A Revolution of Relationship by Ryan Milner

Published: February 13th, 2007

Joe and Angie Steinke want to reinvent the revolution, though one might not know it by looking at them.  Even as they step into oversight of the communities across the U.S. committed to 24-7 prayer, the happily-married, middle-aged, Madison, Wisconsin couple comes off as anything but radical.  He plays guitar. She crafts pottery. They're proud of their five children, elated to recount recent weddings and sterling semesters at local universities. A slice of America nestled snugly into a quaint Midwestern town.

But first impressions can deceive, and no more than one conversation reveals that if God delights in changing the world through the least likely of sources, then Joe and Angie are at the center of a movement.  A quiet Midwestern life has always been a pretext, a façade beneath which lies a deeper passion, a deeper calling, a deeper love. Life has always been more than pleasant routine. Family has always been more than five biological children. It has been a revolution.

"That's been a major preoccupation of the last twenty years," Joe recalled with a chuckle expressing awe and joy, "raising a large family."  Family has been the beating heart of the Steinke ministry.  The "young adult" pastors at Mad City Church in Madison, Wisconsin have redefined the term to include anyone needing a place to crash, a moment to talk, a shoulder to cry on.  For years, the Mad City Training Community, a youth-centered discipleship program, has been more than a place to learn for scores of young adults.  It has been a place to love and be loved.  It has changed lives.

One such life is that of Wendy Andrews, a leader in the 24-7 prayer community.  Her time as a student in the Mad City Training Community led to deep relationship with the Steinkes and eventually to a position as their ministry assistant.  More importantly, she found herself one of their surrogate children.  "Joe and Angie are two of the most important people in the world to me.  Like family," Andrews said, echoing the values that have defined a lifetime.  "I think who I am today is largely because of the influence they've had in my life."

It was this influence, lessons in listening to God, which may have helped Wendy hear her next call: a move to Kansas City, Missouri to take a position as a leader for the U.S. wing of the international 24-7 Prayer movement.  Though the move was bittersweet, Andrews is thankful for everything her time with the Steinkes, particularly working directly under Joe, did for her and in her.  "I worked with him.  I didn't work for him. He saw the potential of who I was to become and let me act like that," Andrews recounted.  "He gave me a big wide green open field to run around in.  I always felt incredibly believed in and valued not for what I could do, but who I was."

Much to the joy of both parties, the family ties would not be broken for long.  In fact, even more were being forged as two communities hundreds of miles apart began to intersect.  This intersection is how Adam Cox, core team member of the Kansas City Boiler Room community, one of several communities stepping inline under the Steinke's leadership, came to know the man that impressed him immediately.  A conference in Kansas City involving the Mad City Training Community and Cox's own Transit training community led to a meeting Cox will not soon forget.

"I remember first seeing him. He was skipping one of the sessions," Cox laughed as he reflected, "and walking around gazing off into the woods. He's just one of these artists at heart and wanders a lot and thinks a lot."  Cox remembers how quickly and naturally Joe accepted him as a member of his own family.  "We'd always just go to a pub, grab a beer with him, and talk about what our dreams are," he said remembering how instrumental the Steinkes were in the lives of his fledgling community.  "He just embraced us as a young group of friends. He and his wife have done the same thing for tons of young people.  We didn't come out of their local community, but they've really loved us like their own kids. It's like they've adopted us."

So when the God of relationship called Andrews and Cox to work together, jointly for 24-7 Prayer and the Kansas City Boiler Room, it made perfect sense that the Steinkes would soon follow.  They came down for a meeting in Kansas City, where Joe met 24-7 founder Pete Greig for the first time.  "He and Pete hit it off," Andrews explained. "They were like two boys who had just found a best friend."  The relationship continued from there.  Greig invited Joe to speak at 24-7's International Leaders Gathering in Germany in 2005.  A year later, the Steinkes took part in the same gathering in London.  Eventually they were asked to oversee and advise all the 24-7 affiliated communities in the whole of the United States, a group that at this point stands as at least seven communities from Madison, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and beyond.

All because they invited Andrews into their family and equipped her to move on all those years ago.  "We thought we were giving her away to 24-7," Joe said, "and upon putting a hand on her and giving her to that role, our arm got stuck in the machine."

Cox could not be more excited.  "We specifically, as the Boiler Room, have been in a place where we're not ready to think beyond where we're at," he said expressing his desire for experience and oversight.  "We're young leaders trying to fumble our way and live out the kingdom locally. It's in our heart to see these communities spread.  All of us have been kind of dodging it because we don't know how to do it.  We've been wondering who would help us do that."

The Steinkes hope a revolution of relationship will be birthed on February 8-10 when representatives from the committed communities gather in Madison to commission them as overseers and leaders.  "I think there's going to be a network matrix of relationships that will empower a generation to live their dreams, and I want to be part of the space," Joe said, envisioning a nationwide community of churches committed to Christianity at its roots, an "embedded family" instead of an institution.  From this, Joe hopes that "people would sense that they're not alone in their local geographies, but they're home with other churches that have an expression of their own DNA and elders that love them and hope with them."

Above all, Joe wants to help an emerging generation realize a revolution of relationship.  "I think the legacy will be the beautiful diversity of all the next generation's inventions as they start to manifest these amazing ways to love the world," Joe said, unable to prevent exposing his true heart. "The parent's pleasure is to see that."

For more information on Boiler Rooms and 24-7 Prayer Communities, please visit the Boiler Room website.

For more information about 24-7 Communities in North America, please contact the 24-7 USA resource center. 

Photo for header taken by Roy Sinai.

Ryan Milner is a graduate student at the University of Kansas and a part of the Kansas City Boiler Room community. He has been writing personally, professionally, and academically since high school. He enjoys film, reading anything by C.S. Lewis, and any X-Men comic. He splits his time between his wife Sarah, his Xbox, and his pug named Pug.

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