ABSTRACT
The church community began as a Bible study for Japanese people, and it has been meeting for nearly 50 years. River Japanese Church is a community of about 30 Japanese Christian adults who meet in an old building in the city. City Japanese Church is located in the suburbs of the city and consists of about 30 first-generation Japanese adults and nissei and sansei young adults and children. Situated in a small town, Mountain Japanese Church is a small church community consisting of about 10 to 15 Japanese women and their children who meet in main sanctuary of a borrowed church building before English-speaking church meets for their service. Observations of church services conducted during the data collection period, although only once at Mountain Japanese Church and River Japanese Church, and twice at City Japanese Church, were aimed at understanding the relationship between interview texts and social processes with the intention of acquiring insight that was not available through interviews.
