Growth Rate

We've already touched a bit on Phoenix's growth rate, but let me clarify that a bit further; for the decade of 2010-2020, Phoenix was the fastest growing large city in America. This isn't just a place that is flourishing: it is the hottest major city in the US right now. This is going to have big implications in terms of an ongoing stream of new opportunities and even new people coming to the area looking for a church.

Positioning ourselves in a city that not only has great opportunity, but also has the best opportunity for those good opportunities to continue and keep expanding is a really good place to be. As of this point, the growth doesn't seem to be showing any signs of slowing down:

Note as well something else very interesting: Phoenix has essentially come into its own as a city starting in the 1950s. (I assume is was essentially an impossible place to live before air conditioning.) This late timeline of development is potentially very important. This means the infrastructure and development of the city happened in a very different era than say that of Chicago:

We will return to that point when we talk more about reasons to believe Phoenix has a deposit of interdependence that is waiting to be tapped.

One more interesting point: note what a high fraction of the state of Arizona is in the Phoenix metro area (maricopa county):

Over half of the state lives in the Phoenix metropolis. This is tremendously interesting: something that impact the Phoenix metropolis actually by default will affect the majority of the entire state. I have no idea what God will do, but hey, that's an interesting possibility!!