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.

Operation Christmas Child

Are you filling an 'Operation Christmas Child' shoe box?  The shoe box that you put together for a child, somewhere around the world, is a great idea to do with neighbours.  And this is truly an intergenerational idea.  Elderly and children alike can easily participate.   Samaritan's Purse has made these shoe boxes available through various churches.  All the directions come with the shoe box.
More at: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/.  Simply invite your neighbours to the challenge of blessing a child by filling one of these shoe boxes.

Prayer Walk

This past month, a group of us started to take prayer walks in our neighbourhoods.  Simply put, we walked about two blocks.  With an undivided attention, we observed beauty and brokenness, such as clean yards and empty lots.  On one occasion, just as we turned the first corner, we met an elderly man coming out of his home and our conversation revealed a little of his personality.  Before we were done, we prayed for a home which had a cross embedded in its gable end...near the peak.  And at that very moment, the home owners came out to thank us for praying.  They also began to tell us their journey, which included the salvation story of the husband's father on his death bed just recently.  All in all, the prayer walk was another creative way to help us understand the places in which we live. Walking your neighbourhood with prayerful purpose is highly recommended and is an easy thing to do.

Halloween

On October 31st, neighbours will be expecting to meet each other.  This is why Brian and Bente will be setting up a table where their home once stood, before it was one of three homes that burnt down at the end of July.  They are grateful for their neighbours and will be ready to share a hot drink with those trick-or-treaters who will inevitably pass by.  Of course they will be willing to share their story, too (I Thessalonians 2:8 - "Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.").  Their family has every reason to expect to rebuild and return to the neighbourhood they have grown to love.  In the meantime, they will take up "residence" for a few hours again on October 31st to reconnect on a night in which neighbourhoods come alive.  The richness of this goes deeper than decorations or giving candy.  There is no doubt that one could imagine this to be an emotional time.  The reason for this is not simply because of the tragic events that took place in the summer.  The reason for this comes from the application of Jesus' command to "love your neighbours."  For if there was no love among neighbours, there would be good reason to believe that this lot would remain lifeless on October 31st.

Article

Thanks to the Lacombe Express for publishing my article on neighbouring (October 16, 2014):

Neighbours connecting

2014 marked the inaugural year of Neighbourhood Life in Central Alberta.  This included the neighbourhood life trailer BBQ that played host to over 15 neighbourhood block parties that spurred on much needed connections.  It seems that the old fashioned neighbourly instincts have fallen to the wayside, much to the surprise of many.  Loneliness was one symptom that surprised those who lived a few houses down.  And just after someone told me that “it’s different in the smaller communities such as Lacombe and Blackfalds,” we found two neighbours who have lived down the road from each other for 18 years and  had never met.   Perhaps the remote operated garage door and the 60 inch HDTV have played a role in our “unfriending” our neighbour without even noticing.  Possibly, we have taken on the attitude: we can afford to live without our neighbours, so why bother?  The hard working family needs to get ahead, therefor, the work week is longer (after all, “busy” is the status symbol), or perhaps multiple jobs are required?  That’s the case with many I have met in the block parties that took place in Blackfalds and Lacombe.  It is true for my family as well.  But over the past year, we have made attempts to connect with neighbours.  The reason is simply for a richer community. 

            Each time I am in discussion with neighbours, I find surprises that give way to the statement, “I cannot believe that happened in our neighbourhood!”  That can be negative or positive.  Regardless, the evidence is clear that in this day and age, neighbours have found their “Love your neighbour” wall hanging something that used to be part of their lifestyle. 

            Loving your neighbour was God’s idea.  Loving neighbours make a healthy community, a place where love, joy, peace, kindness and forgiveness reside.  These are some of the attributes that belong to the Kingdom of God.  I have never met a neighbour in Lacombe or Blackfalds that has been opposed to these attributes.  The neighbourhoods where these are practiced have been enriched.  In fact, the statement, “I cannot believe that happened” has redefined ‘miracle.’  For it is a miracle that the old grumpy guy next door did that, or it is a miracle that the busy neighbour took the time to do this.  But for those of us who continue to drive by our neighbours without even knowing their names, we will never come to witness those miracles, let alone know the richness of what Christ was talking about when he talked about community.

            One thing to keep in mind:  Loving your neighbour is not about who you like or do not like.  Love is a word that God invented that He initiated without conditions!  The problem that many of us stumble across is that we will try this “loving your neighbour” thing and discover that we do it with conditions.  Love (I Corinthians 13) is negated if it is connected to an expectations.  Just as a parent loves a child, so God loves us.  And this love is without conditions.  Mom just cannot stop loving her children.  God cannot stop loving us.  It has no conditions, and it cannot be stopped.  This is good reason for us to propel ourselves to love those who maybe will never love us back.  But it is this love that we have been freely given, so that we can also give it freely. 

            It is clear to me that there are neighbours in every neighbourhood who have not had the Kingdom of God (peace, joy, kindness, forgiveness, etc.) demonstrated to them before.  It is up to those of us who have been loved; or, in other words, have been shown peace, joy, kindness, forgiveness, etc.  For those of us who know what this is like, we are being called to engage in loving our neighbours.   

Check out the Neighbourhood Life blog at www.centralalberta.blogspot.ca

Rick Abma  

Good Neighbour Coffee

Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world.  So three years ago I learned how to roast and market coffee for the purpose of connecting neighbours and strengthening neighbourhoods.  On the packaging you will find true stories of what has recently happened in the neighbourhoods of Central Alberta.  Today marks the first day that "Good Neighbour Coffee" is available to the public, featuring three of these stories .  You can submit your story, too, as a way to help others reimagine the art of good neighbouring.  And you can start by picking up some Good Neighbour Coffee to give to your neighbours! You can find it in Lacombe, either at Sobeys or the Culinary and Gift Shoppe.