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Out of Practice?

This past weekend I taught about neighbouring in Fairview, Alberta. The vibrant small community listened to a few true stories that help make neighbours and neighbourhoods flourish.  It was not a surprise to me that residents from Fairview had been practicing the art of neighbouring already.  Simple decisions, such as asking for eggs from the neighbours when you run out in the middle of baking, seemed more second nature.  It was a delight to hear that neighbours were part of life's plan.  Loving your neighbour was not an option!  (Practicing hospitality was not an option either - thanks to those who generously hosted us fort the weekend).

On Sunday morning, a youth leader shared some thoughts on the movie, "The Grace Card" (Netflix) which included a scene challenging a police officer to understand his mission to be outside the walls of his church.    This was great to hear since it played nicely into the teaching of neighbouring.  Loving your neighbour is hard to do from within the walls of a church, much the same as trying to harvest from inside the barn.  It is difficult to practice loving your neighbour when we have not practiced it for a very long time.  What Fairview reminded me of this weekend was that practicing  is important.  Many of us are "out of practice"; it is easier to not do it.

And thanks to Thomas, the young man who inspired me by reading Romans 10:14,15 -  "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?  And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  And how can they preach unless they are sent?  As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

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Trust

This past June, I accidentally trusted a couple of guys at a block party.  I had arrived with the Neighbourhood Life travelling BBQ and began helping with the set up.  It seems that people like to ask questions about this travelling trailer BBQ, and these two men were no exception.   They asked, “Where did you get this thing?” and “How much did it cost you?”  The two gentlemen, who were excited about playing (cooking) on this BBQ trailer, settled in with their aprons and spatula’s.  Then I received a call that required me to pick up my daughter from swimming.  The problem here was that I could not make it back to pick up the BBQ trailer, so I asked the two gentlemen if I could leave it with them for the night and pick it up in the morning?  To my astonishment, they replied with a, “You’re going to just leave this thing with us?”  I proceeded to explain the dilemma in my schedule, to which they responded, “People don’t trust each other like this anymore these days.”

Albeit a force play, I ended up leaving the trailer BBQ with my two new buddies.  Their comments intrigued me.  As a result, I have found other opportunities to trust my neighbours.

One recent story has to do with Christmas presents,( but I cannot say too much since my family reads this blog).  I found a lady in our neighbourhood who knows a thing or two about a product that she has started ordering for herself.  I went over to her place last week to see if she wanted to fill an “Operation Manna” shoe box for a child (see last months blog post) and ended up hearing a little about this product.  So I listened.  I actually did more than listen in the end.  I decided to apply the lesson learned from leaving the BBQ trailer at the block party last June.  Since I ended up ordering some of this product from her for Christmas, I gave her more than enough money…up front.  Handing the cash over communicated a trust that could not be put into words.

Now I am searching for a neighbour with whom I could build trust in other situations.  Perhaps there is a new neighbour in whom I can build trust by giving them the keys to our house when we are away this holiday season.

This is nothing new for those who have experienced an abundance of trust in their lives.  Building trust works, especially with those who have a great deal of experience with broken trust.  Building trust with neighbours is a prerequisite for loving them.  To trust a neighbour who is more familiar with broken trust is a gift.

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Neighbourhood Prayer

Last night four families from our neighburhood met to pray.  Among them were Pentecostal, Baptist and Reformed upbringings.  During this time I encouraged each of us to see ourselves as the neighbours who know much about grace, mercy, forgiveness, peace...more so than those who do not know about the Kingdom of God.  I challenged us to dream and envision what our neighbourhood could be like, and how we could each see ourselves in that vision.  Among the beauty and the brokenness is death and loneliness, growth and celebration.  Since we all have church experience, we understand beauty and brokenness.  And we understand them to be very real as we discover our neighbourhood together.  As a result, we will be bringing a card to a man who lost his mother to cancer 6 months ago.  One of the families extended an invitation to a widower to join them for dinner on any Tuesday from here on in.  And we will keep going.

This is just one neighbourhood.  Perhaps your neighbourhood has another family that would be willing to come over for some food and engage in a little dreaming or praying?  To be intentional is key; who could you invite and with whom could you pray?

Neighbourhood Life Gatherings

Here is the first season of Neighbourhood Life gatherings in 2015.  We meet at the YU Turn Center in Lacombe (5025 – 50^th street), unless posted otherwise.  The time we gather is from 4:30 – 6:30 pm and includes a potluck meal, prayer and Scripture. 

January 11 – Nathan/Brittany share their neighbourhood.  Luke 10:25-29  - “Who is my neighbour?”

January 25 - Henry/Joan share their neighbourhood.  II Kings 6:8-23 – “Eating with the enemy”

February 8 – Rick/Joyce share their neighbourhood.  Psalm 23 - “Setting the Table”

February 22 – Brian/Bente share their neighbourhood.  Romans 12:18-21 – “Leaving room for God”

March 6-8  - NEIGHBOURHOOD ENGAGEMENT RETREAT at Camp Nakunum (north/west of Edmonton).  We register as a group.

March 15 – “A tale of three friends” discussion. 

April  5 or 12^th -  Neighbours and the Easter story.

April 17-18 – Inhabit Conference in Seattle, Washington.  See more at www.inhabitconference.com

May 3 – Debrief and brainstorm for the summer months.

May 24 – Prepare for block party month.

June – Block party month.

Neighbourhood Life intentionally seek to build community through God’s love (in us) for the purpose of transforming and renewing our neighbourhood.  This “community-building” includes neighbourhood parties, tournaments, the sharing of material items, and enjoying our unique neighbourhood with our neighbours.  Through this, we value our practice and posture over the program.

We feel called to identify where God is already at work and join His mission, as we seek to alert others to His reign.  Our role in the neighbourhood is to be the new community of Christ, demonstrating His grace and power and inviting our neighbours into His body, the church.  In essence, we “become the church” in the neighbourhood, rather than “attending church” outside of our living space.  The gospel becomes more accessible to those who otherwise would deem it irrelevant, simply because its message is now active among them.

We have embraced “transforming lives and communities in Christ” as central to our vision and mission.  This Neighbourhood Life strategy seeks to embrace this vision by recognizing that one of the communities that needs the transformational presence of Christ is our neighbourhood.  This approach takes seriously a theology of place, in which we are called to “bloom where we are planted”.  At the heart of this model is the call to love our neighbours, the certainty that our neighbours’ lives need transformation, and the assurance that Christ “dwells among us.”

The Spiritual Side

I recently attended a conference to learn more about how the Holy Spirit moves. Those words by themselves elicit a variety of reactions:  some people get really excited, others roll their eyes, and still others ponder the mystery.  Those of us in attendance were simply given permission to share our thoughts and inhibitions. We came to the conclusion that we all believed that the Spiritdoes move and work, but were unclear as to how that is relevant to our lives. The teaching came from Dunamis (http://dunamisfellowshipcanada.org/) which taught the approach of listening and following the Holy Spirit. This spiritual act is simple, yet demands our attentiveness. Perhaps a walk through your neighbourhood leads to an unexpected moment or event that you sense as opportunity; different than a few moments ago when nothing grabbed your attention. On one occasion, I was walking through my neighbourhood and noticed a neighbour trimming bushes at 8 am Sunday morning. This was unlike him, and I had a subtle prompting to just say “hi”. It turned out that he had just experienced the death of a loved one, and within one minute, his eyes teared up as he shared the story- this was what he needed.  Was this the Holy Spirit nudging me?  I believe it was.  So perhaps we can give ourselves permission to try to respond to the Spirit at work in us, always reminding ourselves to do it in love. No weird stuff is necessary and we do not need to manufacture anything in order to call it a “spiritual event”.  We must simply be willing to listen and perhaps gently act on the Spirit’s promptings in truth, grace and love.