Mission To Makati
CTCAP church planter, Abet Almanza shares his story of planting a church amid the pandemic in the highly urbanized city of Makati in Manila, Philippines, with a population of 5 million people by day and just a tenth of that by night.
I have been serving under different capacities as a pastor for about a decade now. It all began with an opportunity to be a part of the launch team of Heroes Church, which was led by CTC church planter Pastor Zuriel Bernardino in Manila. I later served as the Worship Pastor for BreadCom Mandaluyong, the sending church of Heroes Church. In 2012, my wife and I were part of the team launching another church, BreadCom Quezon City (QC), where I eventually transitioned into the role of Lead Pastor and served for four years.
The Seed
During my time in QC, I attended the 2017 City to City Asia Intensive in Taipei, Taiwan which was instrumental in shaping my appreciation of the Gospel and equipping me for church planting. As part of the Intensive, we were required to present an idea for a new church plant in our cities. At the time, I considered myself to be a fairly experienced planter and so, coming up with a presentation did not seem very daunting to me. I decided to present a picture of what planting a church in the city of Makati would entail. Makati was a city that was close to my heart. It was where I lived many years ago and the city where my wife and I met for the very first time. It was a city I had a deep connection with and a passion for.
The Commision
After the Intensive in 2017, I went back to QC and for the next two years, I prayed for a vision for planting a church in Makati and discussed it with the leadership team of my church. They supported my vision and in the last quarter of 2019, they prayed and commissioned me to Makati to plant a church. It was a step of faith for the leaders of BreadCom Quezon City to release their own pastor into a new ministry, but this move concretised the fact that advancing the kingdom of God takes priority! Being sent by our church was the first critical milestone we hoped to achieve in our journey to plant Cornerstone Reformed Church Makati.
Upon arriving in Makati, we began to see God’s hand of favor and providence in our ministry.
We made great partnerships with people who wanted to support our work and stand with us in our new journey.
We were able to secure a worship service venue right in the middle of the Makati Central Business District. As the venue is a co-working space, we had an amazing gateway into the space of the people we wanted to reach! God also provided us the funds to lease out the space for the whole first year.
We had our first launch team meeting in the 3rd week of February 2020.
Our son, Noah Francis, was born!
Launch Team Meeting
COVID-19 Strikes
In March 2020, we were in the process of planning and promoting the first major event in our newly acquired venue. It was an event where we wanted to spend time in prayer and worship to get a feel of what it would be like to conduct a worship service in the new venue. But a week before the event, the Philippines government announced the lockdown of the region. This forced us to postpone the event and essentially, all our plans for the upcoming launch season.
Like many others, my initial reaction was that this was going to pass over in a week or two and things will be back on track soon enough. But as the situation regressed, I began wondering why things were happening the way they were. Being a church planter can sometimes be a very lonely process and the pandemic exposed some of my deep self-centered heart conditions:
I realized that my validation as a pastor was somehow connected to the success of my church plant.
When all my plans got derailed, my heart began to question my calling and I wondered if I made the right choice in choosing to plant a church in Makati in 2020.
I thought to myself that if I were somehow productive and served the church, this pandemic season would not be a waste.
Ayala Avenue, Makati before and during the lockdown
Reflections from my journey
As I reflected on what God was trying to teach me about my own heart through the pandemic, I found deep comfort in my personal quiet time that reminded me of the Gospel and my hope in the Lord. Even though I did not have a congregation yet, there were still a handful of people who sought me out for pastoral care and guidance.
We saw the hand of God work miraculously in the heart of the owner of the venue that we had leased out for a year but never got to use. We were told that the start date of our contract would be adjusted to whenever we would be in a position to conduct worship services!
With regards to the church plant, a few action steps we have taken are:
Began interacting with people online through our Facebook page
Activated the church website
Conducting weekly Bible studies via Zoom
Started a Gospel immersion training, which is a 10-week study programme to help people understand, communicate and apply the Gospel
I have been producing a podcast to share the vision, values, and teachings of the church
Going forward, we plan on starting online worship services in October and when conditions improve and restrictions are lifted, we plan to meet physically in our worship service venue once a month for prayer.
I have deep faith that the Lord’s plans for Makati are much higher than my own. The Gospel will continue to flourish and this is a great opportunity for people to hear the good news about Jesus Christ, our Chief Cornerstone!