Mission in the Neighbourhood

On the Missional Network website Alan Roxburgh and his team invite you to join them as they introduce some ways in which you can begin some small experiments in joining God in the neighborhood.

Over the next 30 days they will tell stories, suggest actions and share interviews, and they invite you to join the conversation. What are your stories? What are the questions you would like to have answered? Where are you seeing the Spirit change your imagination of what it means to be the church today?

If you feel a little unimaginative in this regard go to another site recommended by Roxburgh called Missional in Suburbia. They're doing a series called The Church Returns to the Neighbourhood (the first post is here) and they're already (as at the 3rd May) up to their fourth post on the topic. The posts connect back to Roxburgh's book, expanding on his ideas.

Who are your Neighbours?

Amidst the tragedy of the earthquake in Christchurch last week, it has been heartening to see the generosity, kindness and creativity expressed by neighbours to their neighbours, from getting water for an elderly neighbour to cooking for the whole street. At such times we realise the worth of the people living near us.

Can you name your neighbours?

This year on Saturday 26 and 27 March all over the country, an opportunity exists for all New Zealanders to participate in Neighbours Day Aotearoa. Why not encourage your congregation to consider how they might connect with their neighbours in a meaningful way.

Ideas can be small or large, ranging from baking for a neighbour to simply introducing
yourself to a neighbour you've never really spoken to, from organising a street barbeque to afternoon tea to mowing your neighbour's grass front.

For more information, check out the Neighbours Day website. There are heaps of ideas there.

Mking a point

These two quotes arrived in different emails this morning. Seems to be a bit of a point being made here!

Our Lord asks but two things of us; Love for [God] and for our neighbor. We cannot know whether we love God…but there can be no doubt about whether we love our neighbour or not.
- Teresa of Avila
Interior Castle

More than a few Christians might be surprised to learn that the call to be involved in creating justice for the poor is just as essential and nonnegotiable within the spiritual life as is Jesus' commandment to pray and keep our private lives in order.

Ronald Rolheiser
The Holy Longing

Love your neighbour

The great thing about the Web is that you're constantly bumping into things you didn't know existed. I was looking for a bit of material for a workshop I took on the weekend, and came across the Love Your Neighbour site. It's hosted in New Zealand, and focuses on NZ stories. They're well written ones, too.

One of the main intentions of the site is to encourage local churches to get involved in their local community, to uncover needs that are peculiar to their local area, and to find ways to help.

Their basic strategy is simple: they're calling churches to

• to adopt the streets in their community,
• to prayerwalk those streets,
• to build community through fun events and acts of kindness,
• to capitalize on the goodwill that has been created by following up with an invitation to hear the gospel.

Churches invovled with the Love Your Neighbour project begin by choosing to be outward, rather than inward-focused. They ask, as a church, how far do the cords of your tent extend? How big is the ‘parish’ that God has called you to serve?

Their strategy is as simple as ABC: Adopt, Befriend, Co-operate. You can see more detail about the strategy on their site.