Reaching your neighbour - a slightly different approach

You'll probably think this is just crass advertising (on the part of NESCAFÉ, in this case), but it's worth pointing it out anyway. (And I'm not being paid to do it.)

NESCAFÉ have come up with an idea called NESCAFÉ TogetherNES™ (yup, they've even trademarked it). As they say on their site, the idea was born in conversation 'over a cup of NESCAFÉ coffee. When you share a moment with the people who live around you, it’s clear that knowing your neighbours adds warmth and richness to life, every day. That’s why we’re looking for people with bright ideas on how they could help build their neighbourhood’s sense of community – then we can get involved too and help make it happen. Naturally, the first step is to share your idea with us.'

There's a great deal more about it on their site, but what seems of interest to us is that this idea is perfectly adaptable to the church community.

Want to find ways to reach out to your neighbours? Start with anyone of the ideas already on the site or come up with some of your own. Mission starts with reaching out.

What twenty-somethings think?

According to a new poll by the J Walter Thompson advertising agency, twentysomethings show a lot of respect for traditional values.

The agency found 94 percent respect parenthood and 84 percent have great esteem for marriage. Just a quarter said they respect Hollywood.

A spokeswoman for the agency Ann Mack was surprised by the findings and said, “It could be because they are more idealistic as a generation," she said, "but it could be because they are so young and not yet jaded.”

However, Mark Johnson, who works with B2G (better2gether), a ministry of the Navigators for twentysomethings, said he believes this generation is reacting to the fact that “at least half of them that we see have come out of some kind of dysfunctional or broken home. They are wanting something more or better than what they have come from.”

While it may depend on which twenty-somethings were interviewed (were they mostly middle-class?) it does remind us that there's a big mission field amongst them, particularly if their homelife has been dysfunctional. And the same applies to NZ.