Nearly 75 students filled a backyard nestled between two fraternity houses on San Diego State University’s campus, singing worship music, engaging in prayer and reading the Bible at the end of last month. This marked the third time students gathered amid parties for an event called “House Church.”
House Church was started by Charlie Hicok, a third-year finance major at Point Loma Nazarene University, alongside Charlie Pickard, a third-year finance major at SDSU. This summer, as they were moving Pickard into a house on SDSU’s campus, Hicok said they had a vision of people worshipping in the backyard.
“At the heart of the idea, it was to make a ministry for that college area,” Hicok said. “At Point Loma, we live in this kind of spiritual oasis, with a ton of resources. It isn’t justifiable for us to not go out into the city and SDSU and share the abundance that we have been given.”
House Church is not affiliated with PLNU, SDSU or College Ave Church, which is located near the campus. It is a student-run event that partners with members from a group called Greek IV at SDSU, which is for fraternity and sorority students who are Christian.
PLNU students Quinn Bentley, a second-year business management major; Matt Gallagher, a third-year education major; Wyatt Thomas, a third-year finance major; and Nathan Lord, a third-year applied health major, have taken on leadership roles alongside Hicok and Pickard.
Bentley said Hicok called her during the summer about the idea. She said she was excited for what the space could do for people.
“Our heart was for getting a really pure community together to worship the Lord and see him move and create environments and spaces that he is welcome,” Bentley said.
There was bi-weekly evangelism held on SDSU’s campus in previous semesters, which was attended by some PLNU students, according to Hicok, who helped run it.
“We really wanted to partner worship and evangelism together and bring the kingdom into San Diego State, a place of such darkness,” Bentley said.
House Church’s number of attendants has continued to grow, with over 50 people coming to the last evangelism event and even more for the worship, which followed. Leaders have been informing people about their events through their Instagram @fortheKINGDOM25 and through word of mouth by students in neighboring campuses.
“The first week we started it, I thought we would have like 10 people come,” Thomas said. “That we’ll have our friends’ support and it will be so sick. But we saw faces we’d never seen before, faces of people that [said they] had never even stepped into a church before.”
Darma Mortimer, a third-year nursing major at PLNU, attended the most recent House Church event on Sept. 26. She has participated in the evangelism that took place at SDSU in previous semesters and regularly attends worship events on PLNU’s campus.
“It felt different because there was definitely more tension than at on-campus garage worship,” Mortimer said. “I think everyone was more energized because it wasn’t fully a safe space; it was more of a safe haven.”
The location differs from most church services because the house is surrounded by Greek life and is home to 12 fraternity brothers.
“These girls were looking over the fence after worship, holding their red solo cups and asking what this was,” Thomas said. “They were curious because this isn’t your normal house music, but everyone is dancing and has smiles on their faces and can walk straight.”
Mortimer said that by stepping out of the PLNU area, House Church can show students at SDSU what a Christian community could look like.
“I remember watching the boys in the frat house next to us, and they drew the blinds while looking at us,” Mortimer said. “It reminded me that this is not common and people aren’t used to this.”
The leaders of House Church have already faced early challenges, including the possibility of moving to a different night, because some of the house’s occupants want their backyard on Friday nights.
Despite these challenges, House Church is still scheduled to be a weekly event, with hopes to grow into a greater ministry opportunity in the future, Hicok said.
“I have this dream of 10 to 15 years down the road, of creating a nonprofit that purchases houses in college on every college campus, and allows students to live in the house in exchange for starting on-campus ministry and house churches,” Hicok said.
Steve Anderson 
superadmin