Good neighboring isn’t extremely complicated; it takes thoughtfulness mixed with genuine love and care for the people around you. Put it together with Gospel intentionality in the life of a follower of Jesus and the opportunity to fulfill the mission to make disciples comes alive.

Here is what we have discovered so far: Wherever potential neighbors are found we as followers of Jesus Christ need to …

pause to OBSERVE (Step 1) as we pay attention, take notice, and respond to others.
give people ACCESS (Step 2) to our lives. It’s giving them the permission and liberty needed to approach us and be a part of our life with the freedom to be our friend.
learn to really LISTEN (Step 3) to others as we resist the temptation to mimic the art while thinking about what we are going to say next. Ultimately, listening conveys an impression to the speaker that we are interested in them.

And finally we come to the fourth important key in Good Neighboring as we take a look at what it means to SHARE (Step 4). At its base, to SHARE is to proclaim through our words and actions the Gospel or Good News of Jesus Christ.

At first glance we may be tempted to read this word and move on thinking we have it under control. Maybe we do. And just maybe we only think you do.

We can do almost anything except share with others. When we come to proclamation things seem to freeze up. Our minds go blank or get all jumbled up as we realize:

we don’t know what to say or how to say it;
many of the things we have been taught at church to use in these moments, unfortunately, don’t seem to fit our circumstance.
the speeches we have learned for such moments sound memorized and stilted.

In response, we ask ourselves questions like:

How do we proclaim and sound natural?

How do we share and not feel like it’s being forced into the conversation?

How might we lead without manipulating the conversation?

The answer eluding us is to become fluent in Gospel sharing.

It is the ability to know the story of God so well we can integrate it into all sorts of daily conversations without it sounding like religion 101. We posses the ability to know our own story in such a way we can share it freely with others. We help others understand how our story intersected with God’s story and the transformation that resulted from that convergence.

Gospel fluency is crucial to sharing the good news that the Kingdom of God has come near to the People of Peace in our lives. They are people who are often unaware of the proximity of His kingdom and probably have no clue what it could mean for them. It is the conversation of incarnational living, as we take all the stuff that came about through the first several steps in Good Neighboring, and we share with them how God’s story intersects with their lives just like it intersects in our lives.

Gospel fluency is essential if
we want to fulfill the Great Commission in our time.

It is an effective way we can make disciples, who make disciples. To proclaim is simply the process we use to let others know the secret to life that we have discovered. It is literally SHAREing with them the love of Jesus Christ. Capisce (cah-PEE-sheh)?

Good neighboring goes the distance. It puts the People of Peace in our lives into the control position so they feel less threatened by the revolutionizing message that God loves them and has come near to them. It helps them comprehend what this means and opens the door for life transformation as the Holy Spirit leads them forward.

Before we can do anything of substance in Good Neighboring we need to OBSERVE those around us, give People of Peace ACCESS to our lives, LISTEN to our neighbors and SHARE with them the Gospel in a way that sounds like Good News to them. This is how we find out what our neighbors need to hear and see. Join us as we take another step in Good Neighboring to change our world.

Good Neighboring (Part 5)