With high rates of out-marriage and dwindling need for bilingual worship, Japanese-American churches face a critical question: "Why retain the Japanese part of our identity?" This article explores how one layperson (Naomi Takahashi Goto) draws from her experience as an artist, teacher, and mother to help her congregation answer this question. Through play and Japanese artifacts, she equips church members to construct a theology that reaffirms their identity as Japanese-American Christians. By engaging in artistic play, the congregation experiences true selves that can gracefully hold in tension Christian faith, Japanese ancestry, and American culture. (Contains 13 footnotes.)