This past Sunday, Pastor Kyle shared 7 ways we can grow in being neighbors to our neighbors. Where do you have room to grow? Grab ahold of one or two of the points below and make them your aim, your prayer, and priority as you live on mission and love your neighbors.
1. Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing - Love God and love your neighbors. Don’t let those moral imperatives drift from the center of your Christian life.
“I have come to believe that, as followers of Jesus, one of the worthiest endeavors we can undertake is to take the Great Commandment seriously and learn to be in relationship with our literal neighbors.” – Jay Pathak
2. Resist Hurry - It’s hard to love your neighbor when you’re too busy for your neighbors.
“Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible. Love always takes time, and time is the one thing hurried people don’t have.” – Jay Pathak
“Can I live at a pace that allows me to be available to those around me? And if not, are all of the things I’m doing more important than the neighbors God has placed me in the midst of?” – Jay Pathak
3. Occasionally Say No to Inward Activities – Sometimes, you have to say no to neighbors in the church to say yes to neighbors outside the church.
Have you ever heard of an ingrown church? An ingrown church is like an ingrown toenail. God designed our toenails to grow outward. But sometimes, a toenail curves and grows inward. The result? An unhealthy, painful toe. God designed a church to move outward toward its neighbors. But when a local church neglects or forsakes that outward movement, it begins to become ingrown. And an ingrown church is an unhealthy church.
" But as we get more and more involved in the ministry of our church, it’s easy to get so wrapped up in what God is doing in our congregation that we lose sight of the big picture—God’s kingdom.” – Dave Runyon
We are giving you permission to prioritize your unbelieving neighbors. Even if it occasionally comes at the cost of time spent with one another.
4. Draw Boundaries - If you aim for everybody, you hit nobody. Who are your neighbors? Focus on the neighbors who live directly around you and the neighbors nearest to our church. And maybe move closer to Santa Ana.
5. Embrace the Mess - Loving your neighbor WILL BE messy.
This neighboring stuff is messy. Part of the reason churches become ingrown is because neighboring is really messy. If your neighbors aren’t Christians, then they probably don’t act like Christians. Or talk like Christians. Or parent like Christians. And you know what Jesus says to you and to me about them? Love them as yourself.
And if you find yourself shying away from the mess, remember Christ. Who stood condemned before the people He came to love as they yelled “crucify Him!” And though they did. And though our sins were the reason He went to the cross, He went to the cross anyway. Nobody entered into the mess like Jesus did for us. And it resulted in our salvation. And our joy.
It WILL BE messy. But it. Will. Be. Worth. It.
6. Commit to Every Member Neighborhoodism - (the pastoral team can't and shouldn’t do it all)
It has to start with pastors. The moment that the leaders of a church put loving the neighbors outside our walls in the backseat, the church becomes ingrown. But it has to extend beyond the pastors. The moment that outreach becomes the sole job of the pastors, a church becomes ingrown.
7. Tell neighbors the Gospel - We are called to proclaim. To preach. To proselytize. To evangelize. To persuade.
If there’s anything we hope our neighbors love about being our neighbors, it’s that they have come to know Jesus and His love through us.
