Latest Posts
How to Hope Fully When “Hopefully” Fails
For just a few seconds, I almost forgot. I almost forgot the pandemic that infected us with disease and death, fear and worry. I almost forgot the grieving families, courageous caregivers, exhausted essential workers, anxious unemployed, and the lonely neighbor I barely took the time to notice on a good day—let alone this string of very, very bad days. Cuddled under the covers, for just a few seconds I could almost imagine I’d open my eyes to a perfectly normal day. I almost forgot the...
Love Your Neighbor Challenge
Share the love in your neighborhood by accepting the Love Your Neighbor Challenge! The challenge progressively takes you closer to your neighbor day by day. Wrapped in prayer, you'll take small steps toward a deeper relationship with the people God has placed around you. Your goal is to make natural connections that can lead to spiritual conversations. Each challenge features innovative ideas complete with suggested scripts, online tools, and adaptations for both introverts and extroverts....
#1: Pray
Of course, the first Love Your Neighbor Challenge begins with prayer - in fact, we couldn't call this little experiment a success if each day didn't begin with prayer! Prayer won't change God's heart toward your neighbors (He's already crazy about them!), but it will change you... and - who knows? - your home in heaven could have the same next door neighbors as earth! "There’s no perfect prayer formula; there are no perfect prayers or pray-ers."How to Love Your Neighbor Without Being Weird,...
#2: Map
When you visualize your neighborhood, Jesus’ ginormous command to love the whole, wide world becomes local again. Your second challenge of the Love Your Neighbor Challenge is to draw a map of your neighborhood. This begs the question, "How can a piece of paper help me love my neighbor?" Before we answer that, let's ask another age old question: "Who is my neighbor?" In the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus defined neighbor as anyone and everyone with whom we live or whom we have the...
#3: Learn
Harry & Sherry were great neighbors - friendly, thoughtful and kind. We talked across the fence often. That’s why I was horrified when they signed the guest list at our last block party as “Harry and Beth.” Had I been calling her by the wrong name all these years? "Ummmm... is your name Sherry or Beth?” I asked awkwardly. “Yes!” she answered. Turns out, she goes by Sherry but her family calls her Beth. Whew! Your next challenge in the Love Your Neighbor Challenge is to learn the name of...
