
November 5, 2026
Not Just on Sunday
Lonetta McKee

Mustard Seed Network plants gospel-centered churches in urban Japan through church planter training, disciple-making, leadership development, and support for local congregations.
Mustard Seed Network is a Christian church-planting organization with the mission “to glorify God by making disciples through planting gospel-centered churches in Japan.” The network focuses on gospel proclamation, disciple-making, leadership development, and the formation of local churches in major Japanese cities. Its work began when a team of church planters moved to Japan in 2007, and the first church was planted in Nagoya in December 2009.
The ministry has a U.S. mailing office in Oronogo, Missouri, while its church-planting work is centered in urban Japan. Mustard Seed Network serves Japanese cities including Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, Tokyo, Sendai, Hiroshima, Yokohama, Sapporo, Saitama, Fukuoka, and Chiba. The organization identifies Japan as a major mission field because of the country’s low percentage of Christians and the need for gospel-centered churches and trained Christian leaders.
Mustard Seed Network operates as a network of church-planting churches in Japan. Its model includes recruiting and training church planters, catalyzing new church plants, and supporting existing church planters and church plants. The network emphasizes biblical teaching, expository preaching, discipleship, evangelism, church leadership, and culturally engaged ministry in urban settings.
The organization’s churches describe themselves as gospel-centered, disciples-making-disciples, and diverse. While many worshipers are Japanese, Mustard Seed Network notes that its churches include people from multiple countries. Its churches seek to proclaim the person and work of Jesus, equip believers for discipleship, gather in Christian community, baptize believers, and establish healthy local congregations.
Mustard Seed Network’s Kingdom Campaign expands this strategy by focusing on church multiplication, leadership development, church revitalization, and ministry training. The campaign describes a goal of helping establish additional churches and supporting ministry training in Japan. The network also maintains specific city pages for church plants, giving donors and prayer partners information about local church-planting teams.
People can engage with Mustard Seed Network by praying for Japan, giving to the general church-planting fund, supporting church planters, learning about ministry preparation, sharing the organization’s work, or connecting through its contact page. Its distinct contribution is long-term, cross-cultural church planting focused on making disciples and establishing gospel-centered churches in Japan’s cities.
Articles that mention Mustard Seed Network
Learn how to turn the sermons you’re already preaching into searchable, shareable content that helps people discover and connect with your local church. Access Be Seen, Be Heard on demand with Wes Woodell and Trey Sheneman. A two hour course for preachers, church media and website teams, and anyone who wants to help their church reach more people online.