Discovering An Unexpected Mission Field for Church Planting

Pastor and UBA Consultant Bryant Lee, Sr., sits down with another local pastor to talk about church planting in the reality of Houston.

Pastor Andre Riggs, a longtime friend, scholar, and serial church planter, is at the helm of this new work — a gospel-centered, multiethnic network of house churches birthed out of prayer, obedience, and an unlikely mission field: a Houston bowling alley.

The story of Mission World Church isn’t just a story about a church launch. It’s about rediscovering your call, slowing down long enough to hear God’s direction, and embracing the mission field that might be hiding in plain sight.

A New Way Forward

Pastor Andre Riggs has planted churches across the city of Houston since 2002. At first, he didn’t even call it “church planting.” As he tells it, his South Carolina pastor simply said, “Find a spot, open your mouth, and, if God called you, they’ll come.”

And they did. One after another, churches were birthed out of street-level preaching and a deep passion to reach the lost.

But something changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. It wasn’t the shutdowns or restrictions — it was what God was doing in Andre’s heart. For the first time, God called him not just to start a church, but to shepherd one.

“God said, ‘I want you to stop running. This next church, you’re going to pastor it.’ That shifted everything,” says Riggs.

Working with the Houston Church Planting Network (HCPN), Pastor Riggs encountered a new model: a decentralized approach to planting through house churches. Instead of rushing into a public launch, he spent time casting vision, training six men with true shepherding hearts, and building real community.

The result was a network of multiplying house churches marked by authenticity, vulnerability, and spiritual family.

The Unexpected Mission Field

What sets Mission World Church apart isn’t just its structure. It’s the field it was born from.

Several years ago, Pastor Riggs was reconnecting with his father and ended up in a place he never expected — a bowling alley. He had never bowled before, but that night changed everything.

He “walked in and saw people from every race and background. It was packed. Something clicked. I didn’t know it yet, but God was showing me the mission field.”

Two years later, the church plant he was leading returned to the same alley for an outing. This time, some unchurched men approached them, invited them to bowl, and opened the door to gospel-centered conversations.

What followed was years of building relationships in that same bowling alley. People with church hurt. People with no church background. People who had walked away from faith. They found community, discipleship, and hope through Pastor Riggs and the believers walking with him.

The Power of Obedience

Despite the growth of the house churches and deep community impact, the launch of Mission World Church seemed delayed. Many who knew Pastor Riggs wondered when — or if — it would ever publicly launch.

Behind the scenes, a spiritual wrestle was unfolding.

“I had renamed the work Faith Capital, trying to move away from the original vision. But God told me, ‘You’re running from what I called you to do. You need to be faithful to what I spoke.’”

Through prayer, prophetic words, and Scripture — particularly Mark 16 — God brought clarity and conviction. The calling had not changed. It was time to obey.

Mission World Church is not just a new name, it’s a redemptive continuation of the vision first spoken over Pastor Riggs more than twenty years ago: to plant a multiethnic, gospel-saturated church that brings the light of Jesus to the world.

Easter 2025: The Launch

On Easter Sunday in 2025, Mission World Church officially launched.

It wasn’t a traditional church service in a sanctuary. It was a diverse, dynamic gathering of people from all walks of life, all ages, and multiple ethnic backgrounds. It was a glimpse of heaven — the nations worshiping together, united by the mission of the gospel.

What started in living rooms had now expanded to a weekly gathering at the Langham Creek YMCA, located in the Cypress Alief area of Houston. But the DNA remains unchanged: house churches, authentic relationships, and a shepherding heart.

Church on Mission

For anyone wondering what church planting looks like in a post-COVID world, Mission World Church offers a compelling model: Start slow. Listen to God. Build deep. Don’t overlook the unexpected places where mission can be born.

As Pastor Riggs says:

“God isn’t asking for perfection. He’s asking for obedience. He’s not changing His mind. He’s waiting for us to walk out what He already spoke.”

Mission World Church is just one example of churches lighting up our city — one house, one relationship, one disciple at a time.

Bryant Lee is pastor of Higher Expectations Church and a church consultant for UBA. Bryant has a particular passion for mentoring bi-vocational church planters and pastors reaching urban areas.