When Victor Griffin, Skyler Denny and myself began MMOK, we believed our ministry would be, primarily, in the clubs and to the music community of Knoxville. If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans!
God steered us into a direction none of us envisioned and MMOK became, primarily, a homeless outreach in downtown Knoxville. In the beginning, a handful of us went downtown, each week, and stood under the bridge with a few sausage biscuits and some coffee. We felt like we could do more and prayed.
After a few weeks, we noticed a ministry had set up tables on a vacant lot around the corner from where we were standing and we decided to set up on the same lot and see if we got chased away by the police or whoever owned the lot. To our surprise, no one ever asked us to leave.
Week after week, our presence grew and so did those coming to serve with us, yet, we still felt as if we were missing something important.
At the same time, we continued to hold our Night in the Word events at The Open Chord music club. A Baptist pastor from Rutledge TN, Eric Warren, and his wife Angie came to a couple of our events, fully expecting to hear wonky doctrine. Instead, Eric and Angie felt a call from God to get on board the Metal Mission train and see where the ride took them.
The Night in the Word events came to an end but the commitment to serve God continued as we remained faithful to His call in the homeless community. The vision for Metal Mission expanded and we incorporated. By this time Pastor Eric and Angie were fully on board, literally as Eric and I became co-chairs of the board of directors of Metal Mission International.
Our weekly homeless outreach was continuing to be blessed, yet we still felt as if something was missing. From our feelings of dissatisfaction, The Fringe was born. We had been praying, and even making inquiries, about a place to hold services downtown when God clearly spoke to us and said, "I already gave you a place to hold services downtown." We realized, the empty lot we served breakfast on was to be our church.
We announced our plans to the folks we served on the street, to much enthusiasm. Pastor Eric and I began to alternate weeks, preaching messages, relevant to the community we were serving.
You Gotta Serve Someone
As we were faithful to this new endeavor, God was stirring our hearts for more. Week after week, we preached and wondered, "what's next?" God stirred, we prayed and we waited, or maybe God waited on us to get up and move.
Collectively, and this is how we know this was a God thing, we knew it was time to hold regular church services, in addition to what we were doing on the street. I began to look for small churches, near downtown, where we could cheaply rent space on Sunday afternoons.
Meanwhile, God had other plans, as usual! My wife, Chrissy, met a lady, Rena at Grace Community Church in Fountain City, which is about 15 minutes from where we serve the homeless. As Chrissy shared about our ministry, Rena, made the comment, "you guys should start a church." Chrissy said, "funny you should mention that," and explained we were in the praying stages of finding a place to meet. Rena asked my wife, "Why don't you see about using this church, they would probably just want you to clean." We prayed, excited about the possibility, and reached out to the Elders of Grace Community Church.
The Fringe, currently, has two pastors, Eric Warren and myself. We share the preaching responsibilities. The teaching is expository and each of us teach through a different book of the Bible.
All of our messages are online, on both the Metal Mission of Knoxville Facebook page and on my YouTube channel .
Our mission has remained the same, to reach the lost and minister to those who identify with the fringier side of life.
Jesus wants you to come as you are but loves you too much to leave you that way
Who is welcome? Anyone who is interested in gaining a deeper understanding of Christ's love. Everyone is welcome, but don't expect to always be comfortable as we believe God's word, handled correctly, will challenge us to be who God wants us to be.
If you are looking for a place to grow and serve according to your design, MMOK's The Fringe may just be the place for you! We have plenty of opportunity to serve, we believe in allowing you the freedom to serve as God leads, not according to our perceived needs.
The Fringe may be a place you can come grow with us as we seek God to change us and our community.
What does God have in store for us next? We do not know, but we are anticipating great things.
What we do know is, whatever the next step, we want to be squarely in the will of God and we want to promote the unfiltered Gospel of Jesus Christ.
If you feel a call to hop on the Metal Mission express, we would love to have you. We also covet your prayers as we desire to honor God in all we do.
Now, go live as Christ... and give the devil hell!
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