Moving in - Relational outreach

“And they will know we are Christian by our love,”

This is one line from a great song. It is also a challenge to each of us as we sing it. For me and mine the issue is whether as we move into a new area, can we transfer the love of God into our neighbours’ lives?

It seems to me at least that this is a common calling for many of us especially where the new location is disembodied. You know the sort of areas, no sense of community, houses stacked beside houses, and each may be a home but the family focus is away from where they are living. The suburb becomes little more than a series of bedrooms. They have been aptly named as “Dormitory” suburbs.

This is where our challenge starts to simply get people to relate to us as the people next door or across the road. I am not even talking about evangelism here just letting the love flow into the lives of lonely people we meet and even on a more extended focus those we greet daily as we go

We have “met” the family on one side, sort of. It is little more that a nodding acquaintance with little more than names exchanged. On the other side I have spoken to the guy over the fence and found out that he does shift work, which adds a further element to the problem of involving ourselves as a Jesus influence.  It will probably be a long process on the evidence so far but we have only just begun.

Paul tells us to: “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling” (NIV). 1 Peter 4:9. The question is how to do this in the twenty-first century. It is an entirely different society, especially in the big city. If, as people who are new to the neighbourhood, we engage in visiting the people next door, there is the possibility that we could be considered nosy beaks. There is a possibility that the nosy beak name may be applied that is a choice that is available for the people we come into contact with to make. But it is also possible they we will be welcomed and a friendship begun. Even if the people next door do reject our offers of friendship and support all is not lost, delayed perhaps but not lost. From the perspective of eternity, we have time; it is just a question of time before a relationship exists and if we can remain open and friendly to our neighbour then it is up to God to bring that person around.

There is a story in the New Testament where a paralysed man was carried by friends to the house where Jesus was visiting.  When the saw the crowd around the front door preventing them access they climbed onto the roof, with their friend and broke through the roof and lowered their friend down to get Jesus attention. This was no small undertaking but they knew their friend needed healing and that Jesus could heal him.

This story has many applications; in terms of reaching out to neighbours there are many questions that relate to both stories. The first of these is how far are we prepared to go to engage the people next door, or across the road? These paralytic’s friends saw the crowd and found another way to execute their plan. It probably would have been easier to just wait outside and hope that Jesus noticed them on His way out. But I have to think that they thought that this was too chancey and so they put in the extra effort to enable their friend’s healing. It puts the question in my mind. Am I committed to building community where I live, and, building relationship with the people who are physically closest to me. The final question  these friends place in my mind is to what extent , and cost, am I prepared to go to in order to introduce Jesus to the people that I come in contact with.

One strategy I have heard of was to drag the Barbecue onto the front yard. Have an open BBQ, invite the neighbours and some of your like minded friends to at least ensure that someone will be there, then do it regularly. Why the front yard. In this US town everything happened in the backyard and as such it was deemed too confronting to expect people who don’t know(trust) you enough  to go to a BBQ in the backyard.

There must be other activities to help us meet the neighbours. How many have you heard of?