Belonging House Fellowship

I will embrace my vocation as an artist, artisan or creative professional, no matter my medium, knowing that God wants to transform the kingdoms of this world into the Kingdom of our Lord through the arts and creativity. Ten of the Twelve I Wills form the disciple. This one sends the artist out. Christ John Otto begins with a verse that bugged him in Morning Prayer: Zechariah's vision of four horn...

  Christ John Otto explores generosity as a sign of mature discipleship: knowing who you are in Christ, trusting the Father's goodness, and living with open hands. Stories of sacrificial hospitality, daily giving, and his own experience of provision challenge the poverty mindset that keeps artists waiting for enough. This is not giving to get, but giving as Christ gave — with money, time, and abov...

I will become more aware of Christ in me, the hope of glory. It sounds theological. It's not. It's the most practical of the Twelve I Wills. Many people think Christianity means believing the right things and then trying to live up to a moral standard. That's a recipe for failure, and adding a spiritual experience on top only makes the ride more uneven. Paul gives a completely different vision: if...

I will go low and become a servant and trust God to raise me up. Of all the Twelve I Wills, this is the one that sets Belonging House apart. Everyone else is promoting bigger, faster, harder. When Christ John Otto moved to Greater Boston in 2008, he asked God what He wanted him to do. The answer was two words: "Go low." Volunteering for the worst jobs and taking the lowest seat in the room taught...

I will pursue excellence in my craft and continually grow and learn. That's the next of the Twelve I Wills, and it comes down to two words: don't settle. Excellence is not perfection. It is refusing to settle for less than the best. Christ John Otto starts with a morning of prayer in the Massachusetts State House, and the lesson he took from it: no one sets out to become a crooked politician. You...

Listen to the Lord and do what he tells you. That single instruction is the heart of the Twelve I Wills, and it's where we move from spiritual values into practical ones — because artists and creative people work in the real world, with real things. In this episode I share two conversations from the same week — a stranger in a Greenwich Village coffee shop and a close friend whose job is being res...

This week Christ John Otto shares the prophetic word for 5787 on forgiveness and releasing loss to God.  He then prays for healing.   The teaching continues with our series on the Twelve I wills: I will saturate myself in the Bible, and let its story become my story. Christ John Otto teaches that Scripture isn't a rulebook of prooftexts, but the record of people who met God and wrote it down. He n...

Christ John Otto continues the Twelve I Wills series with a teaching on staying in relationship — the hardest one yet. He teaches from Ezekiel's call to warn the wandering, Paul's word in Romans to love one another, and Jesus in Matthew 18 on confronting sin and forgiveness. Otto admits he "herds cats" and would rather be alone with a book, but growth only comes through a fire team, not solitude....

Christ John Otto teaches from Acts 2:42 on the next I Will: I will attend to the breaking of the bread and the prayers. He traces the phrase from the road to Emmaus — where the disciples know Jesus the moment he breaks the bread — to the first church in Acts and Justin Martyr's account of Sunday worship a century later. It always means the Eucharist, never just a meal. This teaching is for artists...

This week Christ John Otto teaches from Isaiah's prophecy of the Key of David and Mary's fiat — "Let it be to me according to your word."   Surrender, not conventional strategy, unlocks the impossible.   He unpacks why knowing what God promised isn't enough — you have to surrender to God to get there, one step at a time.   For teaching is for artists, creative people, and anyone sitting on an unfu...

Blessed is she who believed that the word of the Lord would be fulfilled.   In this opening message of a new series on the Twelve I Wills of Belonging House, Christ John Otto unpacks the Greek word *pisteuo* — believe.  This is the simple, non-burdensome command at the heart of the New Testament: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and love other people. Tracing the contrast between Zechariah's unbe...

Five easy steps on how to walk on water — if only. Right after the miracle of feeding the five thousand, Jesus sends his disciples into a storm he ordained himself. In this teaching on Matthew 14:22-33, Christ John Otto walks through Peter's cry to get out of the boat, why water in Scripture always signals death and chaos, and why the fourth watch of the night — the darkest hour before dawn — is w...

It's the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, and the Gospel is the feeding of the five thousand — the one miracle told nearly word-for-word in all four Gospels, always in the same place: after John the Baptist's death, before Jesus walks on water. That's the turning point where Jesus's identity as Messiah intensifies, right as he's grieving the loss of his forerunner. Christ John Otto walks through Matt...

In 2014, Zuzana Komendova prayed a simple prayer: Lord, give me a good teacher who will teach me everything. She was finishing a degree in jewellery and silversmithing in Slovakia, wounded by four years under an abusive professor, and hungry for someone she could actually learn from. She had no idea the answer would take ten years, arrive through a weekly email, and have nothing to do with metalwo...

A stranger leaned against the wall next to Joseph Frost, said "you should think more about writing," and walked away. Joseph had been waiting to tear down sound equipment. He wasn't looking for a word from God. In this talk from Belonging House's Authentic Voices series, Joseph Frost — playwright, theater maker, and lifelong pastor's kid in the Evangelical Friends (Quaker) tradition — explores wha...

Twenty years ago today, a man with $100,000 in debt, a life-threatening diagnosis, and no kingdom worldview sat down at a piano in his living room — and an angel showed up. This is the founding story of Belonging House International. In this landmark 20th anniversary message, Christ John Otto shares — for the first time in years, by his own account — the full account of the vision that launched th...

Arlene Brown just wanted to lurk. She had been reading Christ John Otto's Substack for months — picturing an elegant Englishman writing by candlelight in a London pub — and when she finally worked up the nerve to join a prayer meeting, she accidentally crashed a Sunday church service instead. Camera on. No place to hide. Mortified. That moment turned out to be exactly what God had planned. In this...

Val Davidson grew up in a forward-thinking Baptist church in Edinburgh, prayed over by her parents, shaped by community, and carrying a prophetic gift she didn't quite have language for. By the time she found Belonging House, she had lived through trauma, decades of faithful service — and a season of serious chronic illness that left her sometimes unable to sit up, unable to drive, unable to be pr...

For over 52 years, Nancy Lane tried to make her faith work — seminary, Greek, Hebrew, Bible translations, Christian service. And for 52 years, something was missing. The information was in her head, but the love never made it to her heart. Then a trauma release prayer changed everything. In this testimony shared at Belonging House International, Nancy Lane unpacks the concept of a **kingdom grid s...

What if the way you learned about Jesus made him feel like a painting on a wall — something beautiful to admire from a distance, but not alive, not present, not *now*? That's what growing up Reformed-Presbyterian looked like for me. I knew my TULIP. I could explain cessationism. But I couldn't explain why communion felt like it meant something more — or why I kept waiting for a God who seemed to h...

What if the deepest spiritual resistance comes not from evil, but from our own ability? In this teaching on Pentecost, we explore three ancient rebellions—Eden, the hybrid race, and the Tower of Babel—and uncover why humans are always tempted to build in their own strength instead of surrendering to God's power. Pentecost isn't just about speaking in tongues or a moment in Acts. It's about the red...

Jesus ascended not to get out of here, but to fully accomplish his mission. His ascension into heaven is just as important as taking on flesh, dying on the cross, and rising from the tomb. Belonging House International is a fellowship of Christian artists and creative people who are called to raise up an army of artists who will build Jesus a throne in the earth.   We are here to help you grow and...

I have crafted a prayer for the renunciation of the religious spirit. Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is the only Son of God, and that he took on the flesh of the blessed Virgin Mary. By his death and resurrection,   I have been given the power to become a child of God. And I can only be a child   by the power of the Holy Spirit in me.   I renounce the lie that I have to do things to remain a...

In John 14 Jesus tells us that we will do the greater works.  How this happens is described in Acts, when God chooses seven men full of the Holy Spirit to become deacons. Belonging House International is a fellowship of Christian artists and creative people who are called to raise up an army of artists who will build Jesus a throne in the earth.   We are here to help you grow and thrive as a Chris...

Jesus Christ is the good shepherd, the door for the sheep.  His sheep here is his voice, and whenever he speaks he makes something new.  The Shepherd is always creating. Belonging House International is a fellowship of Christian artists and creative people who are called to raise up an army of artists who will build Jesus a throne in the earth.   We are here to help you grow and thrive as a Christ...