This is "House Church"
- Admin
- Nov 21
- 4 min read
When a living room is your sanctuary, and a dining table is your altar…
This is House Church.
With no building, minimal budget, and just a handful of workers, how are you possibly supposed to start a healthy church?
Maybe—just maybe—that is not the recipe for a lacking church, but the very key to a thriving one.
Let me explain…
Barriers:
Today, many are spiritually curious, but often distrustful of religious institutions. And in Manila, it often seems like people’s only alternative to the Catholic church is the Evangelical megachurches.
Add to that a few additional major barriers:
Loneliness — Even for those in congregations, both churched and unchurched people report similar levels of loneliness. In our technological age, increasing individualism leaves a universal hunger for belonging.
Information — We have more access to it than than ever before in history—including about God. That’s an incredible blessing that has spread the gospel far and wide. And yet, despite how easy it is to learn about the Lord, repenting of our idols and living for Him remains as challenging as ever.
Spectating — We spectate everything today—especially online. But think about it: how many home renovation TikToks would actually prepare you to confidently tear apart your own home? Watching someone play the guitar won’t make you ready to play one yourself. We spectate everything—including spirituality—yet rarely get to experience it for ourselves.
Law — When someone does encounter a Christian or a Christian church, it is all too common to hear much more about morality and obedience than mercy and grace. Law and gospel get confused, and the Good News starts to sound dangerously close to ordinary news.
Opportunities:
What if the oldest form of church could be a breath of fresh air for many of our newest problems? What if the latest trends in modern worship could actually… not be new at all?
More tables, fewer stages.
More conversation, less tech.
More ordinary people, less celebrity culture.
Simple, yet powerful.
Jesus’ ministry was often very simple, and much of his time was often spent with a very small group. Yes, he spoke to the crowds, but how often didn’t he invest in the few? He sent out the 72, discipled the 12… and even hung out with just 3—Peter, James, and John. Some estimate that as much as 80% of Jesus’ time was spent with just his disciples! And it’s not like that time was mostly in formal ministry settings, either, such as lecturing at the temple. How often didn’t Jesus gather in simple, ordinary spaces—eating, drinking, conversing, and practicing the Way together?
This same simple, small, familial, and intentional model can be practiced today, too.
The House Church Model For Today’s Needs:
In Manila, where it often seems like people’s only alternative to the Catholic church is the Evangelical megachurches, a Lutheran House Church has so much to offer and is uniquely suited to the particular issues many are facing today:
Loneliness → Family — People need to experience what a healthy, grace-filled family of faith can be. It is no exaggeration that most of our Filipino friends have grown up in broken households—marked by abuse, affairs, and hidden (and not-so-hidden) side families—despite a supposed household devotion to the Catholic faith. But imagine… imagine the experience of entering into a tight-knit community that dares to practice honesty and openness in confession and absolution, unity in prayer, and radical hospitality with time and resources. Immersed in rightly-administered Word and Sacrament, stepping into a simple living room of sinners-saved-by-grace can feel like passing into a pocket of New Creation.
Information → Transformation — We can know so much, yet lack what matters most—just ask the Pharisees. While gaining knowledge about the Lord is crucial, small groups are especially suited for helping one another apply it. “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it. But if anyone loves God, he is known by him” (1 Cor 8:1-3).
Spectating → Participating — Jesus didn’t hoard his ministry or limit it to lectures in front of a passive audience of spectators. Similarly, in a house church, ordinary people are invited to participate. With fewer numbers, each person’s voice is more likely to be heard and their gifts utilized.
Law → Gospel — With trained qualified leaders setting the doctrine and culture of the group from the start, filipinos can finally encounter grace unobscured. Grace should never be considered a “fresh perspective,” as one friend put it—it must be the standard, guaranteed heartbeat of every gathering.
The House Church model may not be flashy, but it might be just what many people today need.
A Network of House Churches:
A beauty of Friends Network as a mission organization is that it has always held room for so many varied, yet equally legitimate, ministry expressions. Every mission location is different, and so are the approaches that fit best. This is the ministry vision that is available to us here in Manila, Philippines, as a team partnering with WELS missionary Justin Steinke.
We are not starting a house church. Here in Manila, partnered with WELS World Missions, we actually are laying the groundwork for a whole network of house churches in a Lutheran fellowship.
Our current house church, which only started about 2 months ago, is undergoing constant trial and error as we learn how to be a faithful, vibrant, yet replicable model: the hub of a future interconnected network of gatherings.
Who will lead those future groups? Some future leaders may be discipled from within our current group, while others are being trained through classes in the TELL Network. Therefore, leaders may begin emerging all across Metro Manila and beyond, eager to form gospel-centered groups of their own. To support that, we’re creating simple, replicable tools that will be available to them for forming, leading, and faithfully discipling groups.
All of this is part of forming a multiplying house church model.
In Manila, where it often seems like people’s only alternative to the Catholic church is the Evangelical megachurches, a Lutheran House Church Network has so much to offer.
Minimal resources do not mean minimal impact. Like the early church—and Jesus himself—vibrant ministry needs nothing more than the Spirit working through the Gospel wherever two or three are gathered. Lord of the Church, guide and bless this ministry to the glory of your Name.
From the newsletter of Micah and Christina Otto, missionaries in Manila, Philippines.
