A member of our church moved into a new neighborhood where several FBC members already lived. They mentioned to me that one of our members who lived in the neighborhood gave them a directory showing where all the other members of FBC lived in that neighborhood. I thought that was a very nice thing to do…and it was.

But would you allow me to challenge us to think just a little bit deeper?

What if that fellow FBC member and neighbor also had a list of all the neighbors who didn’t go to church? What if the FBC members living in that neighborhood adopted their neighborhood as their mission field…as their “Jerusalem” (Acts 1:8)? What if the FBC members living there had a summer cook out and invited some of their unchurched neighbors to join in the fun. What if they ended the cook out by distributing invitations to our July 1 “Celebration of Freedom”?

What if the FBC members prayed daily for their unchurched neighbors…by name? What if they took their unchurched neighbors a plate of cookies or brownies at Christmas and invited them to “It’s Christmas” or our Christmas Eve service? What if they invited their unchurched neighbors to help with a service project our church or their Sunday School class was doing. Unchurched people will serve at a soup kitchen, do repairs on an elderly person’s house, or plant flowers at a public school.

It comes naturally to most of us to reach out to fellow believers who live in our neighborhoods. What would happen if we did the same thing with our neighbors who don’t go to church and don’t know Jesus? Do you think Jesus (if He lived there) would get to know His neighbors…all of them?

A good place to start is meeting them. Do you know your neighbors?

Pastor Steve Hogg