Neighbor Ministry

As we have considered this new step in our lives, we have looked back into the past to places we have lived and thought over the ways we have been able to minister to our neighbors along the way.

The summer of 2001 came to mind when we used a van that we were loaned from a friend (the Rainwater family) to shuttle 5 neighborhood kids (and Kristen's little brother) to VBS and back for a week.

That same summer we established a good friendship with our neighbors and have had continued communication with them, even having their daughters in youth group and getting to baptize the mom.

Then there was the house before that were our neighbors across the street who weren't real church people had gone through some loss that was very similar to ours. We had dinner several times and talked about the hard issues and where God is at in it all.

We had several connections at our last home in Fort Wayne with neighbors and was able to have several over from time to time. When we stopped back by several months after moving we got to see one set again and had a good talk with them.

Then we moved to KY, where the summer seemed to last nearly forever. It was wonderful. Our house seemed to often be the place for kids to congregate. As I sit here I know that we have had good talks where we were given the opportunity to talk about faith with 5 or 6 of our closest neighbors. Some of them are more church people than others, but we have enjoyed just in the 10 months we have lived here.

We are looking forward to ramping this up a bit in our next place, since that will not only be our social opportunity to connect with others and hopefully show them the love of Jesus, but will be my job as well.

We are all called to let the love of Christ overflow out of our hearts and into the lives of people around us. We don't do it perfectly, but we can do it with his help.

On this note, I would like to recommend a great read.

Outflow by Steve Sjogren

Maybe I have mentioned it on here before. It is all about the love of Christ, in real and practical ways, flowing out of your life and into the lives of people around you. It's a five week devotional and you will cry and laugh your way through it.

If you think God might be calling you to great loving impact on the lives of people near you, read Outflow.

To learn more about Steve Sjogren, go to http://www.stevesjogren.com/

I am learning more about this everyday, and I am blessed to have the perfect model- Jesus, and the next best thing as well- my wife, Kristen!