130 million. That phrase. That number. It is a number that resonates with me. I first heard it in January of 2006 in Birmingham, Alabama when I went to my first Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) Winter Conference. Hearing the clarity with which Bishop Chuck Murphy spoke then about the need to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the 130 Million unchurched people in the United States brought me to tears. It was a lightening bolt to my heart. I knew then that I had found my home.

I just spent last Wednesday through Saturday in Greensboro, North Carolina hearing this same message, but it was not a stale message…I heard fresh from God again. I heard God again saying our mission is to bring and live out the Gospel to those outside the church. This is why I joined the AMiA and started St. George’s Anglican Community with the stated mission of:

To bring the Gospel of Jesus to the unchurched residents of downtown Phoenix, and build a vibrant, reproducing church that transforms the greater Phoenix area.

But I heard God saying more.

The theme of this Conference was “Grow out on a Limb.” I think that I still have a long ways to go to get out there on the limb. Maybe I’ve been still holding back with one hand towards the trunk, towards safety, as I’ve been reaching out with the other towards the edge of the limb.

Todd Hunter, who was the National Director of the Vineyard Churches and then of the Alpha Course USA, has joined the AMiA. He is going to plant new AMiA churches along the West Coast. Through him I heard God saying that we have to take risk…for the sake of the Gospel. He had us all stand up and read this passage from 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 together (taken from The Message):

Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!

This is it! I want to be “all things to all people for the sake of the Gospel.” Our lives are too short to be devoted to anything else. What that means or looks like for St. George’s, I don’t fully know yet. But I am convinced that I have a long way to go in “growing out on a limb” for the sake of seeing the unchurched in downtown Phoenix find hope, healing and transformed lives through the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If this is your heart, then join with me in giving your life away at St. George’s or in the community that God is calling you to be a part of. Don’t settle for anything less than Jesus.

Shane+