Hubology: Why No Two Hubs Are the Same
Can we imagine a network of equipping teams in our city? How radically different would they need to be? What would hold them together?
Brian Johnson, Rob Wegner
In our ongoing series on Minimal Hubology, we explore the irreducible functions of a hub. For a hub to be effective, it must do three things: equip, coach, and convene disciple-makers and microchurch leaders. We believe that every city needs thousands of hubs, each serving different expressions of a larger spiritual family.
And here’s the thing—family is a helpful metaphor to understand this shift. It’s the lens we use as we move from institutional Christianity to movemental Christianity. As we train leaders in this new (yet ancient) paradigm, we often say: “I’m going to run this answer through the lens of family…”
A Family Story
The story of God is a family story. The Trinity exists in perfect community and closes the creation narrative with the birth of a family. From Abraham’s call to become a family that blesses the world (Genesis 12) to Jesus reimagining family as those who do the will of God (Mark 3:35), the Gospel spreads from household to household. In the end, the story culminates in one redeemed family worshiping the King.
Here’s the truth: you can’t franchise families. No two families are alike. Some are big and multigenerational; others are small but close-knit. Some are loud and active; others are quiet and contemplative. It’s not about better or worse—just different.
The same goes for hubs.
Hubs Aren’t Franchises
Hubs are not programs or products. They’re teams that come alongside spiritual families to support, strengthen, and serve what God is already growing. Hubs are the trellis that holds up the vine of movement.
Each hub must figure out how to contextualize the three core functions of equipping, coaching, and convening within its own setting. And it will never look exactly the same as another.
Minimal Hubology: Three Rhythms That Define a Hub
In the Kansas City Underground, we’ve come to understand that every true hub must express three essential rhythms:
Equipping – Leaders are given tools, training, and resources to thrive.
Coaching – Leaders receive encouragement, guidance, and accountability.
Convening – Leaders gather for collaboration, shared learning, and realignment.
These three rhythms are what we call minimal hubology—the irreducible functions for a hub team to exist. Remove any of them, and it’s no longer a effective hub. If they’re out of balance, the hub becomes unhealthy. There may be more a hub does, but it can never be less.
Western Edge vs. Zero Hour: A Tale of Two Hubs
Let’s look at two real-life examples from our network: Western Edge and Zero Hour. On the surface, they couldn’t be more different. One is rooted in a specific place, the western edge of of Kansas City, along K-7, mostly the suburbs with some rural areas. The other reaches through a specific affinity group—high school students. But both are faithful expressions of what a hub can be.
Western Edge
The Western Edge Hub Team, based on Kansas City’s west side, represents a diverse group: parents, retirees, construction workers, educators, musicians, young families, and more. They live close to each other, serve schools, throw parties, and host people in their homes. They serve the homeless, adults with disabilities, and neighborhoods in need.
Their equipping rhythms focus on short-term huddles that meet real-time needs: learning how to study Scripture, how to pray, how to rest in the midst of a busy mission. Coaching happens in groups or one-on-one, offering guidance to disciple-makers navigating new contexts or microchurch leaders who’ve already seen something emerge. Convening happens through monthly equipping gatherings and occasional parties to celebrate.
Zero Hour
By contrast, Zero Hour is fast-moving and risk-taking. They focus on high school students across Kansas City, aiming to see the Gospel flourish in every high school in the area. What started as a leader’s passion for the next generation has now grown into dozens of student disciple-makers on 16 campuses across the city. Zero Hour doesn’t exist for 8-year-olds or 80-year-olds—they exist for high school students.
Their equipping is short, impactful, and speaks the language of the current generation. Coaching often happens in one-on-one meetings, over food or coffee, and includes everything from gospel-centered tools to addressing the challenges of living in a post-Christian culture. They also convene students through camps and conferences for worship, prayer, and deeper training. (Check out the Zero Hour Podcast)
Context Shapes Cadence
What works for Western Edge may not work for Zero Hour—and vice versa. Why? Because context shapes cadence.
For example, in Western Edge, we have a leader who consistently runs a 7-week cohort through the Disciple-maker Pathway. This simple training covers prayer, incarnational mission, and Gospel planting. But for Zero Hour, that cohort was too long, and the tools didn’t resonate with teenagers. They simplified it to four weeks and focused on tools that captured the essence of the disciple-maker pathway.
Another example: Zero Hour is hosting a two-day conference for students, including a session on suicide prevention—something that’s not a primary need for the Western Edge hub team but is essential for the next generation.
What Do Our Disciple-Makers Need?
The question we always ask is: What do our disciple-makers need to be healthy and effective in their context?
Our goal is simple: we want to strengthen the vine.
One of the most freeing realizations we’ve had is that what makes a hub is its function, not its form. It doesn’t matter if a hub meets in a church building, a library, or someone’s living room. If it’s equipping, coaching, and convening a decentralized network of disciple-makers and microchurches, it’s functioning as a hub.
And if it’s not doing those three things? It’s not a hub—no matter what it’s called.
The Risk of Copy + Paste
The temptation to replicate a successful hub model elsewhere is real. But copying form without understanding function will only lead to frustration.
You can’t just plug and play a model from a different cultural context. You have to do the hard work of asking: Who are our people? What are they facing? What do they need to keep going and go further?
This is the task of every hub team—providing contextualized, Spirit-led support for the vine that God is already growing.
Families Grow Up
Like families, hubs grow and mature. What a hub needs in year one won’t be what it needs in year three. Just like parenting a 10-year-old is different from parenting a 2-year-old, leading a maturing hub requires continual adaptation.
The trellis (the hub) must grow as the vine (the movement) grows. And that means hub teams must regularly revisit their rhythms, functions, and focus.
THE OG’S: A Comparative Analysis of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Ephesus Hubs
In the early Church, hubs were not one-size-fits-all. Each hub in the apostolic era—Jerusalem, Antioch, and Ephesus—reflected a distinct expression of leadership and mission tailored to its unique context. We offer some of our reflections for consideration.
Jerusalem, the birthplace of the Church, functioned as a centralized hub rooted in Jewish tradition, where the apostles’ teaching and house-to-house ministry fostered deep relational discipleship (Acts 2:42–47). Despite its explosive growth, Jerusalem remained tethered to its temple-centric identity, which proved limiting as the movement expanded into the Gentile world. As N.T. Wright suggests, Jerusalem’s hub represented a foundational community, but one that was slow to adapt to the missionary mandate that would soon characterize the apostolic movement.
In contrast, Antioch emerged as the prototype for missional hubs, acting as a launchpad for gospel expansion (Acts 13:2). Born out of persecution (Acts 11:19–21), Antioch was a cross-cultural hub, harnessing the diversity of its Gentile and Jewish believers to ignite a Spirit-led missionary movement that would saturate the Roman Empire. Unlike Jerusalem’s centralized, institutional framework, Antioch was a decentralized model that emphasized leadership multiplication rather than retention, with the Spirit directly calling and sending leaders like Paul and Barnabas into the harvest. Alan Hirsch highlights Antioch’s role as the “missional heart of the early Church,” where leaders were sent, not kept.
Ephesus represents a third type of apostolic hub—one marked by a team-based model of leadership. Paul’s team, which included Timothy, Titus, and others, used the Hall of Tyrannus to equip and send out leaders to establish microchurches throughout Asia Minor (Acts 19:8–10). This apostolic team wasn’t just about preaching; it was about networking and multiplying leadership across a region. Frank Viola notes that Ephesus was unique for its apostolic collaboration, where the team’s efforts fueled a decentralized network of house churches. The result? The gospel spread “throughout the whole of Asia Minor” (Acts 19:10). Ephesus showed that hubs can be dynamic, relational, and widely dispersed without losing their apostolic center.
Comparison of Hubs: Jerusalem, Antioch, and Ephesus
Each hub was a dynamic expression of apostolic leadership, yet none could be replicated in another’s context. Jerusalem’s strength lay in its foundational relational community, but it couldn’t support the outward-facing expansion required for the global mission. Antioch’s decentralized, missionary focus propelled the Church forward, while Ephesus demonstrated the power of apostolic teams in multiplying leadership. These hubs embody the principle that context shapes cadence, and their distinctiveness offers modern movements valuable insights into the adaptability and scalability of decentralized leadership.
Final Word: The Future of the Church
The future of the Church will not be built in boardrooms. It will be built by catalytic teams supporting ordinary saints in everyday places.
Let’s build wisely—not with blueprints, but with discernment. Not with prefab parts, but with prayerful presence.
Let’s build hubs that fit the families they serve.
Because when the trellis fits the vine, the garden flourishes.
🚀⏳👀 Coming Soon:
A Bonus Conversation on No Two Hubs Are the Same 🎙️✨
What kind of people make up a Hub Team? 🤔👥 When is the right time to form one? ⏰💡
How do you develop and train a Hub Team? 🔧📚👨🏫 Let’s dive in and explore the dynamics that make Hub Teams effective, adaptable, and ready to multiply! 💪
🛠️ Want help building a hub team?
The KC Underground Intensive isn’t your typical seminar—it’s a hands-on, immersive workshop focused on deep engagement and discernment. From June 8-9, you’ll spend two transformative days with local Hub directors who will walk you through the key frameworks that drive our movement, share how we live these principles out in the city, and show how the KC Underground operates in this context.
This is not just about receiving information—it’s about embodying and contextualizing these principles. Your team will have intentional time to discern how these frameworks can take root in your own setting and community.
You’ll hear real stories from ordinary people who are joining Jesus right where they live—among their networks, neighborhoods, and natural relationships. We’ll share meals, tell stories, and listen together for the Spirit’s leading as we process what we’re learning in community.
While we’ll explore practical examples, the heart of the Intensive isn’t about fine-tuning an existing model—it’s about cultivating decentralized, disciple-making networks from the ground up. Together, we’ll return to Jesus at the center and focus on exploring movement principles that empower everyday people.
Learn more and register here