From Manitou Springs to the world: Mate Factor Café part of global 12 Tribes community

Steve Rabey Religion Correspondent

Colorado Springs Gazette

May 31, 2020

He grew up poor and troubled, spent time in a foster home, and his troubles continued well into adulthood. The customers who bought the methamphetamines he cooked up in a local trailer park called him Johnny D.

“I was addicted to drugs, and my life was pretty much a mess,” he says.

Desperate to find God, he attended dozens of churches — Nazarene, Pentecostal, Catholic, independent — and responded to numerous altar calls. But each church had its interpretation of the Bible’s teachings.

“This church says it’s this way, while that church says it’s that way,” he says.

Feeling so sinful and “filthy” that he feared God couldn’t hear his prayers, he became distraught and suicidal, offering up one final, frantic plea with all his heart as he stuck the barrel of a gun in his mouth.

“If you don’t answer my prayer, I’m going to kill myself.”

That’s when he heard the voice.

“I love you, and I haven’t forgotten about you. I’m going to show you the way, but when I do, you’re going to have to drop everything and do it.”

God used a 2001 article in The Gazette to show him his next step.

“This is what I was going to show you,” the voice said as he read an article about Twelve Tribes, the international Christian group that operates the Maté Factor Café in Manitou Springs. 

“You have to drop everything and do it.”

He talked to the group and accepted their invitation to join them, giving up his old life and his few possessions.

“To go into the Twelve Tribes meant I had to leave my old life behind, trust my life to these people, and come under their authority for the rest of my life,” he said. “That sounded pretty good to me.”

With his new life came a new name: Zaccai. In the Hebrew Bible, Zaccai was a Jew who returned from the Babylonian exile to help Nehemiah rebuild Jerusalem’s walls.

Years later, 47-year-old Zaccai remains faithful to the community that gave him life, his wife, and his children. His work co-shepherding the local community and managing the cafe seems a small sacrifice for the blessings he has enjoyed.

Jesus Movement Legacy

Twelve Tribes — one of the few groups surviving from the Jesus movement of the 1960s and 1970s — traces its origins to the day of Pentecost, which is celebrated by Christians worldwide today, and was described in the New Testament book of Acts:

“Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting … All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit … All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”

As the group’s website says: “The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost gave birth to a rich tribal life of togetherness and mutual care and accountability.”

When you dine at the cafe, you’re supporting a local community of three dozen people, including five married couples and 15 kids, all of whom live in two communal houses near the restaurant.

Diners are also supporting a larger network of some 2,000 to 3,000 disciples in Twelve Tribes communities worldwide, including Brazil (where they harvest the maté used for drinks) and Spain (where they make olive oil).

During an interview at the cafe, three male leaders, or “shepherds,” seemed earnest and joyful.

Members see Manitou Springs as a minimecca, “a place where people are seeking.” The group also has a community in Boulder, where it operates one of its popular Yellow Deli cafes.
With the men’s beards and bound hair, and the women’s simple clothing, members resemble hippies, or perhaps Amish or Mennonite believers.

Members gather for worship every morning and evening. During the day, some work at the cafe while others home school the children or do other tasks. They don’t have a TV or read papers. “Sensationalism,” they say, even though Zaccai has warm feelings for The Gazette.

The cafe is the local community’s primary means of support and primary way of reaching the Springs community with their message. Members don’t proselytize, but they’re always willing to answer questions and they make free issues of the Twelve Tribes’ Freepaper available for those who want them.

Local members — including teens — staff the Manitou cafe. They receive no pay because they work as volunteers. And because of their common treasury, the IRS classifies the group as a 501 (d) “religious and apostolic association or corporation,” similar to monasteries.

Claims of ‘cult’ practices

Much of the Twelve Tribes theology is similar to other Christian groups, but they emphasize living in strict accordance with God’s will as revealed in the New Testament and the Old. They follow Jewish levitical laws on lifestyle and diet, and celebrate the major Jewish festivals, including Pentecost, or Shavuot, and Passover.

They believe they are gathering together the 12 biblical tribes described in the book of Revelation in preparation for Christ’s return

Twelve Tribes members believe that living communally is a requirement for true followers of Christ, who they call by his Hebrew name, Yahshua.

A disciple’s life is “a tribal life,” says an article in the Freepaper, “families, clans, and tribes, in stark contrast to the suburban loneliness of the world.”

When asked about the spiritual status of the vast majority of Christians who don’t live communally, Hushai, one of the local group’s shepherds, quoted 1 John 5:19: “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.”

“We believe very sincere people” are part of the flawed mainstream “religious system,” Hushai said. “We hope we can learn to love one another, obey his commandments, and recognize the leaven of unrighteousness that comes in to separate us.”

They follow a strict morality that some see as family values on steroids. They favor male leadership, practice corporal punishment on disobedient children, and do not condone homosexuality.

Some practices have brought criticisms about legalism and cultlike practices. A Vice story about the group bore this headline: “The Idyllic Restaurant Chain Owned by a Homophobic, Racist, Child-Beating Cult.”

The Southern Poverty Center issued a similar warning, calling the group “a Christian fundamentalist cult” whose “hippie-vibed restaurants and cafes” conceal “a tangle of doctrine” that, among other things, supports slavery and homophobia.

Twelve Tribes communities have frequently been accused of — and occasionally found guilty of — child abuse and labor violations, and have faced penalties for requiring children to perform adult work on Twelve Tribes farms and crafts.

Local members are quick to dismiss these and other allegations, and say such controversies are part of the persecution members face for faithfully following Christ.

What about the claim that once you’re in the group you can never leave?

“People come and go all the time,” Zaccai said.

What about the claim that members are prevented from staying in touch with family and loved one who are not part of the group? Another community shepherd named Eved shows me his cellphone, complete with frequently used contacts for family members.

“The life we live is the life our Father is showing us,” Zaccai, who quotes the words of Yahshua: “You can’t fit us into a box said.
“When people realize there’s no place for them in this world, when they seek a place where they can come and be put back together, this is that place. At least it was for me.”

Details
If you want to know more about 12 Tribes, or attend one of the community’s Friday evening worship gatherings held at their communal home in Manitou Springs, call 719-685-1250


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