The Call

Pastor Peter Haas

Honestly, it’s pretty fun to fall in love with a city. We fl irted. We dated. And even though I was born and raised a Packer, Minneapolis/St Paul and I got married when my family moved across state lines in the summer of 2004. It got even better when Brett Favre followed us over this past year. Needless to say, I don’t think that a lot of people get to have this type of blissful experience. We could have chosen to move to any city in the U.S., but we chose Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Almost every three weeks I get to fly to another U.S. city, and almost every time my host takes me to the hotspots of the area. So, I get to see a lot of churches, skylines, and people, but as a famous theologian from Kansas once said: “There’s no place like home.” Thus, I hardly go a month without someone asking me: “Why the Twin Cities?” (What they’re really asking is: ‘Why not somewhere warmer?”)

Truth be told, we did consider a few other (warmer) cities before moving here. Every time I’d propose a city, my wife would lovingly grab me by the chin and smilingly say with a fi rm voice: “Peter, the answer is NO.” Then one day, I came upon a stat that the Twin Cities was one of the youngest and most artistic metropolitan cities in the U.S.

For years, my wife and I loved the innocence and idealism of young people. And for some strange reason, we’ve always had an easy time attracting and discipling young people. Even more, my wife and I also love big city life: the music, the universities, the multi-ethnic flair, the opportunities. So, when I said to my wife: “How about Minneapolis?” she stunned me with her instant response: “Now, I’d be up for that!” (She was probably just thinking about the 16 shopping
malls).

But seriously, the truth that really sold us was this: Over 68% of the Twin Cities is under 34 years old (roughly 2 million); yet, less than 1% of this group goes to any church of any kind. It was mind-blowing to us. We kept thinking: “This cannot be true.” I mean, there are all sorts of well-known churches there. Yet, the most reliable research shows that less than 10% of people in this city consistently attend a Bible-believing evangelical church of any kind (from theamericanchurch.org). And the vast majority of this 9% are over 50 years old.

Frankly, my wife and I made the decision that we would rather die than see that reality remain the same – especially with all of the Christian universities in the area. Most major missionary movements in church history came out of college campuses. So if there was ever a place to launch a movement, this is the city. Minneapolis/St Paul is a wildfire waiting to happen; yet, where is the match?

Of course, there are a lot of great churches here, but when we moved here, we quickly realized that most of them are almost entirely focused on reaching baby-boomers (even though the vast majority of unchurched people are under 35 years old). It also might interest you to know that when the average age of churches’ leadership is over 40 years old, the odds of it reaching unchurched people plummets (as opposed to “transfer growth”). Why? Because most unchurched people are young, post-modern, and multi-ethnic. Hence, when they scan a church platform or see a church staff , and see no one like themselves, they automatically conclude: this is not a place for me. The words, the songs, and the message just gets lost in translation – even when, deep down in our hearts, we love them and we truly want their presence.

If you haven’t noticed, we’ve been slowly integrating hip-hop into our worship sets. And I know that all of the young hipsters on our worship band model a diff erent “uniform” than the classic suit and tie. But, these are small sacrifi ces considering that we have at least 20 radical conversion testimonies every month. Hopefully, you’ve read about a few of them in our past magazines.

But here’s the big picture: Our goal is not to be some trendy church service for college students. Ultimately, God’s vision for this city goes far beyond that. I believe it’s only a matter of time before Substance has nine diff erent locations across the metro – each with their own style and emphasis. I also see a small group catalog that has groups devoted to every spiritual discipline and every book of the Bible. But, most importantly, I see a Substance that does 90% of its ministry outside of church services. I see small groups taking back neighborhoods, manifesting Christ in Uptown, Dinkytown, and any town that is slumping under the weight of hopelessness. God hasn’t created our church size and demographics by accident. And here’s why:

God’s heart is like a powder-keg. Our organization is like a match. God never promised that our explosive church growth would feel clean and smooth. And, based on our commitment to his mission, God’s consuming heart for this city is either gonna set us on fire or it’s gonna burn us.

But one thing is for sure. A burning man doesn’t stand still. He doesn’t cloister himself. He doesn’t worry about other people’s fire. No. He runs to open spaces. Substance: Let that be said of you. Let’s reach our city.