Microchurch Conference: Josh Jackaway
Episode Summary
In this episode of the KC Underground podcast, Brian interviews Josh Jackaway during the recent Microchurch Conference as he shares his journey of cultivating radical hospitality and authentic community through microchurch rhythms and years with Apartment Life. Josh reflects on learning to practice simple, relational hospitality in everyday life, and how welcoming the stranger can transform neighbors into family and open new pathways for disciple-making.
Key Themes & Takeaways
1. A Gathering of Networks Pursuing the Smaller Way
The Microchurch Conference brought together leaders from more than 200 networks, representing cities across the U.S. and several nations around the world.
For Josh, one of the most encouraging parts of the gathering was realizing he did not have to explain the language or values behind microchurch and disciple-making.
The conference felt like a family reunion of people who share a common vision for simple, multiplying expressions of church.
It also highlighted just how many leaders and communities are pursuing similar ideas in different contexts.
2. Josh’s Story: Family, Neighborhood, and Mission
Josh lives in the Waldo neighborhood of Kansas City with his wife Sarah and their two kids.
Their family is deeply rooted in their neighborhood and local public schools, which has become a major part of how they live on mission.
Josh also serves with Apartment Life, an organization that helps apartment communities flourish through intentional neighboring and relational presence.
His work aligns closely with the values of the Underground: loving people in ordinary spaces, sparking spiritual conversations, and cultivating community over time.
3. Apartment Life: Business and Mission Together
Josh describes Apartment Life as a “businesstry,” blending business value for apartment owners with meaningful ministry among residents.
Teams serve apartment communities by welcoming new residents, hosting events, creating connection, and supporting both staff and neighbors.
The goal is not just better apartment culture, but real relationships that can open the door to deeper conversations about faith.
This creates a practical, everyday framework for living missionally where people already are.
4. Hospitality as Spiritual Formation
One of the strongest takeaways from the conference for Josh was the connection between hospitality and spiritual formation.
Hospitality is not just about entertaining guests well, but about opening your actual life to others.
Josh reflected on how different this is from the way he grew up, where hospitality was more planned, polished, and presentation-driven.
Over time, he and Sarah have learned to make their home a place of welcome even when it is messy, busy, and full of kids.
5. A Home That Feels Like Real Life
Josh shared how their home has become a place where people come and go naturally, sometimes with “refrigerator rights.”
This shift has helped them stop seeing home as a retreat from ministry and instead as one of the main places where ministry happens.
Their children are being formed by this too, learning that friendship, welcome, and shared life do not have to be formal or highly managed.
Hospitality has become less about performance and more about authenticity, accessibility, and presence.
6. Poverty, Simplicity, and Shared Life
Josh reflected on how some of his earliest formation in hospitality came when he had very little money.
In that season, opening his apartment to others was not just spiritually meaningful, it was practical.
Instead of spending money to go out, he learned to create connection by inviting people into his space.
That early simplicity helped shape the way he still thinks about neighboring, generosity, and faithfulness today.
7. Love of Stranger as the Way of Jesus
Brian connected Josh’s reflections to the deeper biblical idea of hospitality as the love of the stranger.
Over time, this kind of love is not just something we practice occasionally. It becomes part of who we are.
As we keep opening our homes, schedules, and lives, God forms us into people who naturally make room for others.
Hospitality moves from being an obligation to becoming an expression of Jesus’ life in us.
8. Sent Out, Then Brought Back Together
Josh closed by reflecting on the beauty of seeing old friends and fellow laborers reunited at the conference.
Many of the people he encountered were once close co-laborers who had since been sent into different cities and contexts.
Seeing them again reminded him that faithfulness often means being scattered for mission, but there is joy in being gathered again.
The conference became a powerful reminder that even when people are sent in different directions, they remain part of the same larger story God is writing.
Final Thoughts
This episode is a refreshing reminder that hospitality is not a side practice for especially extroverted or gifted people. It is one of the core ways God shapes us into the likeness of Jesus. As Josh reflects on home, neighboring, mission, and the life of the church, the invitation becomes simple and clear: make room. Make room in your home, in your rhythms, in your relationships, and in your imagination for what God might do through ordinary welcome.
