How the Neighborhood Cafe Works

1. Host an Open House for your neighbors

2. Invite them back for Bible Study

 

Free printable resources are based on what I learned in my own neighborhood and by helping women across the country and around the world. Start a Neighborhood Cafe in your home to love your neighbors—without being weird!

If a Neighborhood Cafe isn’t your cup of tea, that’s okay! Check out How to Love Your Neighbor Without Being Weird for practical, adaptable tips for all personality types.

Invitation

  • Time-tested and carefully chosen words are welcoming and effective; lines on the back so you can write a personal note
  • Space to fill in your name, phone number, address, the date and time of your Open House
  • Prints four per page

Planning Guide

  • Booklet leads you step-by-step through the process of starting, leading and growing your Neighborhood Cafe (printing instructions)
  • Includes a neighborhood map, calendar, recipes, Open House checklist, icebreakers, Kids Cafe, Bible study selections, Facebook instructions, community service tips and more

Thinking of You

  • Follow up with a note to your Guests
  • Makes it easy to send a personal greeting and develop deeper friendships
  • A self-mailing, full-color greeting card—just print, sign, fold and mail!

More Free Resources

Download a Guest List, Snack Sign Up, Neighborhood Commitment, Planning Map and so much more!

The First Neighborhood Cafe

I wanted to obey Christ’s #2 Command to love my neighbors, but it just wasn’t happening. My neighborhood doesn’t have sidewalks where people stop to chat, we don’t have a corner cafe, we don’t have a park where kids play (besides, my teenager doesn’t play at parks anymore).

We don’t “neighbor,” as a verb.

When the women I longed to know didn’t magically appear on my front porch, I realized I was going to have to initiate relationships on my own. Yikes! That’s when I first had the crazy idea to start a neighborhood Bible study.

 

It was going to be called The Rosewood Café because we lived on Rosewood Drive. I opened my journal and drew a little logo, jotted down what I would say on the invitation, and even set the date.

“There was only one little problem with my plan to start a neighborhood Bible study: I did not know my neighbors.”

How to Love Your Neighbor Without Being Weird

 

Any initial excitement soon gave way to great fear, and I delayed and disobeyed as I argued with the Lord. “I don’t have time… I’m not spiritual enough… The church should do this… What if no one comes? What if everyone comes?”

Finally, I invited 80 or so neighbors over for coffee in October, 2008. A group of us met for the next seven years, and continued after I moved away! Once strangers, my neighbors became friends. We laugh and learn together, pray and worship together, work and play together.

As the last neighbor left the first Cafe, I thought to myself,
“I could teach people how to do this.”

 

 I kept notes on what worked well and what failed miserably – and The Neighborhood Cafe was born! There are Neighborhood Cafes across the United States from Alaska to Florida, and from Connecticut to Californian – and in Canada, Australia, and Great Britain! My experience in this ministry eventually led to writing a book, How to Love Your Neighbor Without Being Weird, that expands the conversation with practical, adaptable tips and tools for introverts or extroverts who live in big cities or small villages.

 

Let’s get started… your neighbors are waiting!

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