京都
Kyoto

City Facts:

Population: 1,465,448
Metro Area: Keihanshin, 19 million

Kyoto more than any other city is the symbol of Japanese culture. The capital of Japan for over a thousand years, Kyoto was the most culturally, intellectually, and religiously significant city in Japanese history and remains so today. With dozens of universities and colleges, the city houses the highest concentration of university students in Japan. They are joined by an average of over one million tourists per week, who come not just from Japan but from all over the world to visit its two thousand temples and shrines, walk its narrow streets, and get a taste of its rich culture.

Yet the very history that lends Kyoto its mystique also contributes to an inertia and resistance to change, from inside or out. Within Japan, people from Kyoto are thought of as refined yet aloof, even snobbish. Even as the city is renowned for its cultural and intellectual achievements, the business environment is stagnant at best, housing is in short supply, and incomes struggle to keep up with the cost of living. Yet through the proclamation of the good news by Mustard Seed Christian Church - Kyoto, the Spirit of Christ is moving to bring about new life among the millions of people in this historic city.

Mustard Seed Christian Church - Kyoto

Planted December 2017

In 2017, Mustard Seed Network was compelled to plant a church in Kyoto. The city greatly needed more churches, yet was also known as a difficult place to do ministry, and so the two couples sent from Mustard Seed Christian Church - Osaka and Nagoya prepared for a potentially slow beginning of the church plant.

But the church grew rapidly. God provided a core team through miraculous meetings and Mustard Seed Network connections, the Spirit moved to bring new disciples to faith, and after less than a year the church relocated to a larger, more central location in downtown Kyoto. Over the next few years, the church continued to grow in numbers and maturity, and in 2022 local elders were appointed to take on the responsibility of caring for the church—among them the church’s first local lead pastor. In a city famous for its temples and shrines, a new community is growing and gathering to worship the one true God.

www.mustardseedkyoto.com

Church Planters