Metro Characteristics

One of the other factors that is valuable to consider is the size of metro area we want to attempt to undertake this adventure in. Different city sizes act very differently in terms of livability, quality of life, living expenses, and so on. What should we shoot for? How does this work?

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A Guiding Prophetic Word

Some of the thinking behind this connects to some prophetic input I received a few years back. I attended a meeting with my friend Ken Fish and David Wagner, a high-quality but not overly well known prophetic figure. At the end of the meeting, David locked on to me and delivered a powerful word that came will all of the characteristics of a life-guiding prophetic word:

I hear the Lord asking, “do you want a generation?” Do you want a generation? This is a moment for you, the same way Heidi had the word, “do you want the nation of Mozambique?” I heard the Lord ask the question “do you want a generation?”

I just really felt like the Lord is about to release a bunch of Kingdom minded, radical, normal believers. I just saw the Lord drawing a heart around your ministry. I know where it is but I don’t know what it is (my ministry). I saw the Lord drawing a heart around it. I feel like you’re going to see a harvest in the heartland. There is about to be a fire on the prairie. There is about to be a fire - it's going to be released to the people you’re training, the people you are raising up. I don’t think it’s just going to be like a campus ministry but I saw a school of ministry thing. It looked different than Bethel - different than Global - and it has it’s own DNA. What I felt was this: it’s like this huge salt pile like the pile around here in the winter time for the snowstorms. I felt like that I heard the Lord said this is a season where he’s anointed you to raise up salt and light.

You're carrying something significant. I felt like the Lord said, “thanks for being submitted.” You could have done some things and you could be a senior guy somewhere. People even came to you and said “do you want this job, can you take this church?” and you stayed where you are. You could be leading thousands right now but you'd rather touch the few that are reaching the multitudes. I’m just telling you right now that there is something so great in you.

I felt like the Lord said that everything you gave up you didn’t give up - he counted it a seed planted in the ground. There’s hundreds of thousands of dollars of seed planted because you gave up hundreds of thousands of dollars in career. I’m just telling you right now that the Lord is going to funnel things through you and to you like never before. You’re going to take the generation that’s going to unlock the hearts of nations that people said were closed. I’m just telling you right now that you’re going to have great impact in Indonesia and you’re going to have great impact in the -stans. (Pakistan, Uzbekistan, etc)

This is a hard word and I don’t want to give this word...10-20 years from now you’ll stand over the graves of some of the people you raised up who gave their life for the sake of the gospel. You’ll stand in foreign lands where you sent people that you never meant to - where you commissioned them laid hands on them and sent them. You’ll stand over their graves and see where they laid down their life for the gospel. You’re a minister to martyrs, because you’re a walking martyr. You walk in this power of a walking dead man.

I want to tell you that there is something on you that I don’t see in very many young ministers. I see a humility and a compassion and a teachability. You can teach better than most of the people you listen to. Just like Paul, he had to sit and listen to people that were practicing for 13 years and he knew everything they were saying and he knew it in 3 languages. But he sat there. I’m just telling you right now many people say, “he’s my Timothy” but I’m telling you right now you’re a Paul in your spirit. I said it last night: “it’s not about my position it's about my posture.” You’re are postured in such an amazing place.

Lord I just bless it right now. Lord, would you just stir things up in him and would you activate things in him. Let him see what he’s never seen, let him hear what he’s never heard, let him know what he’s ever known. Let him feel what he’s never felt...

David didn't know me at all, and this prophetic word singled out a few key details that were already true:

1. He mentions a school in the heartland - this and what follows is a great description of School of Kingdom Ministry.
2. He talks about me being submitted and declining offers to be the senior leader of churches - this did indeed happen (before this word).
3. I did give up hundreds of thousands of dollars of income through my career when I left physics for ministry.
4. I had a long period of time where I sat in submission to teaching at a level below what I was capable of while the Lord made the way for me to begin preaching and teaching.

As a result of the accuracy of all of these elements, I take seriously the two parts of this word that steer towards the future:

• The Lord is asking me if I want a generation (which I do)
• While others try and claim me as a Timothy, I am a Paul in my spirit.

In the time after that prophetic word, I have processed it a few times with Ken Fish, as he was present in the birthing of a movement that did indeed change the landscape of church in our nation. I asked him what it would look like to live that out. The first thing he said surprised me and stuck with me:

You're going to have to get out of Champaign. You need to get to a world-city.

He proceeded to explain that generational influence requires the type of place that can gain world-class traction. A world city already has a nexus of connections and vehicles that naturally facilitate influence overflow from there to other places. A move of God has the ability to use these conduits to spread faster and further.

As an example, consider the impact of these world-changing outpourings:

• Jesus People/Vineyard/Third Wave: Los Angeles, 2nd largest city in the US
• Toronto Outpouring: Toronto, largest city in Canada

And compare that with these also legitimate outpourings:

• Kansas City Prophets, Kansas City, Kansas
• Brownsville Revival, Brownsville, Florida
• Lakeland Outpouring, Lakeland, Florida

Each of these moves were powerful and important, but they didn't exert the kind of global influence the first two did. (Time will tell whether the move of the Spirit in Redding, California is the exception to the general trend.) To be clear, there are many factors involved with each of these, but natural city factors are one of them. A global city already has lots of avenues in place that help influence flow from it outwards, and a move of God can utilize those avenues to carry the work of the kingdom. This is, I suppose, the current equivalent of Paul's strategy to plant church in the population centers of the Roman Empire.

This is what Ken was pointing out: that truly generation influence would be an incredible uphill climb if I don't position myself well. Looking for a world-city matters.

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What about Growth?

So size matters. Does growth matter? I would argue growth rate is really important.

Anyone who has been part of growing organization vs. a plateaued one knows the massive difference between one with wind in the sails and one that doesn't have wind in the sails in the same way. Areas that are growing are forward looking: willing to experiment with new ideas and take more risks. New possibilities open up and there is an "all boats rise together" effect.

If we want to pioneer something new and position it in a place where the Lord may spread it to a place of broader influence (something I want to plan to try and make possible as a result of the prophetic word above), the best thing we could do is be in an area of increasing population; somewhere people are going looking for new, different things and a place people are going looking to begin a new chapter and have new adventures. If we can position ourselves in a growing environment, that sets the tone for a pioneering mindset.

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On the other hand...

The other side of this is that in general, I don't love massive population centers. I kind of find city life kind of annoying. Crowds are draining and traffic is frustrating. The cost of living can spiral out of control. There is a lot about cities that I don't love. This is a tricky point: is it possible to find a world city that isn't huge and sprawling?

It might seem like there is no way to win on both counts here, but there is one other factor in the mix here: there can be different relationships between an urban center (which is what generates global influence) and it's corresponding metro area. Said another way, not every city has the same degree of suburban sprawl. It's the sprawling metro that in my opinion is the distasteful part (probably trauma from growing up in the Chicago suburbs). What would be most ideal would be a large city with a smaller-sized metro. (This is a recipe that is doubtless not stable over time, but at least at this point would be enjoyable).

With that info in mind, let's look at the top ten cities by population in the US. (Data drawn from here, here, and here)

Some of these cities are close in city & metro population, and others are more disjoint. If we're looking for cities that have a large city population, a smaller metro area, and a good metro growth rate, our clear winners are Phoenix and San Antonio.

At this point, we can see how Phoenix is looking more and more like an interesting candidate: we've explored a cultural analysis of the US and discovered there seems to be a region that might be the most ideal to consider this pioneering work in. Add to that a priority for airport hubs and looking and valuable metro characteristics, and the place that rises to the surface as meeting all three criteria is Phoenix. With that, let's set aside exploring through broader sets of data and laying out generally helpful criteria, and let's look at some things specific to Phoenix itself.