Too Cool for the Hipsters

As a ministry, we've always tried to come up with simple, yet profound ways in which to connect with Jesus. It seems like so often we, as believers, want to grow spiritually, that we forget those around us, and our "ministry activities" become solely focused on those already inside the faith. Granted, this is not often the desired intent, but it happens anyways. The SF Metro Team's G3 card has its participants run through three categories: Give, Grow, Pray -and the order is intentional. The idea was that if the group didn't start with the outreach-oriented stuff, it would easily forget and become inclusive in character.

So, Fast Forward to this school year and the only thing we've really got going with consistency (if you will) on is the Discipleship Lab. Experiments in Following Jesus. I love these things because they ask the hard questions and allow for lots of conversation. The first week we talked about what it means to follow Jesus and the second week was focused on defining the Good News of Jesus. Basically, those two weeks boiled down to: Love God and Love others. Who would've thought? The homework we assigned was to pray about who God would lead you to share your life with, but somehow I already seemed to know.

Now you see, my neighborhood is a little more on the blue collar, more latino side of things. There's quite a mixture of people here; the neighborhood was originally Italian and Irish, then moved more toward Chinese and African American, but it's been Latino for awhile.

The odd thing though, is that over the last two years it's become quite the hipster hangout. In the last 2 years we've seen 4 new coffee houses arrive within 3-4 blocks of us, all on 24th St. As well, 24th & York, one block up from us, as become quite the hipster hotspot, with St. Francis hopping on the weekend mornings and Pop's Bar spilling out onto the street at night. When we moved here, I wanted to make Pop's my local watering hole, but was a little on the scared side: i wasn't hard core enough. However, now that the hipsters have moved in, I've felt a lack of desire to even look in the windows.

It's funny, we want to reach out to our neighborhood and serve those who are in need, yet the closest demographic to me personally has no draw. A social network of poorer 20-30 something punk-ish kids hangs out regularly 1 block from my place and I don't ever look on the place in love. How calloused and self-righteous.

Thus, as we finished the D-Lab and thought about who to care for, God pulled the hipster bar to my heart. I knew I couldn't just walk in one night and start making friends, so I asked my buddy Adam to join me in a weekly routine. Every Tuesday night, after the Abolition workshop, we'll head over for our own D-Lab experimenting. After all, Jesus would be hanging out there, even if I wouldn't.