Belmont Church in Roanoke has spent more than a century as a presence in the city, but its current shape is something most congregations in America have never tried. Rather than asking neighbors to come to a single building, Belmont sends small churches out into the neighborhoods. What was once Belmont Baptist has become the Be The Church Network, a family of MicroChurches that meet in living rooms across the Roanoke Valley and gather together once a month for a citywide Celebration Service.
A Network of MicroChurches Across Roanoke
MicroChurches are the heart of Belmont's approach to being the church. A MicroChurch is a small, fully functioning neighborhood church with shared DNA, linked to other MicroChurches through the network's Believe, Belong, Become framework. Each one meets weekly in a home, prayerfully engages its block, and walks people step by step through an intentional discipleship process with the goal of seeing those disciples turn around and do the same with others.
The vision is concrete: plant one hundred MicroChurches across the Roanoke Valley over ten years, with a missionary living on every street and a MicroChurch in every neighborhood. Belmont sees this as the way to make sure more neighbors hear the good news about the love of Jesus. Be The Church is more than a slogan; it is one of the network's core values, lived out as a lifestyle rather than a once-in-a-while project.
Anyone curious about joining or starting a MicroChurch can connect through the Belmont app or by emailing info@belmontlife.org. The network provides resources, training, and ongoing support for those who want to help plant a new MicroChurch in their own neighborhood. A multi-week training process walks future planters through what a healthy MicroChurch looks like and how to launch it well, and the network treats church planting as a deliberate pipeline that includes formal apprenticeships for future planters.
The First-Sunday Celebration Service
On the first Sunday of each month, all of the MicroChurches in the network come together for a Celebration Service. Pastor Jon Laughinghouse describes it as a monthly family reunion to celebrate what God is doing across the network. Friends from different MicroChurches gather to worship Jesus, to pray for the harvest, and to be encouraged by stories from across Roanoke. A meal and fellowship time follow the service, making space for the kind of unhurried conversation that turns acquaintances into family.
Celebration Services are held in various homes rather than a single sanctuary, in keeping with the network's house-based DNA. People interested in attending should connect with their MicroChurch leader or email info@belmontlife.org for current location details. The Celebration Service is also a natural entry point for someone curious about the MicroChurch model who wants to see the wider network in one room.
Between the monthly celebrations, the steady pulse of the network is the weekly MicroChurch gathering. Those meetings include worship, teaching, prayer, and the lived-out mission of being a disciplemaker in a specific neighborhood. Children start with their parents during worship and then move to a separate room for an age-appropriate lesson and activity, so that the rhythms of family discipleship and gathered worship remain woven together.
From Belmont Baptist to a House-Church Movement
Belmont's history stretches back to 1901. Anniversary services through the years, where guest preachers have spoken about sharing the gospel across generations, have marked a heritage that long pre-dates the current MicroChurch structure. For most of its life, the congregation was known as Belmont Baptist.
In recent years the church has transitioned into the Be The Church Network. The doctrinal statement still anchors Belmont in historic Baptist convictions - the church links directly to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 - while the congregational structure has shifted away from a single Sunday-morning service and toward a multiplication of neighborhood churches. The change is not just organizational but missional, driven by the conviction that the most natural church is the one embedded in a neighborhood.
Elder Bill Olsen has drawn the connection explicitly in his devotional series called The Shepherd's Staff. Reflecting on Acts 2:42-47, he describes the early believers devoted to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer, with members gathering from house to house. Olsen writes, In house churches, devoted believers develop community where trust is developed between one another. Love gradually manifests itself as the individual members devote themselves, first to the Lord and then to one other. He adds, As I envision the future of Belmont Church, I dream of devoted individuals, manifesting love in body life, where all the world will see that we are His disciples. That vision - body life lived out in homes, with the visible love of Christ drawing neighbors in - is the future the elders of Belmont are working toward.
Elders, Deacons and Ministry Leaders
Belmont is led by a team of elders who also serve as MicroChurch pastors. Jon Laughinghouse is the Lead Pastor, an elder, and a MicroChurch pastor. Wes Williams serves as an elder and MicroChurch pastor. Bill Olsen and Tim Ward are also named as elders in the materials and preach regularly.
The deacon team includes Matt and Kacey Bowman, Keegan and Carissa Divant, and Liz Hogan. Carissa Divant also serves as Creative and Worship Services Director, while Liz Hogan is the Hospitality Director - roles that keep the monthly Celebration Services welcoming and well-run across different host homes.
Other ministry leaders include Rene Ward, the Children's Director; Joel Kirby, who has served as Youth Director and frequently preaches across the teaching series; and Josh Campbell, who serves as Worship Leader and also preaches from time to time. Carissa Divant's role as Worship Services Director, together with Josh Campbell's leadership, helps shape the musical style of both the MicroChurch gatherings and the monthly Celebration Services - a contemporary, congregational-singing approach that pairs with the network's worship-song resources and the Sing to the Lord series out of Psalm 96.
Belmont Kids: Birth Through Kindergarten
Children's ministry at Belmont is built around a simple idea: Jesus is the hero. Each Sunday, children learn the Bible and how it points to Jesus in an age-appropriate way. Lessons are designed to be fun and approachable, taught by committed volunteers who serve by serving families. The ministry is committed to teaching kids the truth that Jesus is King, providing a safe environment to learn, connect, and serve, and faithfully helping families be who God created them to be.
Belmont Kids welcomes children from birth through kindergarten. Care is provided during both the weekly MicroChurch Gatherings and the monthly Celebration Service. During the MicroChurch meetings, kids start off with their parents during worship and then move to another room for a lesson and activity, led by background-checked members and parents who rotate weekly. The classroom is meant to feel like an extension of the family's own discipleship, not a separate program.
For the Celebration Service, families check children in fifteen minutes before the service begins. Each child receives a name tag, and parents receive a matching sticker. A parent pager is used at pickup. The ministry asks families to share any allergies or special needs at drop-off, and to present proper ID when collecting a child. Security is taken seriously: a rigorous application and background check is required for every volunteer, and proper ID is required for anyone checking a child out of the program.
Volunteer roles within Belmont Kids include Greeter (greeting children and families, keeping hallways clear), Check-In Desk (checking in families as they arrive), Lead Teacher (directing the classroom, caring for children, and implementing the lesson plan, with the option to help teach on the Family Bible Journal video series), Assistant Teacher (assisting the lead teacher), and Snacks and Resources (keeping snacks stocked and the resource room organized). Anyone interested in serving can download the Belmont Kids volunteer application and email it to Rene Ward at rward@belmontlife.org. A sick-child policy keeps children home when they have fever, vomiting, diarrhea, eye infections, head lice, common cold, unexplained rash, sore throat, or any other communicable symptom.
Missions: From Roanoke to the Ends of the Earth
One of Belmont's core values is to make missional living a lifestyle - not just a project done once in a while, but an everyday posture. That commitment shows up in three directions: church planting, disaster relief, and partnership with local ministries.
Church Plants
Belmont actively partners with two church plants. The Hill Church in northwest Roanoke was started by Pastor Charles Wilson and his wife Tranay, and Belmont supports the work through prayer, finances, service, and people. The relationship goes both ways - Charles Wilson Jr. has preached at Belmont on multiple occasions, including in the Believe and Have Life series through the Gospel of John and in a series on Haggai.
Christ Central Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was planted by Pastor Reggie Johnson and his wife Courtney. Belmont sent a team to Pittsburgh to celebrate and serve at their launch service and remains excited to walk alongside them in their Kingdom work. Reggie Johnson has also preached at Belmont during his time as a Church Planting Apprentice, including in the Believe and Have Life series, the Pursued by God's Grace series, and the Core series.
These partnerships mirror Belmont's commitment to multiplication. The network is intentionally building a pipeline of future leaders; the formal Church Planting Apprentice pathway is one of the ways Belmont prepares the planters it sends.
Roanoke Responds to Hurricane Helene
When Hurricane Helene devastated communities in western North Carolina, Belmont helped coordinate a rebuilding response out of Roanoke and invited area churches and organizations to join in. After the initial rescue and stabilization phase, the network moved into a Phase Two rebuilding effort focused on helping families get back on their feet by rebuilding homes and restoring property. The work has been framed by Belmont as a long-haul commitment to families whose lives were turned upside down, including many children, with a particular concern for widows, children, and households that lost almost everything.
Three ways to get involved have been offered. Go Serve sends volunteer teams to western North Carolina for multi-day trips to assist with rebuilding. Give Financially directs gifts earmarked for Hurricane Helene relief to families in need, with Belmont matching the first portion raised and seeking additional matching partners. Donate Supplies collects tools and resources through an Amazon wishlist for use by volunteer teams and storm victims; people with building supplies or tools to donate can email the church to coordinate. Past teams have also gathered donated goods at the Clearbrook Walmart parking lot before heading south.
Local Ministry Partners in the Roanoke Valley
Belmont partners with three named local ministries. The Least of These is a ministry to the homeless community in the Roanoke Valley that works to meet physical and spiritual needs in the name of Jesus Christ. The Blue Ridge Women's Center provides a safe environment to listen to and equip women facing unplanned pregnancies, walking with women who are feeling alone and uncertain. Belmont also partners with Care Portal to strengthen families and meet the needs of hurting children and families in the community, with foster care a particular focus for many Belmont families.
On a more neighborhood scale, Belmont's MicroChurches have written encouragement cards and served a meal to the William Fleming High School soccer team, collected school supplies, supported families through Care Portal, and connected with the Roanoke Rescue Mission. Pastors and members have also traveled to western North Carolina to help the rebuilding effort and to Pittsburgh to serve alongside Christ Central Church at its launch. These are the rhythms the network hopes to multiply in every neighborhood where a MicroChurch is planted.
What We Believe: Believe, Belong, Become
Belmont's beliefs and values are organized around three movements that capture the discipleship journey: Believe, Belong, and Become.
Under Believe, the church is Jesus-centered, Scripture-driven, and committed to making disciples who make disciples. The conviction is that genuine belief always leads to witness, and that witness always leads to more disciples.
Under Belong, the church teaches that God is our Father and so the community embraces a family identity. The church is intentionally a diverse, multi-ethnic community and is a family of prayer. In a network of house churches, that family identity is felt especially acutely: every MicroChurch is meant to feel like a household of households, where the one another commands of the New Testament can actually be lived out day by day.
Under Become, the church is made up of Spirit-led disciplemakers who serve Roanoke and are willing to go to the ends of the earth with the good news. Missional living is treated as a lifestyle, not an event, and the measure of a healthy disciple is the willingness to invest in someone else who will, in turn, invest in another.
Belmont's doctrinal statement is linked directly to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, anchoring the network in historic Baptist convictions while leaving the congregational form open to the MicroChurch model. The church describes its mission as glorifying God by making disciples who believe, belong, and become, and walking with people step by step through an intentional discipleship process with the goal of seeing them repeat it with others.
Teaching, Devotionals and the Discipleship Process
Teaching is central to the network's life. Belmont maintains an archive of more than 180 messages accessible through the church app, with sermons from Pastor Jon Laughinghouse and a deep bench of others including Wesley Williams, Bill Olsen, Joel Kirby, Josh Campbell, Tim Ward, Reggie Johnson, Charles Wilson Jr., Jason Raines, Vince Oliveri, Michael Wu, and Zach Decker. Teaching series have ranged from extended book studies (Ephesians, John, Proverbs, James, Haggai) to seasonal series around the holidays (A Life-Giving Christmas, Christmas from the Upper Room, The Word Made Flesh) and to short topical series like Love Your Neighbor, Pursued by God's Grace, He Restores My Soul, Your Kingdom Come, and The Coming of the King.
Sermons are livestreamed on the Belmont Church YouTube channel and can also be downloaded as audio for listening later. Many older sermons remain available as audio recordings. Messages are organized by speaker and by book of the Bible (Proverbs, Matthew, John, Acts, Romans, Galatians, Ephesians), making it easy to follow a particular line of teaching.
Beyond the Sunday teaching, The Shepherd's Staff devotional series written by Elder Bill Olsen has become a hallmark of Belmont's written life. Recent entries include My Rock, Light in the Darkness, He Emptied Himself for You and for Me, The Blessed Hope, Granted, Devoted, Love Letters, and The One Who Overcomes Will Rule with Authority. The Advent and Christmas seasons bring additional devotional booklets written by Belmont members, including contributions from Keegan Divant and Pastor Jon. The devotionals treat the Bible as a living word to be read devotionally, and they often connect Scripture to current events and to the lived experience of following Christ in a confusing culture.
The discipleship process itself is shaped by the MicroChurch rhythm: weekly worship and teaching in a home setting, prayer for neighbors, and intentional investment in a few people who will then invest in others. The Celebrate Service on the first Sunday of each month gathers the entire network together for corporate worship, teaching, and stories of what God is doing. Members are also encouraged to take on spiritual commitments and challenges - a 30 Day Renewal Challenge, for example, walks participants through daily prayer, reflection, and Scripture memorization in the hope of being transformed by the renewing of the mind.
Getting Connected
Belmont makes it easy to engage from anywhere in the Roanoke Valley. The Belmont Church app is the central hub for staying up to date on MicroChurch gatherings, Celebration Service locations, devotionals, and the message archive. The calendar on the app is the place to find this month's Celebration Service details and fellowship time. Giving is available online through a secure processor, and gifts can be made as one-time or recurring contributions. Mailed gifts can be sent to Belmont Church, PO Box 3025, Roanoke, VA 24015.
For families with young children, the Belmont Kids team is the place to start. For anyone sensing a call to plant a MicroChurch in their own neighborhood, the network offers training and ongoing support. For those curious about what this kind of church might look like, the monthly Celebration Service is a regular gathering of the whole network.
Belmont Church is at its heart a family of families, scattered across a city, learning together how to live as disciples who make disciples.