T H E

S U B T E R

66 July/August 2016

L I F E
R A N E A N
A CUTTING-EDGE
FLORIDA CHURCH
NETWORK
REDISCOVERS THE
LIFE OF MISSION
BY PAUL J. PASTOR

Who: Tampa Underground

What: A nonprofit network
of relationship and
resources, or a fellowship
of microchurches
organized around mission
and local ministry.
Where: 136 microchurch
locations in Tampa,
Florida, with sister
movements in 10 cities and
six countries.
When: 2007 to present
How + Why: Read on ...

OutreachMagazine.com 67

Its 2005, and Brian Sanders is angry.

Almost 10 years earlier1996
the young man and his family had
moved into the poorest urban neighborhood of his hometownTampa,
Floridato start an intentional community. Brian works for InterVarsity,
seeing the diverse student ministry
for what it ismissionary work.
And maybe thats part of the problem. As he sits one Sunday in 2005
in the sanctuary of his home church,
listening to the line items for a
crushing (cosmetic) building renovation budget, his frustration with
church is about to boil. All this platformed world of expensive programs
and buildings feels so far from the
rough realities of a decade of urban life and student ministry. Brian
feels ignored, on the margins of a
church that should be encouraging
and equipping Christians like him.
But he feels unseen.
Brians not alone, either. Students
he works withyoung people who
love Jesusare growing jaded toward
traditional churches, citing disconnec-

68 July/August 2016

tion, excess. They flounder. Some leave

church altogether. And hes begun to
feel it, too: a growing frustration with
how disconnected church feels from
his calling in Gods Kingdom.
Another announcement drones up
frontthat the church needs to buy
pretty blue chairs instead of those
ugly orange chairs for temporary
use while the renovations are being
completed. It will be expensive.
And that little thing does it. Something snaps in Brian. This is not the
church life he wants.
Brian doesnt care if he sits in
ugly orange chairs. He wants to live
the gospel.
Is the church I read about in the
New Testament a myth? He wonders.
Or could it be real?
Fast forward a few months. Brian

and his intentional community sit

talking. They begin to list people they
know who arent going to church but
still love Jesus. By the time theyre
done, they have 50 names.
Theres one of three things happening to these people as time goes
on. Either they give up their early
radical Christian values picked up
while working with Brian, acquiescing to what might be called a
consumer-church lifestyle, or they
abandon church altogether, or, like
Brian, they keep going but hate it,
bittering toward the very thing intended to bring them life. Brian felt
responsible for those 50, many of
whom had a sense of call to radical
ministry as InterVarsity students.
Now, more than 10 years later,
Brians telling me this story over the

THE IDEA WAS SIMPLE: AN AGILE

NETWORK OF SMALL COMMUNITIES
DEDICATED TO MISSION.

phone. Bro, it ate at us, he recalls,

his tone still half student minister.
But at some point, we woke up. We
realized, Were disciples of Jesus. He
can lead us. We are an expression of
his church, and can live that out
however imperfectly. And at least,
we thought, if we make mistakes,
the mistakes can be ours.
The orange-chair crisis of conscience was becoming a crisis of practice. And instead of stewing to death,
Brian and his community decided to
do something about those 50 names.
So, he spoke to each one on the list:
I dont know what we should do, he
said, or what it will look like. But we
need to do somethingand I think we
should do it together.
Instead of inheriting a system,
maybe they could make one that
reflected their valuesthat looked
like them, that put the kingdom
work of mission at the center of
community and ministry.
Would they like to join them in
that process? Brian asked each of
those 50.
Every one said yes.
The group began to meet every
two weeks to talk about church.
Not just the abstracts, eitherthe
concrete realities of community, like
money, governance, discipleship.
They wrote down everything, and
commissioned the core team to propose a path forward. They began to
pray and wait.
They didnt know it then, but
before long, 40 of them would be
together in a slum of Manila, Philippines. And their dream of church
would begin to feel possible.
Manila? I ask.
Sanders is friendly on the phone,
but seems shy about telling Tampa
Undergrounds story. He says that
Im calling at a good time thoughif
Outreach had asked anytime in the
previous 10 years he would have po-

Keisha Polonio
They Gave Me a Home to
Thrive as a Leader
I was one of the original 50
people who started the Underground, praying, dreaming
and hoping for a new kind
of church for our city. Today,
Im a governing elderworking with our staff and elders
to pray and discern together
what the Lord is saying to our
movement and to us. Being
part of a leadership team that
values partnership is a gift.
The Underground is a special place for me because Im
wanted here. It has strengthened my walk with Jesus by
challenging me to lead and
make disciples when I felt inadequate. My voice, my passions, my gifts, my blackness,
my Belizean culture are celebrated. I reflect the image of
Jesus and they see that and
[they] have given me a home
to thrive as a leader in the
church and a follower of Jesus.
Keisha Polonio,
governing elder

litely declined a story focused on their

work. The results werent in yet, he
says, chuckling. This has felt like an
experiment. Were just at the point
where we can say its working.
But Manila
Yeah. At the beginning, we all
wondered where we could learn what
we needed, how we could open our
minds to see what was possible.
Even though the American church
assumes its the best at everything,
Sanders says, the truth is that the
church is strongest in the global
south, and the team decided they
didnt need to try to brazenly pioneer something new. Instead, they
needed overseas mentors.
They decided on Manila. Their core
team of nine adults and 10 children
could live in the very poor metro
slums on three American salaries.
Getting permission for a missionary
sabbatical from InterVarsity and their
support teams, they went. The rest of
the group quit jobs or took leaves of
absence. In the fall of 2006, they went.
That leap of faith was immediately
rewarded. The passion of the Filipino
church planters in those slums was
effervescent. Contagious. Their community emphasis, empowerment of
women and seamless union of evangelism and social justice captivated the
Americans. Brians energized by the
memory. Teach us everything, wed
ask them. God, community, discipleship, evangelism, pastoral care, mission. During the day, wed serve with
them, in the humid nights wed write
furiously, capturing what we learned.
All our core documents and philosophy for the Underground was born
in the sweat of Manila. And during
those critical nine months, a 24-hour
prayer cycle that included the original
group of 50 covered the teams work.
Those early days were full of prayer
and listeningvalues that still shape
Tampa Underground. Brian credits
that early openness for much of what

OutreachMagazine.com 69

they did right. We didnt know what

we were going to dopartly because
we werent just trying to recruit
people for my vision. In some sense,
the best thing I did was not having
a plannot because Im cavalier or
organicIm not. I wanted a plan.
But I was forced to stay open.
Brian recalls sitting on a beach in
the Philippines, racked with anxiety,
trying to express a doctrinal statement.
It was too much pressure to pioneer
everything. We were going to change
everything we knew in terms of practice, so it was scary to think about expressing doctrine. Gradually, he realized that simple, orthodox documents
of the pastthe Lausanne covenant,
in particular, and the ancient creeds
that precede itwere what they needed. And with the practices learned
from their Filipino mentors, an idea
for Tampa was taking shape.
Manila was healing them, too.
Our hardcore individualism was
challenged, Brian says. We began to
look more like Jesusunderstanding
a more comprehensive impression of
the face of Christ. Asian emphases
of togetherness and honor checked
many of their American assumptions.
Their team tightened up. Anger may
have helped send them out, but greater peace would return with them.
Before they left Manila, 40 of
those first 50 names were able to
join the core team for 10 days. Brians group shared what they had
been learning. People were ecstaticthese principles and practices
offered a way to live their values,
to do something that strengthened
Christs body instead of succumbing
to frustration.
So, it was back to Tampa. With
a plan.
The idea was simple: an agile network
of small communities dedicated to
mission. The network, a nonprofit,
would offer fellowship, finances, en-

70 July/August 2016

Kelli Immel

I Fall in Love With Jesus

Weekly Here
We really believe that were
better together. Were diverse, all working alongside
other Black, Latino, Asian and
white missionaries. And we
dont shy away from hard topics like injustice or racism. In
light of our citys needs, we
know that we need God and
we need each other. Were all
trying our best to listen to Jesus and do what he says. We
have people from all walks of
life doing radical things in the
name of obedience.
I love working alongside
sacrificial

leadersthey

stretch my own faith and understanding of God. I love

hearing stories of men and
women, young and old, meeting Jesus for the first time
and how he changes them
forever. I fall in love with Jesus weekly here.
Kelli Immel,
events director

couragement, coaching. Everything

from accounting services to training
resources. The microchurches empowered by it would flourish locally
according to the call and vision of its
leaders. They formally launched Tampa Underground in the fall of 2007.
Rather than gather people, then
try to convince them to go out and do
something, we wanted to empower
people already doing it. We didnt
want to count people, we wanted
to count communities. The first
launch out of that 50 people was
16 ministries, many of which had
existed for years, including several
house churches.
Tampa Underground is an incubator, Brian says. A community of
missional communities. Our infrastructure exists to serve those communities, he says. We dont spend
a single dollar, run a single program,
or do anything that does not serve
the missional God through those
people. Ten years later, the fellowship contains 136 microchurchessome gatherings of 200 to 300
peoplewith sister movements in 10
cities in six countries. Each empowers the calling of local leaders.
Brian and his team help the microchurches start and thrive. Free.
No strings attached, he continues.
Most people who are good with addicts arent good with spreadsheets.
You need help with accounting or tax
services? Well help youeven run
your payroll and process donations.
Media serviceswebsite and logos?
Social media strategy? Graphic arts?
Human resources? Liability issues?
We handle those, too. Anything that
could hold someone really good in
the field back from their callingwe
help. You can get busy doing what
you need to do. A lot of people are
just waiting for permission to live out
their faith in service. We give them
that. Then we back it up with practical supportmentoring and money.

Its all in the name, he continues.

We were destined to be the Underground. I studied in London, and was
inspired by their subway. Its an incredible underground world that empowers
the whole city above it. But its modest.
I was movedthis whole beautiful
city is run by a simple, invisible, network beneath it. Thats what weve
done over the past 10 yearscreated
a robust service platform for these
small- to medium-sized ministries.
And its all built on calling. We
help people discover and hone their
sense of calling, but its that sense of
being sent that we all need for this to
work. You can join an existing community, or start one. But you need to
engage in mission.
We create a structure that says,
Youre the most important thing
not the platform, preaching, music
or building. Your work is the heart of
the kingdom of God.
Brian goes on. I have a problem
with a single leader who comes down
the mountain like Moses, saying This
is what were all supposed to do. As
a disciple, Gods called each of us to
bring the gospel and announce the
kingdom. Our work as leaders is as

YOU CAN JOIN AN EXISTING

COMMUNITY, OR START ONE. BUT YOU
NEED TO ENGAGE IN MISSION.
equippersto help people hear him.
And at the end of the day, God is
creative. He thinks of things we never
could. One of the Undergrounds
recent microchurch proposals is for
people with multiple personalities
dissociative identity disorder. Another
is to start a recording studio for
homeless musicians. These would
join ministries in all kinds of neighborhoods for all kinds of peopleall
led by simple Christians who have
heard a call to meet a need.
I ask if hes planting church plantershe demurs, says that it depends
on my definition of church, that
most people think of folks who go off
to start church services, and that this
isnt that. I say church planter, but
what I mean is missionary, he says.
Theres nothing easy about such
work. One of Brians key roles is
encouragerand its needed. The
leaders of these communities are my

heroes, Brian says. They work for

almost no money, laying down their
lives for the kingdom of God. Theyre
everything we dream and wish the
church could be. But they get discouraged. They desperately need each
other, and they need leadership too.
A lot of my work is saying Dont give
up, and God is pleased with you.
Failure and experimentation are part
of the missionary life, part of discipleship. Theyre not to be scared of or
avoided. Theyre to be celebrated as
expressions of obedience. Not all of
our ideas are going to work. Not all
of them are going to turn into amazing ministries. Some will be really
humble. Some will be really hard. On
the one hand, thats the presence of
Jesusso profound. On the other, its
super tiring. Discouraging. I need to
lead people by cheering them on, and
to hold them to faithfulness.
Sois this replicable? Id call it an

OutreachMagazine.com 71

IF YOU WANT PEOPLE TO LIVE

IN A DIFFERENT WAY, YOU HAVE
TO PROMISE THEM CHANGETHE
POSSIBILITY OF A DIFFERENT KIND
OF CHURCH.

Anthony Rajski

I Help People Mature in

Mission
When I first connected with
Tampa Underground, it wasnt
what I was comfortable with.
The preaching, worship, even
the building wasnt what I was
used to. But I soon knew there
was something unique here.
I stuck around, thank God
because it changed my life. I
had never been part of a community so saturated with the
love of God, and daring to ask
the hard questions of faith and
orient their lives to the calling
God has given them.
As TUs director of training
now, I help people mature into
mission. My joy is watching
someone grow from a follower
of Jesus into a microchurch
leader bringing the kingdom
to our city. Even though the
Underground feels fresh, its
just a modern expression of
what the first church might
look like today. A return to our
Christian roots.
Anthony Rajski,
director of training

72 July/August 2016

archetype rather than a prototype, he

says. This would not be easy to copy.
Its sophisticated, and feels unique.
But we have an obligation to share
what weve learned. But Brian is convinced that its not unfamiliar. People
come see what were doing, and recognize it. This is what I believe! Its in
their hearts already. They just get to
put their eyes on it here.
Yes, the Underground has grown
into an international network, but
were not great at that, Brian is
quick to add. It happened nearly by
accident. They all share a manifesto
and a leadership covenant and meet
at a yearly conference.
Some sister movements maintain
close oversight. Some dont. But it
makes him happy to see their work
inspire others.
Its 2016, and Brian Sanders is joyful.
In the beginning, we were hurt
and angry about church. We needed
a prophetic leaderone who could
say, Were going to change things.
If you want people to live in a different way, you have to promise them
changethe possibility of a different
kind of church. That was my motivation after all, he remembers, the
sense that this isnt good enough.
There has to be more. Just rolling
into town and saying lets plant a
church, isnt eternal enough to inspire people to lay down their lives.
I wanted to call people to something
authentic. He feels that he is.
And its not just because it is successfulthough that doesnt hurt.
Anyone in ministry has to have this

conversation with Goddeciding

that youll do what youre called to
whether or not it works, whether or
not people come. You have to decide
this is who I am, this is what I believe
in, and even if only 20 people show
up for the rest of my life, Ill do it with
joy, because this is how the church
should be. When that happens, youre
liberated. You dont have to be successful. You dont have to be famous.
You dont have to attract a bajillion
people. I had to die on that altar of
success, in order to truly see what
success wasempowering people to
live their call, their ideas, in service
of the kingdom.
He and his team are beginning to
feel the happy obligation to tell others of that success. Maybe, he muses, 10 years in, its time to share the
Underground with the world. Were
starting to think about how to help
other people now, he says, and for
a second I hear the passion of a
younger and angrier Brian Sanders,
imagining the men and women like
that original 50, scattered around
the world. For a moment I hear the
edge of that voice reaching out to
those who sit in orange chairs, boiling and wondering and dreaming
like he once was. But nothats not
anger I hear.
I think its just the call of love.
Paul J. Pastor, an Outreach magazine contributing editor, is a writer
and editor, and is the author of The
Face of The Deep: Exploring the
Mysterious Person of the Holy Spirit
(David C Cook).