extending out to other Christian Workers (locals and foreigners), our goal at Shalom House is to be an in-between place that helps people recognize the possibility for more expansive Gospel impact, deeper rejuvenation, and a holistic (shalom) view of God’s kingdom on this side of eternity. 

Of course, churches can be this kind of place as well. At Shalom House, we don’t want to take over the role of a local church, but become a support for it. We simply want to be one place that can offer hope for a life filled with joy and peace amidst the endless service opportunities.

This same hope is equally appealing to any non-Christian who comes to Shalom House, too! Through the slow work of Christ’s redemption and love at work in us, we can become in some small way a city on a hill that represents Christ without the initial barrier of being a church: something that is a very difficult barrier for many Japanese to cross.

Also, by not being a church, we can be a safe place for many different denominations to come together without the fear of breaching territory, a very common fear in resource-scarce Japan.

Currently on staff at Shalom House, we have several people who are trained in what we call “soul care” or what is often called Spiritual Formation. In essence, this is just a constant reminder that what Jesus says is true, that we have a helper, the Spirit, who wants to affirm the truth of Jesus’ words for us, and that knowing where we are and who we are while we are on that journey to fully believing Jesus is of vital importance.

The Shalom House Rhythms help us to focus on these things as both individuals and as a community BEFORE we try to accomplish things FOR the kingdom. Those rhythms are…

    Celebrating, Listening, Exploring, Waiting, Learning, and Serving

An example of these might be taking a passage of scripture and slowly reading it together, not just for information purposes, but to let Jesus meet with us through it. There might be a time of quiet reflection so that we allow space for the worries and concerns of life to be placed aside, so we can hear clearly, or time to extract our own ideas from the silence. There might also be a time of sharing how we each met with God during that time. An exercise like this is not groundbreaking in terms of novelty, but it encompasses the rhythms of listening, waiting, learning, and celebrating.

In whatever we do, these rhythms always precede the “work” that we do in reaching out to our community, engaging with the lost, or offering any kind of activity through Shalom House. This means we are more prepared to offer some of that same hope to those who visit Shalom House.

Currently, 4,000 square feet of space at Shalom House is a bit more than we need, but the cost of renting our current space is equivalent to renting 1,000 square feet in most places in our area. The building we have now is old, needed a lot of work, and does not have an entrance right off of the walking path, making it less desirable for many other businesses, but great for us!

In the future, we see a lot of potential to turn some of that extra space from storage to ministry space, by inviting other ministries to come work with us, and we currently have plans to renovate a counseling room just off of our main space! 

Anecdotally, many people who have visited Shalom House and seen the space have seen God’s lavishness and generosity expressed through it. Tokyo is cramped, so the idea that God made this space for them to experience him has had a deep impact.

As our community grows, too, our space fills up! We’ve already had a few events where we wish we had already expanded into some of our unused space!

While each of us on staff ended up in Japan for various reasons, there are some very strong common threads.

Japan is the second largest unreached people-group in the world, and the largest that is legally opened to the Gospel. With roughly half the population of the US and a less-than-1% Christian population, the need is great here!

Japan is an extremely “good” society that is desperate for hope, freedom, and joy. They have one of the highest suicide rates in the world, they created the first known word that means “worked to death” (karoshi), and they have a culture that prioritises conformity above almost anything else. Add to that the possibility of being ostracized from your family for becoming a Christian, and the proof of a practical Gospel Kingdom that affects the here and now becomes paramount to the success of the church.

In a culture that often has all their physical needs met, and does not easily recognize the eternal benefit of God’s Kingdom initially, the need of the heart for community and belonging becomes all the more important, and Jesus wants to respond to that need. 

Ultimately, they are a people that God loves deeply and is pursuing. We want to be a part of that!

As previously mentioned, Shalom House is diverse, but unified in our common beliefs. We are also attempting to remain a safe space theologically, to support as many denominations as possible. 

As for core doctrine, we as staff all agree with and uphold the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. This is essential for anyone looking to serve with us. Practically speaking, we hold many more things in common, but we will choose to offer guidance and an earnest seeking of scripture for visitors who hold conflicting beliefs outside of these creeds. We will not make a priority of those extraneous doctrines. Since we are not a church, this is easier to do, and could allow for alignment with true doctrine from conflicting or erroneous doctrines held by attendees to Shalom house events.

One other doctrinal concept that is vital to Shalom House that should be obvious by now is that we believe in the “now and not yet” of God’s kingdom; that the kingdom has come in greater fullness than we realize, experience, or expect, and that someday it will fully arrive with Christ’s return and judgment.

You can access Shalom House’s donation page through TEAM’s donor page at 

give.team.org/shalomhouse

There, you can set up automatic giving for monthly/annually/other, or give a one-time gift. If you would prefer for your donation to remain anonymous, there is an option for that.

If you want to know even more about Shalom House, here is a link to our Ministry Initiative Organizational Plan that we developed through TEAM for the founding of Shalom House. 

Shalom House MI with Summary (shareable)