Equipping at the Edge: How Hubs Equip Everyday People (Hubology Series)
What happens when we stop trying to control the mission and instead equip people to follow Jesus in their context? How willing are we to risk the messiness of real-time, Spirit-led learning?
This is the third article in our Hubology series, where we’re unpacking the three core functions of a hub: to equip, coach, and convene. A hub is a elder-level team that exists to fuel and equip a decentralized network of disciple-makers and microchurches in a geographic area or affinity. If you missed the first two, you can catch up here:
In this installment, we’re diving into equipping—what it is, why it matters, and how it actually works in the wild. And stay tuned, because up next we’ll explore what an equipping gathering looks like in real-time: stories, structure, and the sacred mess of a potential movement.
“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” — Ephesians 4:11–13
The word “equip” in Scripture is rich with meaning. It shows up in three powerful metaphors: mending nets, setting bones, and outfitting a ship. That tells us something important—equipping is holistic. It’s not just about skill-building; it’s about soul care. We repair what’s broken. We bring alignment where there’s fracture. And we prepare people with everything they need to join Jesus on His mission.
Equipping isn’t about plugging people into programs or some predetermined pipeline to church staff position. It’s about forming people to live as everyday disciple-makers—rooted in Jesus, healed in community, and equipped to bring the Kingdom wherever they live, work, and play.
Let’s say it again: equipping isn’t optional. It’s core.
We don’t just need the message of Jesus—we need the methods of Jesus. He didn’t just give his disciples commands; he gave them authority, walked with them in practice, and made space to reflect and learn along the way. Instruction. Activation. Practice. Debrief. That’s how Jesus equipped.
“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.” He meant it.
In Luke 9, Jesus sends out the twelve. In Luke 10, he sends out the seventy-two. They come back with stories—Kingdom stories. Not just teaching and preaching, but healing, deliverance, and spiritual breakthrough. How did they know what to do? They had been equipped in the presence of Jesus. Through proximity. Through practice. Through his intentional, relational way of equipping people for mission.
That’s our calling, too. We actually get to do this stuff. It’s amazing.
Equipping Is a Minimal Function of a Hub
In a microchurch movement, hubs don’t exist to be the center of the action—they exist to serve the edge. Their job is to support the disciple-makers living on mission in the neighborhoods and networks of the city. Equipping is one of the hub’s core functions—but here’s the kicker: we don’t equip people so they can fulfill the mission of the hub. We equip people so they can fulfill the mission God has given them.
Huge difference.
That’s a vital shift. Let’s be honest—it’s time to crush the clergy/laity caste system once and for all. Jesus didn’t die and rise again to create a two-tiered class of “real” ministers and spiritual spectators.
We’re not trying to round up passive learners or recruit ministry volunteers to keep the church program humming. We’re cultivating a grassroots movement of everyday people—baristas, bus drivers, baseball coaches—empowered by the Spirit and sent into the everyday spaces. And that takes real equipping—intentional, adaptive, Spirit-soaked training that actually works in real life, not just on paper.
In the early days of KC Underground, we thought a lot about equipping teams—specialized groups focused on a particular area of training or support. That served a purpose. But over time, we noticed something deeper emerging: dynamic environments and an ecosystem of equipping that were responsive to real needs in real time.
So now, instead of static set teams, we focus on:
Tools that can be used by anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Training Huddles that form around specific needs or questions
Equipping Gatherings of practice rooted in listening to Jesus and to the missionaries
All informed by a Equipping Frameworks, in particular The Disciple-Maker Pathway (formerly known as the Missionary Pathway).
Together, these combined, supported by coaching, have become the crux of our equipping culture. Let's look briefly at each one of these.
Equipping Tools: Do we have a tool box? How well are the tools working?
Ordinary people don’t learn discipleship by simply reading white papers. They learn by doing. That’s why we prioritize simple, repeatable tools and practices—because tools lead to action, and Spirit-led action leads to transformation. People don’t think their way into new ways of living—they act their way into new ways of thinking. Every trade has tools. Plumbers have wrenches. Gardeners have spades. Disciple-makers have tools too. Let’s use ‘em.
Hub leaders develop tool boxes.
Do you have toolbox?
How is it organized? Do folks know where to find the tools when they need it?
Are the tools effective in terms of making disciples that become like Jesus and multiply disciples? Are microchurches emerging?
How well do the tools cover the five-fold (APEST) functions?
One of the biggest (and best) shifts we’ve made is learning to build equipping through the lens of APEST (Ephesians 4:11–13). If the Scriptures tell us that the fivefold is how the Body gets equipped and matures into the fullness of Christ, then maybe—just maybe—we should take that seriously.
That sounds simple. It’s not.
We’re learning (slowly, awkwardly, sometimes painfully) not to play favorites. But the truth is—we’ve leaned pretty hard into the apostolic. It’s in our default setting on our origin story. We love pioneering, launching, disrupting, moving fast. That’s great until it isn’t. Because when you’re all gas pedal, you end up driving people off the road.
Honestly, it’s worn some people out. We’ve seen real conflict boil up. We weren’t always seeing, hearing, or honoring each other’s gifts. That lack of mutual understanding created cracks in our community. And cracks, left unattended, turn into chasms.
So, we’ve tried to slow down and do the deeper work: reconciliation, healing, curiosity, and conflict resolution. We’ve started asking better questions. Naming what’s broken. Learning to see through each other’s lenses. Listening longer. Cultivating rhythms of collaboration where every part of the Body is seen, valued, and called forth. We have a long way to go. For real.
We’ve also (read: please help us) asked for help. That’s why we’re walking through a three-year journey with both Arrabon and the 100 Movements to upgrade our cultural capacity —to become the kind of reconciling community that can actually hold the diversity God is bringing into the movement. Diversity of gifting, background, ethnicity, story, and spiritual wiring. Not just for the sake of inclusion, but for the sake of maturity. Because we can’t reflect Jesus in fullness without the fullness of His Body.
This work is stretching us. And it’s saving us. And by God’s grace, it’s starting to show up in our DNA.
We’re not there yet. But we’re on the way. And we’re becoming a better family—one that equips all five gifts, honors all voices, and stays on mission together.
Because the world needs the whole Church—apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers—fully alive and working in tandem.
We honor all five gifts—apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, shepherding, and teaching—and by God’s grace, we are building tools and environments that reflect that full spectrum. And here’s what we’ve noticed: most of the tools we’ve created or adapted actually carry two or more of these gifts working in tandem. It’s like flavor layering for the Body of Christ.
Tool Examples by APEST:
Prayer Tools → Prophetic
Relational + Context Mapping → Apostolic + Evangelistic
Emmanuel Journaling → Shepherding
Lament Practices → Prophetic + Shepherding
Exegetical Prayer Walk → Apostolic + Prophetic
Spiritual Conversations Guide → Evangelistic
Spheres of Influence → Shepherding
Fruit to Root → Shepherding + Evangelistic
Kairos Circle → Prophetic + Shepherding
Story Diamond / Impact Circle → Teaching
Designing Sabbath → Shepherding + Prophetic
Multiplication Tools → Apostolic motivation, Teaching expression
Disciple-Making with Your Kids → Shepherding
Equipping Huddles
In the Kansas City Underground, training huddles are one of our secret sauces. These aren’t lecture halls—they’re relational spaces where everyday people learn to live as missionary disciple-makers. The vibe is high-support, high-challenge. Less content dump, more conversation. Less theory, more tools. Less “sit and listen,” more “hear and obey.” It’s all about discovery-based, Spirit-led learning that leads to action—real life, real mission, right now. And the best part? It’s built to multiply. The goal isn’t just personal growth—it’s to launch people who can turn around and lead huddles of their own.
In training huddles, we flip the classroom on its head. Content shows up ahead of time, so when we gather, we don’t lecture—we listen, discern, and act. The facilitator isn’t the guru on the stage; they’re more like a spiritual midwife, helping birth what the Spirit’s already stirring. It’s less TED Talk, more kitchen table—everyone has a hand in the meal, and by the end, you’re not just eating, you’re learning how to cook the next round yourself. It’s collaborative, Spirit-led, and built to reproduce. Check out The Disciple-Maker Pathway Training Huddle to see it in action. That huddle has been reproduced by ordinary people hundreds and hundreds of times.
Like with tools, an ecosystem of training huddles has emerged around the five-fold.
Equipping Huddles by APEST Alignment:
Missionary Pathway → Apostolic
Missionaries Made → Evangelistic
Calling Discovery → Teaching + Apostolic
Emotionally Healthy Communities → Shepherding + Prophetic
Soul Care → Shepherding + Prophetic
Scripture Huddle → Teaching
School of Kingdom Ministry → Prophetic
For a deeper dive into how our posture shifted from “expert” to “equipper,” check out From Expert to Equipper: Key Shifts for Catalysts and Facilitators. We break down what facilitation of a huddle looks like, some of the practical tools of facilitation, and how to multiply facilitators.
Equipping Gatherings
The KCU was launched with equipping gatherings. We carefully cultivated a new type of environment that was catalytic for mission and disciple-making. We're going to make space and devote an entire article on equipping gathering, so look for that coming next.
Equipping Framework
Hub Teams need to develop Equipping Frameworks. Frameworks for training are like a picture, helping us understand key ideas about disciple-making and mission: What does this reveal about the mission of Jesus and how I can join Him? They're also like a mirror, reflecting our image back to us on this journey: What does this show me about myself? And finally, frameworks are like a window, offering a view of what can be and will be: What actions can I take, and how will I move forward?
Effective Hub teams will form, borrow, and contextualize a set of key frameworks for equipping. These become the basis for their tools and training huddles. Of course, these are grounded in the wisdom of Scripture, the experience of the Church, and cumulative knowledge of practitioners.
In the KCU, we have a small set of frameworks we return to again and again. Overtime, we add to that set very selectively. Our primary or foundational framework is what we call the Disciple-Maker Pathway (formerly known as The Missionary Pathway). The Disciple-Maker Pathway outlines five interconnected phases inspired by Jesus, the early church, and historical movements:
Phase One: Extraordinary Prayer and Fasting
We begin with prayer—not as a warm-up, but as the work itself. This phase isn’t about ticking off a number of days; it’s about cultivating a posture of deep dependence on the Word and the Spirit. Nobody skips the wilderness. Nobody bypasses the upper room. Prayer isn’t just something that kicks things off—it’s the steady undercurrent beneath everything else. More than we want to be known as a microchurch movement or a disciple-making movement, we long to be a movement of abiding prayer. Everything flows from that.
Phase Two: Incarnational Mission
We don’t plant churches. We plant missionaries—ordinary people who plant the Gospel and make disciples. That starts with discerning our people and place of primary sentness, then nurturing deep incarnational rhythms in that context. We look for People of Peace—those relational gatekeepers who are open to us and open to the Gospel. They’re often the doorway to spiritual families waiting to emerge.
Phase Three: Plant the Gospel
First, we plant the Gospel in our hearts—every day. We let it sink deep, heal our view of God, and reshape how we see ourselves. Then, we live it out. We become a Gospel Presence—living in community, on mission, in selfless service, partnering with the Spirit in all He’s doing. From there, we share boldly. We tell the story of how Jesus is changing us and how the Gospel changes everything. We keep it real, relational, and relevant to our context. Simple, repeatable tools like Discovery Groups, Discovery Bible Study, and Gospel Fluency help us not just teach content, but create a culture where transformation takes root and multiplies.
Phase Four: Microchurch Emerges
Churches emerge organically from disciple-making. As a new extended spiritual family forms under Jesus' lordship, they adopt shared rhythms of worship, community, and mission.
Phase Five: Multiplication
Multiplication becomes the norm. We embed simple multiplication practices into everything, understanding that complexity inhibits reproduction. Multiply disciples, discovery groups, microchurches, and eventually, hubs.
The Missionary Pathway isn’t just a training framework—it’s our go-to on how we organize our toolbox and training. It helps everyday people see the journey ahead, even though the timeline is fluid—because everyone’s context and calling is different. The pathway lays out the tools and training needed at each step, offering just-in-time equipping as folks move forward. Want to explore the toolbox? Check out the Disciple-Maker Toolbox—simple tools, real traction.
This framework has been a game-changer for all of us, giving a clear sense of where we are on the journey, what tools or training we need, and what's coming next—without turning into a rigid, step-by-step rulebook. It's simple enough to explain in 90 seconds, but you could easily spend a lifetime unpacking its depths.
Equipping Is Always Evolving
We won’t stop creating huddles or tools. Why? Because the needs of the edge are always changing. Disciple-makers face new challenges. Microchurches ask new questions. So we listen:
What barriers are people hitting?
Where are they getting stuck?
What is the Spirit highlighting as a gap?
And then we ask: “What equipping tool, huddle, or environment would meet that need?”
This kind of responsiveness is why convening and coaching (the last two functions in this series) matter so much. These postures create the listening spaces where the next equipping need is often revealed.
One of the things we’ve been learning (sometimes the hard way) is that our training modalities need to stretch. When we started the Kansas City Underground, we were launching from the cul-de-sac comfort of Johnson County—predominantly white, college-educated, suburban. So naturally, the language and learning styles we used reflected that world.
But as our presence has expanded across the city, we’ve come to realize increasingly that the ways we were training disciple-makers in the burbs were unintentionally creating barriers in other parts of the city. Oof.
What does equipping look like when we design not for our defaults, but for the diversity of the Kingdom?
Kingdom impact requires leadership that reflects the full spectrum of the communities we’re called to serve. That means full access for leaders across race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic background, and age—not just so we can say, “Look, we’re diverse!” but so that decision-making, disciple-making, and hub formation are truly contextualized and led from within.
Representation isn’t the end goal. Shared voice and mutual shaping of the movement are.
For example: We’re currently training a Hub Team inside Lansing Prison. You can imagine how well the “reverse classroom model” with online huddle videos would land. (Spoiler alert: it can’t.) So we’ve adapted. We’re walking through the same core content, but we’re doing it over 18 months instead of four—through an orality-based approach saturated with even more story, discovery, and dialogue. Because that's what honors the context.
We're also in an active process of reexamining the internal culture of KC Underground using a tool called LAAMMPS—which sounds like an indie rock band, but it's actually a framework helping us ask big questions about culture-making. Here’s what we’re working through:
This is a process Arrabon has coached us in and the work will be evergreen. But it’s essential if we’re going to build something that actually looks and loves like Jesus. We’re here to equip all of God’s people—not just the ones who talk, think, or learn like us.
Because movements don’t multiply through monoculture.
They flourish through shared ownership.
And that starts by making space at the table—and maybe even letting someone else help write the menu.
Reflection Questions for Your Hub
Where is equipping already happening?
What huddles or tools are in place and being used?
What barriers are your disciple-makers facing right now?
Are you asking them? Are you listening?
What APEST gifts are shaping your current equipping environments?
Which ones are underrepresented?
Where might you need to create a new huddle or tool?
How can your Hub become more agile in your equipping rhythms?
Final Word: Equipping Is About Jesus, Not Just Tools
Let’s be clear: we don’t equip people just to grow a movement. We equip because Jesus is the point. Full stop.
This is about returning to Jesus—again and again. It’s about living fully alive in Him, becoming mature in Him, and equipping others to reflect Him in the everyday stuff of life.
Multiplication is beautiful. But it’s not the ultimate goal. Maturity in Christ is. As Ephesians 4 reminds us, maturity happens when every part of the body is activated, empowered, and equipped—not just a few at the center, but everyone at the edge.
So let’s keep listening. Keep creating. Keep equipping. And may every huddle, every tool, every gathering be one more way we help ordinary people become who they were created to be—in Christ, for the sake of the world.