the hub

Our Lead Team traveled Friday and Saturday to Radium, BC to spend time together praying and talking and soaking in the hot springs.  It was a gorgeous trip full of mountains and rivers and super hot pools of water.  The hot tub was 106 degrees!  We hiked up to a waterfall which had been described as "liquid sandpaper" because of its corrosive impact on the rock.

Over our meals we talking about the name of our Sunday Night gatherings for the campus and careers group at Brentview.  We’ve been praying and thinking about the name for a month and wanted to use this weekend together to find agreement.  We discussed our mission and our dreams and our structure.   Sunday nights are going to be an evening of community, worship and teaching for the hundreds of young adults already at Brentview who are looking for deeper connection within a church and with God.  But we also desire that Sunday night will become the missional hub for ministry that impacts the 100,000’s of those in 18-35 age-range in Calgary through 1) cell groups, 2) diverse, vibrant and creative initiatives and 3) a myriad of 3rd place ministries.

While we liked many of the action words that had been suggested, none of them quite captured the aspect of a gathered community we wanted.  On the other hand, many other words didn’t fully embody the activeness of our mission.  We all agreed that we needed a word that described community and mission.  For a long while, a top runner in our consideration had been "fusion".  But because "fusion" was the name of a youth group in Calgary, we felt the need to turn it down. 

The leading suggestion on the poll was "the hub".  Someone (and we can’t remember who!) had noticed in our mission statement that we intended for Sunday nights to become a "missional hub" for ministry.  This mysterious person then pointed out to me, "Hey, you should call Sunday nights the hub."   Our Lead team tossed this around for a while on Friday night, examining it from all angles.  We fell in love with the name.  Back at the Radium Resort, we spent an hour in prayer and reflection, letting Psalm 145 lead us into prayer regarding our group.  And, after a good sleep and a great breakfast buffet, we all agreed that the hub was our new Sunday night name.

A hub is a center of activity, where all of the lines of communication or transportation or information come funneling into and then go spreading out.  It’s a gathering spot, organized missionally to have the greatest impact on an entire region.  The hub indicates that we as Jesus Followers must come together but that we live our faith out on the subway lines throughout the week.  It’s also a unique name for a church service, one that doesn’t sound "Christianeze".  And for the thousands of students and young adults that pass by Brentview every week, the hub portrays our desire to be a third place gathering and God-focusing spot. 

Thank you to everyone who has been joining us in prayer through the process.  In the weeks to come we hope to launch our website and planning for our fall.  If you’re in town, feel free to join us!  For more information about this process, check our these other posts:

Naming poll update * Naming Poll * Third Places