Blessing our Neighbours

If there's anything I've learned about ministry, it's how important it is to be intentional. Meredith and I lived in our first apartment for almost three years and barely knew the other families and students living in our building. Sure, people moved in and out a lot so we had that excuse, and people didn't hang around outside much so we had that excuse. But I can't say that we did a very good job at being different from anyone else when it came to forming relationships.

Forming relationships is the basis of loving people the way that Jesus loves people. That is, getting outside of your comfort zone and making other people more important, and allowing God to change us through each other. And we can't change each other or bless each other without continuously and intentionally being a part of each other's lives.

So when we moved to the house we're in now we made a promise to each other that we would be more loving, and more involved with our neighbours in an intentional way. The difference is immeasurable. We're still working on it, but we've been forming positive loving relationships with the people who live around us. We've formed relationships where we can bless others and others can bless us.

That's what blessing our neighbours is all about. It's not about a strategy to convert people or to get the Christian message out to more people. It's about loving people practically the way Jesus did. The challenge for you over the next couple of weeks is to intentionally bless those people you know. Whether you live near them, work with them, or just see them on a regular basis.

Together we want to help each other make intentional decisions, and help each other find the right moments to further these relationships. Here's a few things we'll be doing:

• Baking day (Aug 4th 3:00PM) - We're going to be making some baking; (pies, banana bread, cupcakes or whatever we want), to give out to others.
• Yard work (Aug 17th morning) - Over the last couple weeks there have been plenty of wind storms and heavy rain. We'll be offering ourselves to our neighbours for any yard-work or random tasks needed.
• Kids crafts (Aug 18th 10:30AM) - At our celebration service, the kids will be making crafts specially for people they've met, solidifying the lessons learned in this time.

These things should not be all that we're doing over the next few weeks. During our group nights we'll be challenging and encouraging each other for new ideas and motivation. We can also inspire each other by sharing what we've been doing on the Facebook page, the BBM group, or the comment section. Feel free to invite people out to what you're got planned.