Young & Reckless

Our short history: ALWAYS Remember where you came from

Forgetting the past is akin to forgetting to breathe. It’s life-threatening. Like a patient with amnesia, struggling to remember what’s happened to them, losing the ability of recall directly shapes how you can live your present. A person with amnesia is a shell of their formal self. A person without such a life-altering condition can also face this same fate if they ever find themselves forgetting where they came from. Remembering your history with clarity keeps you from being an air-filled hot shot. It keeps you honest. It makes you thankful and hopeful. 

You’re about to read a bit of history on how this magazine and the group we’re a part of came to be. You may not know who we are, and truly it doesn’t matter, but it matters who we’re pointing at, and that’s Jesus. All you need to know is we’re Jesus followers and have a desire for you to know Him too. This article is written so you can catch a glimpse of how one corner of His Kingdom came to be and decide whether the King we’re following is worth it. To do that, we’re rewinding time almost four decades. 

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

The roots of Believers City Church started when a South LA Hispanic Harley-rider started following Jesus, stepped into ministry, and eventually God called him to start a church in Menomonie, Wisconsin in the early 90’s. One day a young 20-something guy and his wife showed up to a church service in a hotel conference room. Soon enough, they got involved and stepped up. As the church grew, they were soon put at a crossroads by God. Their restaurant or God’s ministry. So, they said yes to God, closed the business, and stepped into full-time ministry at this little church in Menomonie. 

When we were a young church, we were pretty scrappy. We met in a little downtown storefront, loved Jesus, and wanted to serve Him with whatever we had. At times, we even found entertainment in shooting a potato gun into the lake across the street. This is probably what it was like when Jesus was with His twelve disciples. They were not the best dressed, they ate on a budget, and the oil in their cars probably leaked on the streets, too. They didn’t go to seminary, and probably weren’t the popular kids in school either. Definitely not perfect nor impressive, but they were willing and excited about Jesus. 

We were ambitious to serve God. So, from the start, we were pretty involved missionally. We both went on mission and supported missions with whatever we could afford. Some of our guys even quit smoking so they could financially support a couple of guys in Southeast Asia, dubbing them their “Marlboro Men.” Eventually, we were able to start The Blind Munchies Coffeehouse as a unique way to support missions financially and to reach local college students who were more willing to show up for a coffee than a church service. We were beggars telling other beggars where to find the bread (Jesus)… and where to find the coffee. 

“We tried to build a hospital near the doors of hell, which was really in our backyard.” 

This didn’t come without its own challenges, though. Many times, trailblazing was required. Sacrifices were made. Tough lessons were learned. Learning when to run away or when to step up and fight. Seeing how far we could stretch the money in our wallets. Seeing just how hot a person could explode in anger on their way out the door. Feeling how many bullets we could really take when wearing our spiritual bullet proof vests. We bled a lot. Yet, we got back up. We learned lessons, changed our methods, and leaned on God in the low and dark moments until He brought us back to the mountaintops. The mountains of foreign countries, near the ends of the earth. Riding trains and seeing the promises of God. Building deep relationships with people, near and far, who also loved Christ. Seeing ministries burst forth. Souls get saved. Lives being changed. And to think that God let a little church in Menomonie be a part of all that. 

YOUNG BLOOD: Street Level Ministries 

After the church was around for a handful of years, we took a swing at college ministry. Street Level Ministries was born in your typical college town in Wisconsin. Full of lost college students, trying to figure out this life thing for the first time. And a lot of them, for the record, aren’t figuring it out so well. So, maybe that’s why God said to minister to the college kids—He knew that lots of broken 18 to 20-something year olds needed fixing. Now, many of the people in our church are the product of this ministry. 

While the people we were trying to reach were the local college students, we didn’t get many of them at the start. Instead, we had a variety of students and people that weren’t from the local college. Rather, our group was made up of a couple ladies from a college 45 minutes away, some local 19 or 20-year-olds, and other people from the church who were willing to help. It was a small beginning, but God worked in and through it.  

We’ve never had a big or impressive group, at least when using the world’s measurement of success i.e. quantity. Rather, we’ve been more focused on the quality of discipleship in our group even if it meant we had small numbers. This has resulted in deep and lasting relationships over the years—with God and each other. Like the disciples with Jesus, we lived (and still do) life together. We didn’t just attend Bible study, show up to the same church, or serve God together. We didn’t just go to the grocery store, play hacky sack, or eat burgers together. We didn’t just laugh, cry, challenge, or encourage each other. We did ALL of these things together. The easy and hard, the highs and the lows. This is what Christian life should look like. 

While we’d meet up for Bible studies and services every week, we also put our faith into action through different opportunities to tell people about Jesus. We learned how to love as God loves us: in action. Back in the day, we did a lot of concerts to do evangelism, bringing our coffee trailer along and camping. There are some crazy stories. Our biggest event of the year, Yeshuapalooza, took almost a half year to prepare for. It was an all-hands-on-deck event. We also did ministry through our coffeehouse, small campus events, our local radio station, a yearly thrift sale, our magazine, to name a few. Anything we could do, we probably tried to do. 

One girl, when she first came around, saw the ways that the Christians around her were excited to talk about Jesus with the unbelievers who came. She thought she was a Christian, but she wasn’t excited to tell people about Jesus. Years later, she caught that excitement. Now she was fueled by the real, born-again, love of Jesus. She learned this love through the people around her who shared their lives and the love of Jesus with her.  

We didn’t do these things in your average American-Christian ways to create a club of people who like to get a little high on religion. We tried to build a “hospital” near the doors of hell, which was really in our backyard. This was hard work, and when you’re near flaming hot doors… it’s hot, sweaty, and exhausting at times. So, by God’s strength, we were able to do awesome things on and near campus. Then, we took a risk and began something new. We started a scrappy little Christian magazine, called Word on The Street, with the hopes to reach more people on the campus.  

DID YOU HEAR THE WORD ON THE STREET? 

Back when Word on the Street (WOTS) magazine got started, underground and homemade “zines” were pretty popular. So, we made our own, using it as an opportunity to share the gospel in a unique and not-normal way, if there even is normal. As a result, we’ve had magazines thrown away, torn up, and we’ve even been protested en masse. Our uncommon approach made us stand out, and we’ve both paid for it and been greatly blessed by it. 

Behind the scenes, starting a magazine wasn’t an easy journey. For everyone involved, it was an investment. Writing articles is more time-consuming and difficult than you’d expect. Using a printer is full of battles, prayers, misprints, and paper destroyed. At one point, we started using a printer downtown because ours was smoking upstairs in the church. Great for bonfires, but not for a magazine. Things were labor intensive, and hard at times to put it nicely. But we kept going. And you’re reading the result of that labor. 

All of this was worth it to get our magazine into the hands of the punks and outcasts of the world to show them the truth the best we could. We wrote poetry, made art, shared testimonies, and made articles that stood against the culture of the world and religion. A lot of people on campus either had no experience or had been taught misinformation about God, so we tried to address that. Jesus met with sinners in the  

places that, well, sinners were at. Sometimes they came to Him, but a lot of times He went to them and met them where they were at. This meant going to the places where no one wanted to go, sharing a meal with the people who were rejected or thought of as “too far gone.” We wrote to the people who knew they were sick and needed healing. We challenged the people who thought they were healthy but were actually dead inside. 

Our first issue invited people to our Christian-punk concerts, informing readers that “We worship God real loud!” We had comics, poetry, a testimony from a Satan worshipper turned Christian. We had an article from a guy who ran a ministry for those wanting to heal from sexual sin and same-sex attraction. The cultural Christian status-quo was challenged through articles about tattoos and piercings. In issue #1 is the quote, “We have to be real careful that we don’t let our ideas of Christianity keep someone out of the kingdom of God.” So, this is what we did. And this is what we still try to do. We didn’t gatekeep Christianity, but we showed that the gate was open to anyone willing and reckless enough to walk this rocky and less-traveled road. 

A NARROW ROAD, WITH COMPANY 

Looking back at our history, we haven’t really been your typical clean-cut American Christian church, college ministry, or magazine. You’ve probably caught that by now. We want to be the Babe Ruth’s of the world. In his sports career, he hit the ball better, higher, and farther than any other. With these great victories, however, Ruth missed the ball many times, too. But he didn’t let these losses keep him down. We’ve also had our own share of losses over the years. But because we got back up, we’ve also seen a lot of incredible wins. 

As time changes, our approaches have had to mold and change as a result. No generation or culture is the exact same as the other, so we’ve tried and found different ways to effectively share Jesus with a wide range of people. Keeping the message the same but changing our approach. At times we tried what we thought was the best idea ever and then had no one show up. Other times, we tried something that resulted in our Bible study doubling in size, just in one night. There has never been a set formula for what does or doesn’t work. The key to it all is that we have been faithful to God in the highs and lows, allowing Him to use us. 

Throughout the years, this constant growth has kept us moving. God started it all with a guy from Los Angeles who said “yes.” Then moved him to the middle of seemingly-nowhere Wisconsin to start a church, which started a college ministry, which started a magazine, and soon went out into the world. God even sent some Americans to an island in the middle of the Philippines to find some college students who wanted to seriously follow Jesus. If we would’ve kept doing the same things, in the same old ways, we wouldn’t be where we are today and you wouldn’t be reading this. 

Sometimes it feels like we are just getting started, even though we’ve been around for roughly 35 years. Our church is full of people ranging in age and experience. There is something special about this. We’ve got the discipline and experience of the older Christians, and the zeal and excitement of the young Christians (like new puppies that are excited by everything). We teach and learn from each other, no matter how long we’ve been around. There are people who quit following Jesus along the way, but then there are those who continue fighting to know and serve the King. This is who we want to be, and we’re going to keep moving forward together, hell or high water, to grasp the prize of knowing Jesus. 

Through it all, you know you’ve caught the Holy Spirit when you keep coming back for more. You willingly go through the “pits of hell” to climb the greatest mountains with God. You see Jesus through other people when you watch them go through these same dark places, and there is still hope in their weak eyes. Words cannot describe any of this, you must experience it for yourself.  

Through it all, God never has and never will fail to be faithful, good, and righteously show off His love, too. It’s up to you if you really want to see God do His thing. But, when a person loves something, they will do whatever it takes to get it. They will give up everything to have it. They get called the “radical” ones. The question is, will you do this? There are a lot of ways to waste your life. For example, sitting in a church pew on Sunday, reading the Bible, praying sometimes, or even reading this magazine doesn’t mean you’re doing anything to make it count. Yes, those are so vital. But it’s not where it ends. Faith means you are getting off the bench and stepping onto the field. Then you can do one of two things: stand there afraid, or you can step up and swing hard. 

Just don’t forget where you came from.