“God may be redefining what ‘church’ may be.” 

Craig Macartney
Spur Ottawa Writer

COVID restrictions are starting to come down and most churches are announcing their summer plans: whether to have a limited re-opening or wait until the fall. For Ottawa’s less-conventional churches, the answers are more straightforward.

“When COVID hit, the format [of our services] didn’t change other than how we always had food together,” says Arlene, who together with her husband, Ray, leads a house church called Shiloh Christian Fellowship.

Shiloh started two years ago. As with many house churches, gatherings are more like an extended family than a platform presentation, so streaming a service did not make sense. Gatherings moved to Zoom and were relatively unchanged.

Rather than an extended message, the group is very interactive with each member (whether child, teen, or senior) joining in the dialogue, sharing praise reports, and praying.

“Each Sunday is different. I try to make certain everybody has a chance to share in our two hours together,” Ray adds, stressing how relational the church model is. “We have done social-distancing visits with each member and they are doing social distancing visits with each other, so they can see each other in person.”

“My sense is the Lord is giving the Body of Christ an opportunity to look at what church looks like.”

Seeking to guard that united spirit of the group, Shiloh decided to keep their meetings on Zoom until they can all gather together. They are studying some Church Renewal discipleship material, focused on deepening each member’s personal connection with God to weather any isolation they face. Ray and Arlene hope to see each member able to teach the material to newcomers.

Through this pandemic, Ray says, “My sense is the Lord is giving [the Body of Christ] an opportunity to look at what church looks like. God may be redefining what ‘church’ may be, moving away from the institutional and more to how it was created in Acts.”

The restrictions have certainly spurred many conventional-style churches to develop greater internal community. With gatherings of 10 now allowed, the Lifecentre encouraged their members to safely assemble in small groups to participate in streamed services together. The Meeting House Ottawa, part of a satellite-church network across Ontario, decided to keep everything online for the summer, but they are exploring ways to engage more through their home groups.

“Our conversations were just, ‘Hey, what are you comfortable with?’”

“It has definitely sparked conversation,” says lead pastor Eric Versluis. “We are thinking really hard about how we can create community and connection.” The church is exploring “pairing two or three families together so they can be support groups for each other over the summer. Maybe we pair them with a volunteer who was part of our kid’s program, who can check in with their kids.”

Although their kids’ program is online, they are looking into providing craft resources to parents beforehand, so parents can make fewer trips to the store. For adults, they started a weekly Zoom call called “Talk-O Tuesdays”, with guests sharing on topics like addressing social isolation or navigating mental health challenges.

With many experiencing deep isolation, house churches have seen increased interest in their community-focused model.

“A house church is hyper-relational,” says Dan Byrne, who leads a house church in Old Ottawa East and is pioneering the Ottawa CityChurch Network. “There is not really a place to hide in a house church, which is the strength.”

“A house church is hyper-relational.”

The group started meeting in January and has around 15 members. Like Shiloh, Byrne’s group was not concerned with streaming services and could focus their efforts entirely on their community. Similarly, they do not have the same rules about building capacity to worry about—they just follow the rules for social gatherings.

“Our conversations were just, ‘Hey, what are you comfortable with?’ There are different things we are thinking through, like singing, since we are facing each other in a living room.”

Most churches have not held the Lord’s Supper for months, but Byrne says that has not been a question for them. They celebrate Communion as a full meal together. During the lockdown, Zoom allowed them to continue this practice as a community. Now that they can gather again, they have everyone bring their own food.

“This reflection that COVID is causing on what is the Church and how do we gather, I think it is a healthy conversation for the institutional churches and house churches to have together,” Byrne says. “We can push each other toward our strengths.”