Love Your Neighborhood Article
What is 'Neighboring?'
Years ago, at a gathering of church leaders, our mayor said that the greatest gift churches can give our city is to simply be good neighbors.
Can you believe that?
For all the services, programs, events, classes, and mission trips churches do in the name of Jesus, the mayor said, if we just loved our neighbors — the one priority Jesus commanded His followers to do after loving God — then Christians could transform the city.
And the faith community has the capacity to do it, too! In the Evansville region, 83% of our residents identify as Christians – 49% as practicing and 25% as highly engaged. Even if only the 25% of highly engaged Christians actively pursued the Great Commandment and loved the neighbors physically around their homes, the love of Jesus would completely cover the population of our city.
So why is Jesus’ clear command not executed? It fills an important need, and it clearly aligns with God’s will for His people. Where is the disconnect?
The solution must be complex, or we’d have neighboring revolutions all over the place. At Community One, we reduce the complexity of community engagement and mobilize churches into this critical area of mission. The simplest expression of our purpose has always been to love your neighbor. Through restoration of deteriorating housing and now revitalizing disinvested neighborhoods, the core of what we do has always been creating an opportunity for followers of Jesus to live out the Great Commandment in a real, tangible way. We want to ultimately see restoration and hope come into the lives of real people in our community, transforming our city from the inside out.
As we train, equip, resource, and send the Church into neighboring, the first step is to clearly define neighboring opportunities available to us. Then, provide a next step if you are interested in pursuing it further. We believe neighboring includes two distinct possibilities:
1. Neighbor Where You Are
Everyone has neighbors they interact with every day. This includes co-workers, strangers we pass, and friends. It also includes our neighbors in physical proximity to our homes. What would it look like to reorient how you view your neighborhood, home, and workplace? See these spaces as launching pads for missional engagement? What would it look like for you to step into obedience and love people in the flow of your everyday life?
For many of us, this is an anxiety-inducing idea. However, it is also the simplest way to infuse every moment with meaning and purpose – to live out your faith in ways we long for as Christians. We can all do this now! We can neighbor where we are today.
2. Neighbor Where We're Called
God clearly calls His people to care for the marginalized of society throughout the Bible. People who, because of various cultural factors, are deemed “the least of these.” Jesus modeled this with His life and His ministry. There are neighborhoods in our city – full of people – that face significant challenges to experiencing a high quality of life. These areas need restoration and renewed hope. They need the love of God to light up their neighborhood, and they need the Church to answer the call and love them as they love themselves.