Long ago, in a distant land, a prince dreamed of creating more than a geographical or political kingdom. He dreamed of establishing a community in which all persons were committed to each other in loyalty and equality, where every person sought the welfare of the neighbor even at great cost to the self. So the prince called a great meeting of all of the heads of clans, all the wise and trusted people of the land, and dared to tell his dream. Each chieftain and his clan were invited to join in the foundation of new society.

As part of the community's inauguration, each was requested to search his cellar for the best wine produced from his ancestral vines. These treasured bottles would be uncorked, poured into a great communal vat, and blended, as the true community it represented, into a common vintage.

"How can I mix my exquisite wine with that of my neighbors?" asked one of the winegrowers invited to this covenanting.

"I would sacrifice the unique variety of grape, the special climate of the year, the sweetness of a late harvest, the indefinable magic of bouquet, and I would violate my art as a winemaker. Impossible! Give up my distinct variety? Lose my separate self? I will not be adulterated in such a common cup."

So he corked a bottle of tap water, affixed his most beautiful label to the bottle, and at the time of the ritual poured the water ceremoniously into the vat. When the covenanting was solemnized, all filled their glasses for the communal draft, the toast that would seal commitment to community. As the cups touched their lips, all knew the truth. It was not wine. It was water.

No one had been willing to pay the cost of community. (David Augsburger)

1 Thessalonians 3:12-13
May God our Father himself and our Master Jesus clear the road to you! And may the Master pour on the love so it fills your lives and splashes over on everyone around you, just as it does from us to you. May you be infused with strength and purity, filled with confidence in the presence of God our Father when our Master Jesus arrives with all his followers.

Wisdom walks...

... across the street, down the block and into the lives of your neighbours for an epic journey together.

40 Life Principles For A Significant & Meaningful Journey

Friends will make you or break you

Be the person you want others to become

What's in the well comes up in the bucket

What you see is what you get

Leave the mark of Jesus

Your words are powerful and permanent

A little humility goes a long way

Put your money where your heart is

Pay attention to God's little nudges

God rewards good deeds done behind the scenes

There is greatness in everyone

Prayer does change things

A step of faith often means "stay," not "go."

Guard yourself, because temptation lurks

Give deeply of yourself, and you'll never go wrong

Make your reputation match your reality

Reclaim the real you

Engage God daily-no matter what!

Little things always become big things

Narrow the focus for greater life change

Take every thought captive

Forgive...then forgive again

Expect it, get ready for it, and stand against it

Put off the old; put on the new

Be sold out for what you believe

Life is a battleground, not a playground

Follow the visions God places on your heart

Life is not a "me" thing---it's a "we" thing

Serve big, or go home!

Don't steal the glory

Pray like your life depends on it

God uses the few who are faith-full

The path you pick leads to life or death

Admit it, forget it, and get back in it

Stay connected to the Source

Do everything you can to change someone's world

Make your life worth catching

Live light and free on earth Hold tight to heaven

Be controlled by the Spirit, not your-self

Live every day like it's your last

Want to improve your spiritual life?

Try improving the spiritual lives of others first.

Neighbourhood life means...

that I no longer have private territory set apart from God.

Colossians 2:6-7
My counsel for you is simple and straightforward:
Just go ahead with what you've been given.
You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him.
You're deeply rooted in him.
You're well constructed upon him.
You know your way around the faith.
Now do what you've been taught.
School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it!
And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.

In neighbourhood life...

You become you.
God alone is God.
And we become we.

Suffering from Affluenza?

In Canada, the day after Christmas is Boxing Day. I’ve read that it’s the largest retail spending day of the year up there (akin to America’s Black Friday, which follows our Thanksgiving feast). Inheritors of the largest economy to ever exist on earth, we North Americans celebrate our holidays on both sides of the border with great demonstrations of abundance—and we come down from our consumption by . . . shopping. If there is any single temptation that North Americans share, it’s the persistent call of One More Thing.

But for Christians, the day after Christmas is a day to remember Stephen the Martyr. Our great celebration of Jesus coming to dwell among us is followed by a solemn reminder of what Jesus actually said about following him—that it leads to a cross in this world. Incarnation is good news not because it offers us a way out of the mess of this world, but because it shows us what God’s love looks like here and now. Jesus’ birth is followed by his death and resurrection, just as the birth of the church is followed by the witness of those who are willing to lay down their lives for the sake of the gospel. And so the good news spreads.

When we pay attention to the peculiar memory of the church, we hear the echoes of a quiet revolution—the gentle insistence that the way things are is not the way things have to be. Another world is possible; indeed, another world has already begun. We can be part of it now, but it costs nothing less than everything.

That Jesus took on human flesh and moved into the neighborhood means we have seen the way of love lived out. We know what it looks like. In first-century Palestine, it meant that Jesus went to Golgotha. It looked like Stephen praying for his enemies while they threw the stones that would kill him.

But what does it look like to live God’s love in our world today?

What if you’re not a wandering preacher from Galilee, living under Roman occupation?

What if your greatest temptation is the alluring call of One More Thing on the day after you’ve eaten ham and opened presents? (Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove's Forward for The Cost of Community by Jamie Arpin-Ricci)

How do you know when you are beginning to impact a community?

You will discover you have favour within your neighbourhood.

Right where you live, God is at work.

Our lives are our ministries.

Hospitality is the warmth of a neighbourhood.

Get to know your neighbours instead of giving icy stares...

Look for possibility

Jesus really didn't spend much if any time whining while he wandered around the Judean countryside.

Let's create & participate in restorative conversations, healing opportunities, reconciling relationships and loving community.

Grace can never stop with us. Grace is meant to flow to one another.

STOP WATCHING THE NEWS

Instead, use that time to make some Good News in your neighbourhood.

Shovel a neighbours walk.

Invite someone over.

Pray for opportunities to show God's love in practical ways. Then walk the neighbourhood asking God to help you see these opportunities.

Yesterday a friend arranged to do a Samaritan's Purse shoebox day with her neighbours. When she proposed the idea it was very well received. She commented, 'These friends want to help others but lack an outlet & connection to make it happen. They just needed someone to get the ball rolling.'

What a great start to help frame the Christmas season in the appropriate vein. Too often it's all about, 'Gimme gimme gimme' & our kids completely miss the impact of the birth of Jesus.

Materialism doesn’t make us happy. Materialistic folks tend to be dissatisfied with their lives, have low self-esteem, be less integrated into their community, find less meaning in life, and be less concerned about the welfare of others. The list goes on and on: Materialistic people are also less satisfied with their family lives, the amount of fun and enjoyment they experience, and they are more likely to be depressed and envious.

Materialistic KIDS don’t do as well in school, and are at greater risk for depression, anxiety, and unhappiness; they are less inclined to connect to and help others in their neighborhood and community. (Christine Carter)

Is there something you can initiate in your neighbourhood this season to combat materialism & help give flesh to the real meaning of Christmas?

Tune into the neighbouring movement...

When you focus on place, you do everything differently.

Why not discover and demonstrate the Kingdom of God where He has placed you?

You may not be the first to think of a great idea - you may simply be the first to act on it

That Jesus took on human flesh and moved into the neighbourhood means we have seen the way of love lived out. We know what it looks like. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Most seekers are interested in enlightenment only for their own sake, only for their own personal liberation. Indeed, when we begin the spiritual life, the most important thing to us is our own happiness, our own personal experience of expanded states of consciousness, our own enlightenment.

But there comes a time when some of us begin to recognize that spiritual experience is not only for our own welfare.

Because we have gone deeply into the spiritual experience, we have discovered something sacred. It is the recognition of an obligation, an obligation that literally commands us to cease to live for ourselves alone, but instead to live for the sake of the whole.

In that obligation, it becomes apparent that this life is not our own in any personal sense, and that true liberation can be found only when this life is lived not for our own happiness but in the service of a cause that is always greater than ourselves. (Andrew Cohen)

What kind of core change do want to be a part of in your neighbourhood and city?

When Jesus was talking about the kingdom of God, he was thinking of concrete realities on the earth, he was thinking of the Church being the embodiment of the Jesus dream, and he was thinking of you and I living together in a community as we should. (Scot McKnight)

How much risk are you willing to take?

This is NOT Neighbourhood Life...

What would it look like if God lived in your neighbourhood?

God's best plan for saving the world is to put on flesh and live among us. (Jamie Arpin-Ricci)

He's already made it plain how to live, what to do,
what God is looking for in men and women.
It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don't take yourself too seriously—
take God seriously.