Moving Toward our Neighbors in Love
May 12, 2010
On Sunday we knelt together as a church family to seek God’s direction regarding how we might move toward our neighbors in love in the way Christ moved toward us in the gospel. Here are three immediate, concrete answers to those prayers that I hope will only be the beginning of a new phase of reaching out to our neighborhood.
1. More Prayer
During the last two weeks we have used the Sunday School hour to study significant prayers of God’s people. We have observed a striking pattern: God’s people always begin their corporate prayers focused on God himself-his attributes, his mighty acts, and his promises. Then we see how these prayers of adoration, praise, and thanksgiving affected the confession or requests that followed.
This Sunday during the 9:30 hour, we want to come together to seek God in prayer. We want to exult in who he is, remember what he has done, and claim our trust in what he said he will do. Then, by his grace, we will focus our prayers of request on our neighbors: praying for their salvation, for their protection, and for their fears to give way to trust in God. And we will pray for God to direct us concerning how we can be part of his work in their lives.
Please plan to come to the adult Sunday School class and be part of this crucial means of loving our neighbors.
2. Communicating Our Heart to Our Neighbors
In the years I have served as your pastor, I have never felt the need for us to “make a statement” to our neighbors. Yet the atmosphere of fear, suspicion, and distrust that has developed over the last few weeks in the immigrant community demands some form of communication. After much discussion with the broader leadership, we decided that putting up a simple banner with a simple message would be a wise, strategic move.
God willing, early next week we will hang a 8′ x 3′ banner facing the street that reads, “We extend Jesus’ love and salvation to ALL our neighbors” written in English and Spanish. This may seem like the most self-evident thing possible for a church to say. However, if you put yourself in the shoes of a frightened neighbor questioning their future, we believe it is a necessary re-affirmation of our commitment to love our neighbors as Christ has loved us. Pray with us that this will have a positive effect in moving toward our neighbors with mercy so that they might come to trust in Jesus for salvation.
3. June 19th Neighborhood Picnic
In the past one way we have sought to reach out to our neighbors is through sharing food and fun with them on our church property. Once we spread the word through the neighborhood children, we have had up to 75 neighbors come to enjoy games, sports, and a meal. Tomas Barrera, who works extensively in our neighborhood, has shared with me that, for families used to being ignored by non-Latinos in higher tax brackets, such a gesture is a powerful testimony to the mercy of Christ.
Because of this potential of portraying the gospel, we want to plan another neighborhood picnic for Saturday evening, June 19th. We announce this 6 weeks in advance so that you will join us in praying about how we can best bless our neighbors through this event. While we have a basic formula for making the picnics work, we want to be creative in how we display Christ’s love. Please be in touch [chris@whittonavenue.org] with any ideas you have.
Let us continue to pray that God would be glorified in our church as we seek to share his love with our neighbors.
On God’s mission with you,
Pastor Chris