"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." On August 5, 2008, a group of twenty-two clergy and laity, from the Blue Ridge Region gathered in Hickory, NC. Their purpose: to explore and then live out what the coming of the kingdom of God means for North America in the twenty-first century. Smith Sharpe, the pastor of Christian Fellowship Church, an emerging Anglican Mission church plant in Hickory, NC, asked the group, "How do you weaponize the church? How do you take a group of people from being an audience to being an army?"

Throughout the morning, members of the Blue Ridge Region spent time in worship, discussion, prayer and study of Jesus' own proclamation of the invading kingdom of God. In the afternoon, a band of twenty-two brothers and sisters launched an "army of love" into the city of Hickory.

Some groups prayed for, and then wrote letters, to dozens of people that Christian Fellowship Church hopes will attend their September 7, 2008 Grand Opening. Other groups walked the hospital grounds, a major apartment complex and the local community college while interceding and praying for families, students, marriages and a great harvest of salvation. Still other groups toured the local mall surveying shoppers about the needs of Hickory, what people are looking for in a local church and how the church might serve the individuals being surveyed.

Before rotating through each of these three outreach stations, most participants had never experienced prayer walks or surveys at the mall and were at least a little apprehensive. During the post-outreach testimony time, however, participants shared an overwhelming sense of God's presence and of numerous divine appointments.

"There was just a sense that this was right," said Pat Weaver, a member of Christ Church, an Anglican Mission church in Winston Salem, NC.

The Blue Ridge is one of six regions that make up the Apostle's Mission Network, the result of a merger between the Mid-Atlantic and the King's Mission Networks. Each region is responsible for its own fellowship, mission strategy and budget.

"We really wanted to work together and sacrifice for each other to see God's kingdom expand, even if it doesn't directly benefit our area," said Elijah Lovejoy, who helps support the six leaders and churches that make up the Blue Ridge Region. "It's very much in keeping with the mission of Jesus who sacrificed his life for the life of the world, then walked down the road and said, 'Follow me'."