A network of church-planting churches in urban Japan

Our Mission:
To glorify God by making disciples through planting gospel-centered churches in urban Japan.

Our Vision:
To see the cities of Japan saturated with and impacted by gospel-centered churches that further the global cause of Jesus Christ.

What we do:
Recruit and train church planters
Catalyze church plants
Support church planters and church plants

What is a Mustard Seed Network church like?

Core Beliefs and Implied Best Practices

The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

Striving to create a church of which God approves
Promoting the glory of Christ in not only our church and network but in all churches
Cultivating the vibrancy of every ministry leader’s Christian walk
Making the worship of God the chief goal of every ministry endeavor.

All ministry should be centered around the gospel.

Gospel-centered preaching
Gospel-centered justice
Gospel-centered gatherings
Gospel-centered church leadership

The Bible is the inerrant, efficacious, and sufficient Word of God.

Expository preaching
Biblical counseling
The public reading of scripture
Guarding Biblical doctrine

The mission of the church is to make disciples through proclaiming the gospel.

Planting churches by the relentless dissemination of the gospel message
Planting churches that grow through evangelizing non-Christians
Equipping normal people to share the gospel with normal people
Baptizing believers by immersion and teaching obedience to all Jesus taught

The church is God’s chosen instrument by which he wants to reach the world.

Church planting
Training disciples to make disciples
Establishing the Biblical marks of the church including baptism and the Lord’s supper
Equipping saints for works of ministry

The gospel must be contextualized for people in every time and place.

Creating services where non-Christian people will gather to interact with the gospel
Making the aesthetics of worship reflect the sensibilities of the culture
Analyzing culture
Doing nothing to coerce people to accept the gospel but doing anything short of sinning to get people to interact with the gospel

God has given a variety of gifts and roles to the church for ministry.

Encouraging the use of a variety of gifts in a variety of roles in the body of Christ
Appointing pastors to lead, pray for, and teach the church
Training Christian leaders who will be able to train others also
Establishing Biblical male church leadership over congregations

Statement of faith

Mustard Seed Network churches adhere to biblical, orthodox, evangelical Christianity. The Lausanne Covenant can be consulted as a detailed statement of faith.

Lausanne Covenant

Mustard Seed Network churches are…

GOSPEL-CENTERED
Mustard Seed Network churches strive to proclaim the good news of the person and work of Jesus and apply it to every aspect of life. Mustard Seed Network churches put a great emphasis on Biblical, expository preaching in warm, welcoming, worship services.

DISCIPLES MAKING DISCIPLES
Mustard Seed Network churches encourage and equip their members to grow in their own discipleship as well as a life of disciple-making of others. Church members grow in these areas in Christian community through church small groups.

DIVERSE
While the majority of worshipers at these churches are Japanese, Mustard Seed Network churches are comprised of people from all over the world. Because these churches have been planted in globalized cities, people from Japan, China, South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Mexico, and the United States have been baptized at these churches.

Our Story

In 2007, compelled by Christ's commission and the great need for the gospel in Japan, a team of church planters moved to Japan with a vision to make disciples by planting churches in urban Japan. The first church began in December 2009 in Nagoya, Japan. In a ministry characterized by gospel-proclamation, relentless evangelism, biblical teaching, and authentic community, disciples were soon made and the kingdom of God grew in Japan. Within two years a team was sent to Osaka to start another church plant. Since that time, five more church plants have started in Kobe, Kyoto, Tokyo, Sendai, and Hiroshima. Mustard Seed Network endeavors to plant five more churches in Japan’s largest urban areas by 2025.

Numbers:

Church plants: 7
Cumulative baptisms: 274
Cumulative average church attendance: 754
Church planters in Japan: 45
Ministry preparation: 16
Local church staff: 11
Local elders: 7
Years of ministry in Japan: 14