The Mission to Makati
City to City Asia Pacific’s Abet Almanza shares his story of planting a church in the city of Makati in Manila, Philippines amid the pandemic.
The Seed
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, led by a City to City church planter named Zuriel Bernardino and based in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. I later served as the worship pastor for BreadCom Mandaluyong, the sending church of Heroes Church, and in 2012 my wife and I helped launch another church, BreadCom Quezon City, where I eventually became the lead pastor for four years.
During my time in Quezon City, I attended the 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—coming up with a presentation didn’t seem daunting to me.
I decided to present a picture of planting a church in the city of Makati. Makati was a city close to my heart. It was where I lived many years ago. It was where my wife and I met for the very first time. It was a city I had a deep connection with and loved.
The Commission
After the Intensive in 2017, I went back to Quezon City. For the next two years, I prayed for a vision of planting a church in Makati and discussed it with the leadership team of my church. They supported me in prayer and, in the last quarter of 2019, they commissioned me to plant a church in Makati. 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 concretized the idea that advancing the kingdom of God takes priority above all else! 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 venue for a worship service 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 third week of February 2020.
Our son, Noah Francis, was born!
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 to believe that this was going to pass over in a week or two, and things would be back on track soon enough. But as the situation progressed, 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.
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:
We began interacting with people online through our Facebook page.
We built a church website.
We began conducting weekly Bible studies via Zoom.
We started a gospel immersion training, which is a 10-week study program to help people understand, communicate, and apply the gospel to their life.
We produced a podcast to share the vision, values, and teachings of the church.
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!
For more stories from church planters in the Asia Pacific region, visit citytocityasiapacific.com.