About Us
About Manna House
A small church with a deep table. We are glad you found us.
Our Story
There is a name in Scripture that carries more weight than it first appears. Manna — the bread God provided in the wilderness for a wandering people. Not in abundance. Not all at once. Just enough for today, arriving in a place no one expected, for people who had no other options. The name was not chosen casually. It is a theological claim — that God still meets his people in unexpected places with exactly what they need, and that the table he sets is open to anyone hungry enough to come.
Manna House is a church planted in the heart of Dilworth, Charlotte — a neighborhood of young professionals, longtime families, and neighbors who are, in their own ways, searching for something real. We are a community gathered around a conviction: that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not one topic among many. It is the center of everything. And when it is truly central, it produces something that cannot be manufactured — a community that is multicultural by conviction, not as a program. A table that is open not as a strategy but because the gospel demands it.
We are affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and the Greater Charlotte Church Planting Network — part of a broader family of churches committed to the flourishing of Charlotte. We hold to Reformed theology — a high view of Scripture, the sovereignty of God, and the grace that saves not because of who we are but because of what Christ has done.
We exist not for ourselves but for our neighbors — in Dilworth, across Charlotte, and to the ends of the earth.
What holds us together
These are not just statements we affirm. They are the ground we stand on and the lens through which we read Scripture and engage the world.
1 Scripture Is Our Final Authority
The Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God. It is our final rule for faith and practice, not a document to be revised, but a living word to be received.
2 Timothy 3:16–17 2 The Gospel Is Christ's Completed Work
The gospel is not one topic among many. It is the center of everything. Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again on the third day. This changes everything.
Ephesians 2:8–9 3 Community Is Where Brokenness Meets Grace
We were never meant to follow Jesus alone. Community at Manna House is not a program or a Sunday morning courtesy — it is a covenant. The kind that bears burdens and celebrates milestones. The kind that walks through the hard seasons and shows up uninvited when it matters. We are building the kind of community where people are genuinely known — not by their job titles or their zip codes, but by their names and their stories.
Acts 2:42–47 4 Mission Means Seeking the Peace of Our City
We are sent people. Our mission begins in Charlotte and extends to the ends of the earth. We serve our community not because it earns us favor, but because we have already received it.
Jeremiah 29:7Meet the Pastor
Pastor Femi Oke
Pastor, Manna House Charlotte
I grew up in Nigeria, where the word "neighbor" carries a weight that English struggles to hold. It does not mean the person next door. It means the person you share your table with, show up for uninvited, and remain loyal to through the long seasons. That is the kind of community I grew up inside — and the kind I have never stopped believing is possible.
I came to Charlotte by way of a career in construction management and a 5,000-mile leap from everything familiar. For years I built structures — reading blueprints, managing timelines, making sure things held together under pressure. Then God interrupted that plan. Planting Manna House meant trading the security of a career and a country to become a student again — learning new streets, new rhythms, a new city, and a new way of trusting that what we need will be provided as we go.
When I walk through Dilworth I see a neighborhood with genuine beauty — the old homes, the oak canopy, the pride people take in where they live. But I also see something beneath the surface that the data and the demographics cannot fully name: people who are known by their job titles and their zip codes but not truly known by their neighbors. People who have proximity without belonging. People who are, in their own quiet ways, still looking for somewhere to call home.
That is why Manna House needs to exist here. Not as a large organization with programs for every need, but as a living room for this neighborhood — a place where people are genuinely known, where the table is long and the door is open, and where the searching and the settled and the skeptical can sit together and find that home was closer than they thought.
One thing to know before you meet me: I am a much better listener than I am a talker. I am not the pastor with a polished answer ready for every question. I am the person who will pull up a chair, ask you how you are actually doing, and mean it. You do not need your life together to belong here. You do not need to know what you believe yet. Just come as a neighbor. I am genuinely glad you are here.
Team
Femi Oke
Jennifer Tyav
Tolu Aponinuola
The table is open.
If something on this page stirred something in you — curiosity, recognition, a question you have been carrying — we would love to meet you. Come this Sunday. Or reach out first. Either way, the table is open.