The Tea House Prayer Room
“Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Luke 5:16
No street address, but easy to find. Set GPS to 209 Chestnut Hill Road, New Boston, NH. Turn onto dirt road, 100 yards on left.
Drop in to pray 9-5, Monday-Friday.
No shoes inside, please.
We Pray!
We are an independent Bible teaching church, who strives to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and might, and others as ourselves.
In 1928, the land at the top of Chestnut Hill was claimed for the Lord as a “high place” in southern NH. At a higher elevation than nearly every church in NH, we believe we are called by the Lord to pray for the other churches in southern New Hampshire--for the pastors, elders, leaders and families of every Christ honoring church. We regularly pray for His kingdom and will to come to every church.
Furthermore, we pray for the unbelievers in NH. God told Moses to have Aaron pray over the people, even after they were woefully disobedient in fashioning and worshipping the golden calf.
22 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, 24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance [a] upon you and give you peace. 27 “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” Numbers 6
We regularly pray the name of the Lord over the people of NH, asking him to bless them with an awakening to the joy of living in Christ.
Furthermore, we have a dedicated prayer room, open to the public, The Tea House Prayer Room, where we encourage Christians to come for peace, personal contemplation, and prayer for awakening and revival in NH.
As one of the few, pray for the many.
“Enter by the narrow gate…few find it.”
— Matt. 7:13
History of The Tea House
In 1549, Christianity landed on the shore of Japan. It spread rapidly and within 40 years tens of thousands of Japanese citizens had converted to Catholicism. During this era, a skillful, articulate Samurai became Shogun (military General and Governor) of a region near Nagasaki. He and his tea sage did something which wrote them into the history books and are remembered to this day as the most famous Samurai and tea expert in the history of Japan.
Oda Nobunaga desired to get the warring Shoguns around him to unite. His tea sage, Sen no Rikyu, had seven tea experts working for him, six of whom were Christians. The team developed a tea ceremony fashioned after and inspired by the Catholic Priest’s ritual of preparing the Eucharist: the meticulous hand movements to prepare the bread and the wine to be served on a tray and a shared goblet. The ceremony was performed in a tea house/room where guests had to lay down their weapons outside and enter through a short door. This required humility, bowing under the door frame, equal with each other. Inside, decorum was required - humble, respectful, the group’s wellbeing more important than the individual. The furnishings of the tearoom were simple: tatami mats, a scroll with art and words to contemplate, ikebana (flower display), cushions to sit, and tea-making implements.
The entire atmosphere of décor, host, guests, and tea was a blend of humility, servitude, compassion, kindness, communal welfare, art, and contemplation.
A Haven For Persecuted Christians
In the coming years, Oda Nobunaga successfully united much of Japan, creating the most uniquely Christ-like culture in the world. After his death, Japanese leadership discovered that Christianity was a precursor to imperialism. They noticed a pattern with some of their trading partners: Christians sailed in from Europe, then the government imperialized the local people, taking control, taxing the citizens and forcing cultural change.
In a swift response, the Japanese outlawed Christianity and shut down the country from outside influence for two hundred years. Surviving Christians used the tea house to celebrate the Lord’s Supper in secret.
Today, Japan is < 1% Christian, still observing Christianity as a foreign religion that seeks to change Japanese culture into western ways.
“If the Japanese nation ever realizes how close they are to Jesus, there will be a rush at the gates such as never before seen.”
Pastor Randy Loubier
In 1978, then anti-Christian Randy Loubier went to Japan eager to find spiritual answers. His quest was partially fruitful leading to a deep appreciation for the enigmatic Japanese culture including the tea ceremony and then 30 years of wanderings through Taoism, Buddhism, Hindu and Shinto. In 2008 he finally found what he was looking for in the Bible, falling in love with Jesus.
Called to write a novel set in Japan, in 2017 Randy began a four-year journey of faith. Heeding the Lord’s will, the novel unfolded with each click of the keyboard as did parallels between Jesus’ teachings and Japanese cultural values. Some of what he loved about the Japanese culture was what he loved about Jesus: the call to live peaceably with all, to put others before self, to value purity and humility.
In 2021 the novel was published and obedience continued in answering the Lord’s will to build a tea house on the property. As Slow Brewing Tea became known in Japanese Christian circles, readers reached out to reveal the research and roots of the tea ceremony to the Lord’s Supper.
In all ways, in every culture, God’s will and our obedience make for an extraordinary life of faith.
