Mark primarily serves as the pastor of Kaihin Makuhari Grace Church and the team leader of the MTW Makuhari Team.

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Kaihin Makuhari is a train station on the northeast side of Tokyo Bay, just 38 minutes from central Tokyo. It is surrounded by a business district, baseball stadium, university, residential area, and Japan’s second-largest convention center. The KM area is home to about 30,000 residents and is a weekend day-trip destination for many people in neighboring wards.

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KM is located in Mihama Ward, a city of 150,000 people, which is one of the least-churched parts of the Greater Tokyo Area. (Tokyo averages 1 Protestant church serving approximately 15,000 people, while Mihama has approximately 30,000 people per Protestant church).

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Kaihin Makuhari Grace Church (KMGC) was planted in 1999 and eventually became a self-sustaining congregation of 50-60 people. It remains the only church in a growing neighborhood of about 30,000 people.

After 20 years, KMGC was a relatively healthy church with strong elders, but its founding pastor was aging and the church lacked the means to train and hire a successor. (This challenge is common in Japan today, where many churches struggle to raise up the next generation of leaders and the average pastor is over age 62). However, KMGC took an unusual step: they called MTW missionary pastor Mark Bocanegra to serve as its second pastor, leading to the establishment of the MTW Makuhari Team in 2020.

 

KMGC has grown to an average attendance of 72 in 2024, including a growing number of internationals. To accommodate a growing congregation, ensure long-term sustainability, and develop capacity to train future shepherds, KMGC voted in 2025 to begin a building campaign to purchase nearby land and construct a dedicated worship space.

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The MTW Makuhari Team serves in mutual cooperation with Kaihin Makuhari Grace Church (KMGC). Our shared goal is for KMGC to grow into a robust, spiritually-mature congregation that is a greenhouse for growing new pastors, church officers, and missionaries.

We partner with-and-under the session of KMGC to shepherd the Lord’s flock, and to train shepherds and undershepherds for the PCJ and MTW Japan in the context of Higashi Kanto Presbytery. This includes developing the next generation within Japan, as well as fostering missionaries arriving from overseas.