Sunday, June 30, 2013

Get knit-together in your neighbourhood!


“Most of us belong to lots of different kinds of clubs, groups and associations. Each is held together by a common gift, skill, interest or passion. Choirs are associations that magnify the gifts of people who sing well. Sports teams collect people together with certain athletic skills. The Legion joins together people with a common war experience.

Whatever the group, the "glue" that holds it together is whatever the members have in common -- something important enough to lead them to join and actively participate in a pursuit that interests them all.

If your block or neighborhood is organized, it is because something leads people to want to come together. Where blocks are not organized, it is because neighbors don't know what they share or have in common. Just living on the same block is not enough to pull many people out of their homes to join with neighbors... except possibly for an annual block party. One step up is the block club created to deal with crime, safety and security. But that is a community drawn together by fear -- one created by a fortress mentality.

The neighborhoods that are organized are drawn together because they have discovered the gifts, skills, interests and passions of their fellow residents. This knowledge is the catalyst for all kinds of new relationships. The connections may be between two neighbors who discover a mutual interest in jazz. Or several neighbors may be connected by an interest in gardening. Or it may be that all the neighbors have discovered their common interest in being a village that raises a child.

Whenever a neighborhood comes together in powerful and satisfying ways, it is because two things have happened. First, neighbors have found out about each other's gifts. Second, they have made new connections based on these gifts. It is the sum of these connections that "glues" a neighborhood together. This is often called social fabric.” PBlock & JMcKnight

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Neighbouring really matters.


Good neighbouring really matters to older people (and young families, & singles, and everyone else).

Do you have any plans this coming weekend to be a good neighbour? 

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

It's not you doing the work...

The Father was already active in your neighbourhood before you arrived & began helping.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Right on, Brother!


Since loving God and loving one's neighbor are really the same thing, Brother Lawrence regarded those around him with the same affection he felt for the Lord. He believed that this was what Christ expressed in the Gospel: that anything he did for even the humblest of his brothers would be counted as being done for Jesus. (Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God, p93)

Monday, June 17, 2013

Where you live is no accident.

Acts 17:24-27 
The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.

Friday, June 14, 2013

God is the best neighbour...


John 1:14
The Word became flesh and blood,
    and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
    the one-of-a-kind glory,
    like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
    true from start to finish.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

If you're not interested in loving your neighbour...

... you had better check who you're following. There is a strong possibility that it's not Jesus...

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

I want to see revival in my neighbourhood through Christ.

I want to see revival in terms of salvation affecting all areas of life - fear gone, abuse gone, alcoholism gone, loneliness gone, chains gone, a community transformed.

We ought to aim high - why else are we where we are?!

Monday, June 10, 2013

The Point is the Place

Place spirituality... helps us recognize that we live in a territory that is full of history, meaning, heartache and joy. Jesus was incarnate in a concrete time and place in history; he was not an abstract, cultureless being in some kind of spiritual space. And today the Spirit is leading the church back into the neighborhood, into concrete territories to recognize what God is doing there. ARoxburgh & SBoren

Sunday, June 9, 2013

It's not always easy to love your neighbour -

Some can be real hard to get along with.

Real neigh-bears if you will.

Good thing Jesus also told us to love our enemies & usually furnishes our communities with some folks to fill that role for us to practice on...