I don’t know about you, but the thought of knocking on my neighbor’s doors to invite them to Bible study makes my knees knock. Why would God ask me to do a crazy thing like that? Surely He knows it’s not my calling to go calling on my neighbors.

A Cafe Called Home

He had given me the idea to start a neighborhood Bible study called The Rosewood Café after our address on Rosewood Drive, yet it didn’t seem that the women in my neighborhood were going to miraculously come and enter my home, as God had commanded Noah’s animals. No, this seemed like something I was going to have to initiate on my own. Yikes.

“Who has time for door-to-door evangelism?” I reasoned. “They’ll think I’m a salesperson, census worker or scam artist.” So I printed lovely invitations, attached them to a small bag of coffee and hung them on mailboxes in my neighborhood. I hosted an Open House and began my Bible study shortly afterward. Every so often I plastered the neighborhood mailboxes with postcards or Christmas greetings. God blessed my weak-kneed efforts and introduced me to many of my neighbors this way. Women who had given me a passing nod while walking their dogs were soon passing time at my kitchen table.

Friends and Neighbors

With a tiny taste of the friendships that could be formed, I was emboldened to meet more women whom God had so carefully placed around me. Acts 17:26-27 says God determined the times set for us and the exact places where we should live. God did this so that women would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” What if He had prepared in advance a good work for me to do (Ephesians 2:10) – something that would help a seeking neighbor to reach out for Him? This is an opportunity I don’t want to miss!

One woman shared what her realtor, who happens to live next door, told her when she moved here: “It’s a nice neighborhood, but we don’t neighbor.” He was right.

Maybe it’s the lack of sidewalks or front porches that sit far back from the road, or perhaps it’s just the personality of this area – but we don’t neighbor, as a verb. I want to change that.

Do you neighbor? Is your neighborhood friendly, or are you merely polite? Perhaps your neighborhood is decidedly unfriendly, or even dangerous. Has it been hard for you to make friends? Or have you found a soul sister on your street?

Do your neighbors know Jesus? How do you know? How will you find out?

Originally posted at www.womensministry.net.