We are all familiar with the words of Christ, “Love your neighbor.”  Part of being a Christ-follower is carrying out his commission to love, serve, and share the Good News of God’s love in the Gospel with those around us.  By neighbor, we don’t necessarily mean just the guy who lives next door, but all of those people who fall in your circle of influence.  This could be people in your neighborhood, people in your work place, in your class room, in your lab, on our metro route, in the places you eat, play, or shop, etc…  I bet if you stop and think, you can come up with a very long list of people who you regularly interact with on some level.  Those people are your neighbors!

If we are to show Christ’s love to them in practical and relevant ways, it will take intentionality and creativity on our part.  Now my guess is that most believers have the desire to reach their neighbors for Christ, but what they lack is the confidence and clear instruction on exactly how to do it.  So that’s why we are having this conversation called Next Door Initiative.  We simply want to motivate and equip our church family to take initiative in reaching out to their neighbors. 

So here’s what we’re going to do:  We are going to be putting a weekly idea, or tip in the bulletin each week at church that will give you very achievable action steps to take in reaching out in clearly identifiable ways.  We’ll also post this tip on the Facebook group wall, just in case you miss it on Sunday.  Also, we will be developing a Next Door Initiative webpage linked to our main site to keep an archive of all of these ideas.  So at the end of a few months, you will have way more than enough action steps to keep you busy if you choose to accept the challenge of loving you neighbor. 

In addition, for extra motivation, we will be having some of our members periodically get up on a Sunday during church and share about their experiences in living out NDI.  It always helps to hear real and recent stories that model this lifestyle for us all to see and be inspired by.  Consider yourself invited to join us in this initiative. We are dreaming of what could happen if we all consistenly live outwardly focued on those around us.  We are prayerful that many new people will be reached with the Gospel and brought into the family of faith because of these efforts. 

For your consideration, here’s the list of NDI ideas so far:

• Pick a night of the week to have neighbors over to your place for dinner, get to know them, invite them to church.  Try to do this at least once a month until you have reached out to all of your neighbors.
• Never Eat Lunch Alone!  Use your lunch break time at work/school as much as you can to connect with people you are reaching out to.  (Short coffee breaks also work great.) After all, we’ve all got to eat, right?       
• Social Media!  Use your Facebook and other social media sites to connect people with our church.  Simply invite friends to our pages/ groups and post/re-post stuff so that  your circles of peers are aware of what opportunities exist for them at the CitC.  Very easy to do,  and guaranteed to be effective. www.thecitc.com/facebook                         
• Acts of kindness.  Find natural and practical ways to serve your neighbors.  Feed their pets while they are away.  Help them in the yard when they are short on time.  Bring them a meal when they are sick.  Help them move a heavy piece of furniture.  Loan them a tool they need. You will be surprised what a big difference small acts of kindness make in opening doors for conversations about Christ.
• Pay attention on the METRO. Chances are, you ride the bus, shuttle, or train with some of the same people frequently. This is a good time and place to make new acquaintances with people who may live very close to you. Form a friendship and invite them to attend Community Group with you as a chance to meet others in your neighborhood.
• Include friends and neighbors for little random social events. For example, last week was a great opportunity to text a few friends and just say, ‘hey you wanna go watch the Superbowl with me and some of my friends from church?’ Almost every week, there’s something going on in each of our lives that gives us the opportunity to be relational and inclusive if we choose to. This is huge in making people feel comfortable enough with you to one day join you at church or community group.
• Get involved in your neighborhood association. If you’re community has an HOA or something of the like, it’s a great place to get to know your neighbors. By attending the meetings, socials, or volunteering on committees, etc… you can demonstrate that you really care about your neighborhood. And being a good neighbor always opens doors to share Christ’s love.
• The YMCA. No, not the song and dance, but the place where you go work out and play sports. Being involved in your local YMCA, or the like, is an excellent way to meet people and form new friendships that will create new opportunities to share Christ. The time spent on the field or in the gym together builds trust and openness to conversations. And as a plus…you might just get in better shape!
• How about a good old-fashioned picnic? While the weather is this nice, it’s a great chance to invite a neighbor to join you for a picnic. Pick a city park or even a state forest and have a day outdoors just enjoying the scenery and getting to know each other. Conversations may naturally arise that will give you the opportunity to share your faith. Nonetheless, the relationship will be stronger and future time together with neighbors will be likely.
• New Movers! Between now and July, lots of new people will be moving into the med center area. Many of them will be looking for a new church to plug into. Be watching for new people in your neighborhood and office. Welcome them to Houston and offer to help them settle in. Conversations about church may naturally arise and you’ll have the chance to invite them to come check out The CitC.
• Kid’s Play Dates. Kids are a wonderful way to connect with the other families around you. Take note in your neighborhood who has kids or babies the same age as yours and arrange a time to get together and talk kids stuff and let them all play. We find that families are incredibly open and ready to hang out when little ones are involved. As the relationship forms, you’ll have the chance to invite your friends to church and have their kids get connected at CenterKids.
• Vacation. This time of year, it’s likely that you’ve got lots of neighbors close by who will be going on vacation. If they let you know when they will be gone, offer to help keep an eye on their place for them. Pick up the mail, bring in the papers, feed the pets, water the flowers, that sort of thing. This is a huge way to be a servant and show love to your neighbors. These kinds of acts of kindness usually result in solid relationships where openness to spiritual conversations will be probable. Give it a try this summer!
• Welcome Baskets. Here’s what we did this week to reach out to others around us- We brought ‘welcome baskets’ to the Resident’s Lounge at Texas Children’s to provide a heap of snacks and a simple act of kindness to the incoming group of hard working young doctors. There are hundreds of opportunities like this throughout the med center to do small things with large love in the name of Jesus to let the community know that someone recognizes them and cares about them.
• Third Places. One of the arts of living missionally is identifying and frequenting "third places". These are places besides work and besides home (you could add besides church too) where people in a community go to be around other people. Simply put, "third places" are the hang out spots in a given area. I would encourage you to stop and think about where the "third places" are around you. Coffee shops, Cafes, Bookstores, Gyms, Pools, Parks; these are all places where you can form new relationships for Christ. What are your "third places"?
• Weekly Missional Planning. Most things worthwhile in life require some planning, right? Have you considered planning ahead on what you will do this week missionaly? Simply sit down this afternoon and think through your week. Who can you plan to intentionally connect with for Jesus’ sake? This may involve picking a night to have a neighbor over for dinner, or remembering a friend that needs help with something, or planning to bake cookies and deliver them to the people who just moved in on your floor. For most of us, if we don’t have a plan, then it won’t get done. Will you consider making it a habit to have a weekly missional plan?
• Provide a Meal. Cooking and delivering a meal to those who need a little extra help will go a long ways in building a meaningful relationship. Those that have been sick, recovering from surgery, recently had a new baby, or just the really stressed out will all appreciate this gesturer of kindness. Check out www.carecalendar.org as a creative tool to equip and organize this type of ministry.
• Football Season is Here! This is a great time of year to connect with neighbors and make friends for Christ’s sake. On Sunday afternoons or Monday nights, call up some friends and people on your street, grill some burgers, watch the game, and deepen those relationships around you. Just be sure you don’t make any enemies by cheering for the wrong teams!

The list will be growing as the weeks go by.  If you would like to add your suggeestions to the list, please share them with us.  Just email ben@thecitc.com and tell us what you are doing to reach out to others and we’ll be happy to add it to the list.  Stay tuned for more info coming your way throughout the year.