A Heritage of a Hungry People
By David Adair, Frontline Edmond Lead Pastor
An ex-con and a District Attorney walk into a church.
This isn't the opening line of a bad joke but the reality of a normal Sunday in the early days of Frontline. People, who otherwise wouldn’t have been in the same room, gathered together. From the beginning, this was a defining characteristic of the church. At the risk of being overly poetic, the church was like a mosaic with different broken pieces brought together to build one beautiful picture of what God was doing.
After planting in Josh and Nancy Kouri’s living room, Frontline eventually began to gather in a storefront space on Automobile Alley. Standing outside on the sidewalk on any given Sunday morning, you could see the unique nature of the church on full display. A motley crew of vehicles stretched up and down the street. Nearest the door was a row of Harley-Davidson motorcycles that seemed more at home in front of a shady dive bar. Indeed, most of those bikes had spent many a night at shady dive bars. Immediately next to the Harleys was a group of Vespa Scooters covered with band stickers and ridden by guys whose appearance could best be described as punk rock lumberjack (e.g., Will Gaines circa 2008). As your gaze continued north past the scooters, you saw the bicycles. There were Sundays with so many bicycles in front of the church that it looked like an 80s elementary school. Some were the fixed-gear bikes of hipsters, while others were loaded down with the personal property of the homeless. Across the street, parked along the west side of Broadway, were minivans of soccer moms, luxury SUVs of Boomers, the Toyota Priuses of baristas, and the giant pickups of south-side small business owners.
In all kinds of ways, all kinds of people traveled for the sole purpose of gathering together for Sunday worship at Frontline. Once inside, the seating options were about as varied as the people. A combination of thrifting and Craigslist bargains filled the sanctuary with old pews, couches, coffee tables, and rows of bright blue plastic chairs that were perfect for popping your back. (And lest you think we’ve lost an ounce of thriftiness over the years, those same electric blue chairs are being used in Frontline South’s Kids Ministry today.) Despite packing Sundays with seats and services, the floor was often the only place for late-comers to sit.
The facility wasn’t ideal for a church building. The concrete and brick storefront was too hot in summer and too cold in winter. The art on the walls was too weird. The worship was always too loud and Josh’s sermons were often too long (author’s note: I know at present my sermons are also often too long, thank you.) There were countless reasons for this particular church plant to fail, yet the Spirit of God moved in power and built something wonderful. On the surface, early Frontline seemed novel or new in many ways. But the truth is God was doing something ancient. What was happening in our church in OKC was a lot like what God did in the church at Philippi in Acts 16. People were being saved.
The most vivid memories I have from that season of the church are lines of people, puddles of water, and roars of celebration accompanying baptism after baptism. Different people were being saved from sin and joined together as one family because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. A family with a heart to know Jesus Christ, to know God’s Word, and to be led by God’s Spirit. A heart to live out a mission to love God, love people, and push back darkness.
Our heart to reach people through that mission took shape in some out-of-the-box ways in those early days. When you visited Frontline on a Sunday, our monthly bulletin would be laid on your seat. The original Frontline “Bulletin” wasn’t the beautiful publication you currently hold in your hand. It was a simple half-fold sheet listing the ministries happening each week at the church. An old version I still keep in my office breaks down the ministry for the week.
Monday night: Downtown Fight Club. Men gathered together for a short devotion and prayer. Then we punched, kicked, and wrestled each other for an hour and a half. At one point in time, Fight Club was literally the largest MMA gym in OKC. Miraculously, no one was ever seriously injured.
Tuesday night: Outreach ministry geared toward kids in subcultures. The worship was a rotation of reggae, punk rock, and hardcore. The Executive Pastor of Frontline North Carolina, Blake Burrough, is an amazing worship leader and singer/songwriter. As beautiful as his current music is, no one can scream their lungs out and lead hardcore worship quite like Blake. On Tuesday nights, pastors like Rex Barrett faithfully preached the gospel, sharing hope for people in darkness.
Wednesday night: Student Ministry led by the aforementioned Will Gaines.
Thursday night: Initially, this was an additional regular church gathering because Sundays were overflowing. Our plan was to have a cool, mid-week evening service to reach young people. When we launched the Thursday night service, lots of young people came but even more homeless people came. God had a better plan than our original idea. In October 2009, the service moved to City Rescue Mission. Frontline Downtown still holds the service every week to this day.
When Frontline was younger, a common question was, “Who is this church for?” At the time, there was a belief within church planting that you should have a very specific person-group you were trying to reach. Some avatar of an exact or ideal member you wanted as a part of the church. In response to that idea, I recall Josh repeatedly answered that question with "the hungry.” Powerfully simple and fiercely biblical. In John 6:35 Jesus says, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” Frontline was, and still is, a church for the spiritually hungry.
If you happen to be reading this and you aren’t certain what you believe about Jesus but you’re certain there is a hunger in your soul for life and truth, Frontline is for you. Stick around. Bring your questions. Allow us to come alongside you and explore who Jesus is and what he has done together.
If you are a Christian, this Sunday as you approach the Lord’s Table and take hold of the bread and wine, remember you will be standing with a 20-year heritage of the family of God gathering as Frontline Church because of our hunger, believing Jesus is the “bread of life,” knowing he satisfies the deep hunger of our souls. In him, we are nourished. In him, we are satisfied. And at the Lord’s Table, celebrate how in Christ we declare our unity with each other because of our common unity in Christ. In all of our differences, the Bread of Life has made us one in him.
This year, Frontline Church is celebrating our 20th Anniversary! On Easter Sunday 2005, Frontline was planted in Josh & Nancy Kouri's living room. 20 years later, we are one church with five congregations across Central Oklahoma committed to loving God, loving people, and pushing back darkness. To read more stories like this one or learn how you can celebrate with us, visit frontlinechurch.com/20year.