CAN is a network made up of people unified around a common vision and common values. We do not have an official membership option because early in the formative stages of CAN Japanese we work with said, “We don’t want another big organization that we have to belong to.”
The roots of CAN go back to the summer of 1996 when Paul and Nancy Nethercott hosted a gathering of friends in their home. This group became Mitaka Musicians Meeting (MMM). Periodically we held meetings at TEAM Center in Mitaka (Tokyo) Japan. These meetings were successful in bringing a number of musicians together resulting in the establishment of a growing network. Some “key people” who attended those early meetings are Hiro and Rie Kagami, Mori Yuri, Mika Tsuneda, Gary Bauman, Mark Ramquist, Eiji and Shoko Horii and Makoto and Yumiko Iwabuchi.
In 1998, we changed the name to CAN (Christian Artists Network). Around the same time former nightclub entertainer/musicians, Ken and Bola Taylor became involved. Shortly after that two accomplished Japanese musicians, Masaki Iwamoto and his wife Yurie Kokubu, who had recently become Christians, began to attend some of our meetings. Ken Taylor, Eiji Horii, Yurie, Masaki, and Lay Hong Ong of Campus Crusade for Christ collaborated to produce the CD “Follow Me.”
In the spring of 1999 Ken Taylor, Eiji Horii, and Paul Nethercott made an important trip to Kobe to meet with the Kansai CAN group. The three of them spent an exciting day of vision casting on the Shinkansen (the bullet train). Much of what CAN has done since then is a direct result of the dreams fostered on that day.
In late 2004 the evolution of our philosophy of art and ministry resulted in a change to the name, “Christians in the Arts Network.”
A Few Significant Events:
1996
Early networking/fellowship meetings
1998
A CAN workshop on worship at Oppama Bible Church by Greg Dirnberger of Calvary Church of the Pacific in HA
Publication in the Japan Harvest magazine of an English Directory of Japanese Musicians 2001
Arranging/composing workshop and concert by Don Wyrtzen
Production of the first CAN CD, “Follow Me” (Spring of 2001)
2002
First CAN Worship Seminar(“Celebrate Jesus” took place at Megumi Chalet in Karuizawa)
Leadership trip to Nashville TN by Ken Taylor, Paul & Nancy Nethercott connected with several churches, several artists, and most importantly Byron Spradlin of ACT
CAN office established in Tokyo (fall of 2002)
TEAM appointed Paul & Nancy Nethercott to CAN as their ministry focus (October of 2002)
Reorganization and renaming of CAN (fall 2002)
Establishment of an Advisory board (fall of 2002)
Ken Taylor became Associate Director of CAN, Paul Nethercott Director (October of 2002)
2003
CLTC formed, made plans to start classes in January of 2004
1st CAN web site went on-line (September 1st, 2003)
Second CAN Worship Seminar featuring Byron Spradlin & Mako Fujimura (September, 2003)
Hosted Matt Slocum of Six-Pence-None-the-Richer, our first speaker for TAF (Tokyo Arts Forum)2004
Third Worship Seminar in Tokyo featuring ikebana, an art gallery, dance, and thirty workshops, from outside Japan we invited Nigel Goodwin from England, Jill Wooley from NYC, Bryon Spradlin and Tim Lauer from TN and Mark Joseph from LA (October of 2004)
CLTC classes began in January2005
1st CLTC student-lead retreat at Fukuin no Ie (January of 2005)
CLTC accepted 13 new students in March of 2005
TAF hosted Andrea Crouch and gave him an award for Excellence in the pursuit of Goodness, Truth, and Beauty in the Arts.
Fourth Worship Seminar, October 2005.
2006
Hosted UK DJ Andy Hunter, he did a concert for Jesus LifeHouse church in Tokyo and taught at CLTC
Mark Miller arrived in Japan to work as CAN staff (November)
2007
Hosted a group of 11 from Biola University and made a short film called Mujo No Kaze (January)
Faith Amano joined CAN as a staff person, April, 2007
Moved inot a new, larger office (May)
Paul Nethercott did a workshop on Japanase Pop Culture at Cornerstone Festival in ILL (USA)