The Westside Church of Christ L.A.
The Westside Church of Christ was a unique community. It was once the only Japanese Church of Christ congregation in the United States.
There are approximately 1.4 million Japanese Americans in the United States. Of this total, 250,000 or approximately quarter of the Japanese American population is centered in Los Angeles.
About us
In 2002, the Westside Church of Christ closed their doors and sold their building. The funds from the sale of the building were donated to Pepperdine University to create an endowed scholarship. Although the congregation no longer actively meets, this website exists to share the legacies of faith, service, and dedication of the Westside Church of Christ members.
Prior to closing their doors, the church employed two full-time ministers. Yoshio Nonaka worked with the Japanese speaking group and previously worked at Ibaraki Christian College in Japan. Kenneth T. Robb, was the minister for the English speaking group and recently became a minister, after having served at Westside since February 1962 as director of education.
The church held both English speaking and Japanese speaking services; the English services averaged an attendance of 65 people and the Japanese speaking services averaged an attendance of 50.
Our Hope
Our hope is that the sale of the Westside Church of Christ building will be used to financially help students who wish to go into full-time ministry or missionary work receive a graduate degree in Religion from Pepperdine.