StarfishyoU · May 15, 2025
In this Bonus Conversation, we explore the deeper questions behind one of the most strategic pivots in any disciple-making movement: When is it time to form a hub team? Rob and Brian unpack not just the tactical, but the spiritual timing required for emerging hubs—drawing from their experience in the Kansas City Underground and the broader ecosystem of decentralized networks across dozens of cities.
This conversation builds on the companion article:
👉 Read full story here: “When a Hub is Needed”
🔥 Key Takeaways:
🔥 Don’t Build What You Don’t Need
One of the central themes of this conversation is a counterintuitive insight: hub teams should never be built prematurely. In the West, there’s a temptation to start with structure—build the thing and then people will come. But movements don’t begin that way. As Brian puts it plainly: “Don’t build what you don’t need.”
Instead, start by joining Jesus in a local context with a few partners on mission. Make disciples. Multiply spiritual families. Let microchurches emerge. Only when there are three to five microchurches beginning to function like a network should you even consider forming a hub team. Why? Because if you formalize too early, you risk falling into the gravitational pull of the predominant church model—where a leadership team unintentionally becomes “the clergy.”
🔥 Hub Teams: The Servant Equipers of the Movement
A hub team is not a board, a staff, or an executive committee. It’s a catalytic equipping team made up of spiritual mothers and fathers who give time and energy to serve a wider circle of disciple-makers beyond their own microchurch. They focus on three core functions:
Equip – outfitting the saints for the work of mission
Coach – walking alongside leaders through obstacles, burnout, celebration, and suffering
Convene – gathering leaders to pray, train, and build culture
But again, these functions should emerge organically. Most of the time, these people are already doing it informally—hosting leaders at their tables, walking with them, praying with them. When you see it, celebrate it, and only then invite it into intentional development.
🔥 Dangers of Premature Structure
Building a hub team too early has serious side effects:
Wasted Energy – You’re managing a team you don’t need
Split Focus – You’re distracted from disciple-making
Old Wineskin Expectations – People default to hierarchical models: “Who’s in charge?”
Narrow Leadership – You miss the fivefold diversity by recruiting only the charismatic conveners early on
Instead, as Rob says, “Create vertigo. Make people ask: ‘Wait, who’s leading this?’ That sense of shared ownership under the headship of Jesus is exactly what we’re going for.”
🔥 Hub Development Cohorts: A Pathway, Not a Program
When the time is right, Kansas City Underground offers a Hub Development Cohort—a 16-week journey of contextualizing movement leadership in your geography or affinity. Built on the theology of the fivefold (Eph. 4), the cohort walks teams through:
Contextual vision
Rhythms of extraordinary prayer and fasting
Systems for decentralized leadership
The “Five V’s” (Vision, Voice, Vocabulary, Vehicles, Voyage)
Becoming a reconciling community
Sustaining servant-hearted equipping
It’s not just theory—it’s tailored, practical, and iterative. As Brian notes, “We’ve walked with 55+ teams in 30+ cities—and every version of this cohort gets sharper and more Spirit-led.”
If you’re considering whether your emerging network is ready, the first step isn’t a cohort—it’s the Intensive.
🔥 Start Here: KC Underground Intensive
📅 June 22–23, 2025 | 🖥️ kcunderground.org/intensives
The Intensive is a two-day, hands-on workshop that compresses the hub development journey into a tangible space to discern, contextualize, and plan. Think of it as the “accordion” version: wide in framework, deep in prayer, and action-ready by the end. If you’re even close to three microchurches, this is the best next step.
🛐 Job One: Extraordinary Prayer and Fasting
Before you form a team, before you plan a structure, and before you convene others—cultivate rhythms of extraordinary prayer and fasting. This is the work inside the work. It’s how we stay in step with the Spirit and hear the Father’s voice.
👉 For more, read: Cultivating a Culture of Extraordinary Prayer and Fasting
🎧 Listen to the full conversation to hear why timing is everything, how to discern readiness, and how hub teams can be midwives of multiplication—if and when they emerge by grace.
💬 Join the conversation: What questions do you have about forming a hub team? What has the Spirit shown you in your context?
📣 Spread the word—Tap the share button to encourage someone who’s discerning the next step in their disciple-making journey.
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