A few years after Karen and I were married, we started
attending a small Charismatic church in our neighborhood. Our small and
friendly church was literally adjacent to a very conservative church—we shared
a common retaining wall. Years earlier, the church had purchased a piece of property
from our church to build a larger parking lot. One would think that an act like
that would create a rather cordial relationship between the two congregations,
but au contraire.
Both churches held their services simultaneously. Every
Sunday, as soon as I got out of our car, I would start waving at our neighbors
attending the church next door. In all the years we attended church there, none
of our Christian neighbors ever waved back at me. Somehow, their more correct
theology prevented them from showing the love of Christ to those Christians
whose theology was not quite as sophisticated as theirs. I often wondered,
“Isn’t loving our neighbors as ourselves a part of Christ’s greatest mandate to
his followers? Even if they considered me a heathen dog, I still deserved some
crumbs off their righteous table, as the Grecian woman said to Jesus.”
By the way, we, the Charismatic believers, might think we
are more ecumenical than other denominations, but when it comes to loving our
neighbors as ourselves, we have our own unique issues. I attended a Charismatic
mega church for years. Next to the property was a Masonic temple. During all the 12 years that I
attended church there, I never paid any attention to our Mason neighbors. After
all, they were a bunch of demon-possessed people who should have been avoided
at any cost.
I will never forget the day when my friend Terry, a staff
member at the mega church, was asked by the leadership to inquire into the
possibility of purchasing the Masonic temple. This is what the temple’s
caretaker said to Terry, “You people have been our neighbors for 14 years. Not
once have you even acknowledged our presence, and when you finally have, it’s
because you want us out of the neighborhood.”
In one of my earliest posts, “Are You A Heat Waver”, I asked
the following question: if you the individual (If you’re a pastor, I’m not
talking about your church building, or your church members, but you and your
family.) move out of your neighborhood tonight, will your neighbors miss you tomorrow?
If not, why not?
As Dallas Willard said, “The key to understanding the
teachings of Jesus still remains: Loving our neighbors as ourselves in the
power of God. And when you think
about what that means, you realize that if that were done, almost every problem
that we have in our cities would be solved. All we have to do is to simply
follow Jesus’ words.”
Recently, at a meeting related to the Neighborhood
Initiative, a movement started by my dear friend, Lynn Cory, a pastor shared
with the 60 pastors present the difficulty he had in connecting with his
neighbors. “I’m in a tough neighborhood. I don’t know how to approach my
neighbors,” he said. I suggested that he starts waving at anyone who walked or
drove by his house. Yesterday, I received this video clip by him (It might take a while to load).
It’s amazing what a genuine act of kindness through the love
of Christ can do.
PS. If you’re interested in reaching out to your neighbors,
may I suggest the book, Neighborhood
Initiative written by Lynn Cory? You can buy it on Amazon, or get it
directly from: www.neighborhoodintiative.org
