The Freakstock Festival in Germany, Aug. 2006 was the setting for the first ever Global Roundtable of the Underground, Emerging Church which drew over 60 key leaders from 26 different countries to join in this historic gathering. These included church leaders, church planters, network leaders, festival organizers, musicians and artists.
Mirko Sanders of the “Jesus Freaks”, who have planted 90 churches in the past 15 years in
Germany and surrounding countries, got in touch with Trevor Macpherson, a local church pastor in Vancouver and a leader of the Underground Railroad, a loose coalition of underground ministries around North America and Europe and Andrew Jones of The Boaz Project who has been very involved in Emerging Church Gatherings, to see if they would be interesting in leading a Underground Ministries Roundtable at their summer festival Freakstock?
Since, both Trevor and Andrew had already been hearing from the Lord that a meeting like this was needed, they both said yes and began to plan what the Roundtable would look like and realized that with all of the contacts they had between them, that it could actually be a Global Gathering. They added Moeten Holmqvist from Sub Church in Norway Michael from the Glorious Undead in the UK and Kenny Mitchell from Tribe Church in New York City to the Leadership TeamSince, both Trevor and Andrew had already been hearing from the Lord that a meeting like this was
There were many who wanted to come, but as you can imagine the airfares were a major hindrance to those who couldn’t drive, however through the generous donations of two Vancouver business people, we were able to offer a number of travel subsidies to help those coming from Paraguay, Mexico, Russia, America and a young man from Turkey who had to cancel at the last minute.
Each day began with a free breakfast provided by the Jesus Freaks, then an hour long experimental worship time led by Trevor, followed by a 2 hour interactive workshop with Pastor Bob Beeman from Sanctuary International and Morten from Sub-church. Since there are really no books out there for these leaders, the insights shared by these pioneering leaders were invaluable.
The afternoon was left open so that relationships could begin to develop between all these different leaders and many found that some of their most important conversations happened during this time. In the evening Andrew led the Roundtable sessions, where one by one they went around and heard first hand who each leader was, what their ministry was and what the Lord had put on their heart. It was incredible to hear all of the creativity and the variety of directions God had taken these leaders, in reaching out to this unusual people group and even more important was the amazing inspiration that came from each person sharing their heart.
Some of the highlights were:
- Hearing of the impact of missionaries. First of all we heard from missionaries from United States who had been in Europe for many years and had begun significant ministries; Denny & Maureen Hurst to Italy (Rock On Rock), John & Sharon Russell to Russia (Street Cry) and David & Jodi Pierce to Amsterdam (Stieger Int.). Then we heard from a whole new generation of missionaries who have been sent out from the Jesus Freaks, Sub Church, Steiger Int. and Prodigal Project to the youth cultures in Japan, Nepal, India, Indonesia, Israel and many other European countries. 
- Watching “No Longer Music” (Stieger Int. band) play and give the presentation of the gospel that they take into some of the darkest hell holes imaginable and yet because of their creativity and anointing they are received and see many come to the Lord.
- The inter-generational makeup of the group. We had participants from all the way from children of the leaders, up to a few of the pioneers who were in their fifties and all pretty much every age group in between. It was truly a family getting together.
- On the last day, before we all headed home, we had communion together which was very touching with many crying and then went into a time of putting the various leaders from the different geographical areas into the middle and praying for them. One group that was very significant was when we prayed for the leaders from Paraguay, Brazil and Mexico, there was a great sense among us of the Lord’s strong desire to move mightily among Latin America.
- At the very end we finished off praying for Sasa, a Jewish believer from the Czech Republic (who has been for a number of years translating the Bible into modern Czech) and Sam, a Lebanese believer who was miraculously able to get out of Lebanon right in the middle of the bombing this past summer, together in the middle and praying over them and for God to work in the Middle East
Here is the comment from Nina Orpana from Finland who is new to the Underground Sub-culture
Most people at roundtable were men in black, in tattoos, piercings or dreadlocks yet there was something very familiar; these people seem to be tribal in the same sense than some of my Native friends. Trevor Macpherson shared that the sub-cultural people struggle with many of the same problems than Native peoples do. It was hugely encouraging to hear pioneers in sub-cultural missions share. They have seen Jesus in action. It was also important to see that in even more traditional countries, there is an emerging sub-cultural scene that attracts those who see through their traditional culture and feel called to something new. Yet it's not about "doing underground church", and we felt God challenge us to see "beyond the beyond".
What impressed me in Jesus freaks: They were impressed about Jesus, they had seen some "real life" and knew how to handle life when it gets hard core, people seemed to enjoy each other and Jesus in their midst in natural ways, and most of all they were inclusive rather than exclusive, and that really draws people from very different backgrounds. This creates an atmosphere where people dare to be themselves and connect authentically, the way they are.
