Lifehouse International Church Yokohama — Local services in Yokohama

Two stars for the message sermons. (Which are written for the local pastor by the head boss in Tokyo)

Beyond that, this “church” is an absolute parody of what a church should be. Bland pop-music hymnals, trying too hard to be cool, pushing everyone to clap and cheer. But when you look a little deeper it’s riddled with flaws…

They pedal “tithing 10% of your income to Lifehouse to get blessings in your life” as a Christian belief, when such a concept is not at all part of the New Testament covenant.

There’s little transparency about what money is used for. There’s no clear philanthropy happening.

“Community outreach” is church “team members” walking around town and chatting up hip young people and college girls to hang out and play games with. Where’s the homeless feeding, donating clothes, or even just sitting down with a lonely looking grandpa?

Too much time spent off topic of scripture. The online worship dedicates half the hour to asking for money, some pastors in a podcast setup playing dumb mini games, etc. The in person worship plays 3-4 generic Christian pop songs for 15 minutes, talks about tithing and other news for 10+ minutes, and maybe half of the time remaining there’s a meaningful message.

The pastor means well and is articulate with the message, but is terrible at shepherding his community. I witnessed 1 mentally unwell newer member slander and gossip about another member, and the pastor simply told them to keep their distance and left it alone, the slandered member seemed uncomfortable, asked for help which was never given, and just never returned. Moreover the person who caused the trouble was allowed to join the church volunteer staff team. I also personally experienced, and heard about other members, dealing with depression or various issues that were just blown off when brought up to leadership. You pretty much have to match this community’s “always excited and genki about Christ” energy or you’ll be out of place.

Insult to injury, all their social posts leading up to Christmas were promos with pastors/staff dressed as Santa and reindeer, while acting cheesy. One of the most sacred holidays for Christians all year and it’s not about Jesus, but some corny Santa stuff? Embarrassing.

One final note, most of the positive reviews on this group are by members of the staff. Others are mainly just tourists who popped in once...

I served on a missions trip at Lifehouse Yokohama in June of 2024. I am not a staff member, and I spent 10 days with this church. This was my experience.

This Church felt so unique. Everyone was so kind and honestly, over everything else, the community here is what made the difference for me, everyone was so welcoming and kind, when all I had was endless questions they were happy to answer them all with a smile.

I really enjoyed worship here, although it is similar in the USA, the passion and celebration here redefined what worship was and what it could be to me. If you love to dance, this is the place for you!

The outreach was also incredibly amazing. Japan is very different from the US, so all these new outreach tactics were very new to me. I was used to going out and doing hard labor building houses, not just talking to others. It was new, but a good new. We went to many different college campuses and the people I got to meet suprised me and I loved talking. The resources Lifehouse Yokohama provided were great to connect with the students we met. Most students were just happy to be noticed by and invited by others. We met over 150 students personally in 10 days, and had over 40 come to our youth events! I also made some very good friends I still talk to today. Lifehouse Church always made sure my team was fed, comfortable, and accounted for.

The sermons always felt challenging and also entertaining. Especially their youth events, when we really got to lean in to the students we had met on outreach about Jesus and have fun while doing it!

This trip was incredibly special to me and I have Lifehouse and it's incredible team to thank for it....

Great church that's now on the 20th Floor of the Mercier Hotel! What a view! You can park below the building next to it (they're attached) but be sure to come up to the 1st floor from there and then walk over to the hotel side, into the lobby and then take that up to the 20th floor.

They do Japanese/English worship songs and service, it's all translated for both sides and spoken on both sides. We have Japanese locals and American locals there, come and enjoy Gods word with us as we praise Him and simply enjoy our time here in Japan. We welcome everybody here, especially first timers. We also have a kids section where they do arts and crafts with a teacher.

Service starts at 10:00 and goes to 11:00-11:30, we usually like to go out for lunch at the mall across the street afterwards, but that's...