WORD FROM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR - Tom Bulick

11/27/2007

In a recent Quick Connections email about “third places” I promised to post tips on ways to show hospitality, ways to serve, and ways to live love in your neighborhood. Here they are. By the way, if you don’t receive Quick Connections, you can sign up on the website or call 1-866 726-8346 to receive it.

10 Ideas to Live LOVE on Your Street:

1. Prayer is critical for being Lights on your Street. Begin to pray for practical ways to join God in His work.
2. Pray daily asking God to develop in you a heart of love for others. These are friends, not “projects.”
3. Use the map on the other side of the card to record the names of the people who live next door and across the street from you.
4. Try to learn 2-3 more neighbor’s names. Ask a neighbor you know if they know the names of others.
5. Take a walk. Stop to introduce yourself talking about simple things like the weather, the Cowboys, etc.
6. Work outside one night in your front yard. Greet all who walk by with a simple, “Hi, how are you doing?”
7. Start waving to neighbors as you drive through your neighborhood. Create a friendly feel on your street. You’ll be surprised at the connections you’ll make.
8. Buy/Make a loaf of fresh bread, and drop it by a neighbor’s house in time for dinner.
9. Ask questions. An example is, “How does our neighborhood compare to the one where you grew up?” Or, “How has this neighborhood changed in the last 10 years?”
10. Keep a journal to record prayer needs. Always remember: Street Lights is a lifestyle, not a program. Expect God to be at work through you!
    

10 Ideas to Show HOSPITALITY on Your Street:

1. Ask God to develop in you a heart and lifestyle of hospitality toward those on your street. Ask to join Him in His work in the lives around you.
2. Begin the practice of grilling in the front yard. As you grill, invite those who pass by into conversation.
3. Any time you leave on vacation, ask one of your neighbors to get your mail. Invite them into your life.
4. As you make dinner one night, make double. Plan to take the extra to a family on your street.
5. Plan a Christmas cookie decoration at your house for the first week of December. Invite others to your home for a night of fun.
6. Attend some type of community event (like a high school football game), and invite a neighbor to attend.
7. If you need to borrow a tool, ask a neighbor if they have one and are willing to loan it to you. This gives you a shared experience.
8. Invite a family over for dessert this week. Open your home to others on your street.
9. Plan a block party. You might consider roasting marshmallows or using a projector to show an outdoor movie.
10. Find out if there is anyone on your street who may not have plans for Thanksgiving. Share a Thanksgiving meal together with someone who is alone this season.

10 Ways to SERVE on Your Street:

1. Ask God to help you be His hands and feet on your street. This will help to open your eyes to opportunities.
2. Look for a yard which needs some help, and consider lending a helping hand or surprise them.
3. Offer to watch a neighbor’s children for them to get a night out together. Some couples go months without any time out together.
4. Move your neighbor’s empty trash cans up to the edge of the house. If you see trash in your neighborhood, pick it up.
5. When running to the store, call a neighbor to see if they need you to pick up an item while you’re there.
6. Ask yourself what resources you can offer to your neighborhood, and then offer those resources to others. (An example might be loaning out a yard tool.)
7. Mow a neighbor’s lawn while they are gone, or edge the lawns of the yards around yours when edging.
8. If you have a garden or purchase extras of anything, offer these extras to your neighbors as a gift.
9. Offer to be “on call” if your neighbor can’t get home in time to let their pet out.
10. While washing your car, offer to wash your neighbor’s or wash them together.
    
    

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10/30/2007

I just got back from a “Group Life Conference” in Toronto sponsored by The Leadership Centre Willow Creek Canada. And as you’ve probably heard, everybody’s talking about “the missional church.” The conversation has been around for a while, but since I haven’t paid close attention to it until recently, I’m hearing some things for the first time. Fortunately it doesn’t take long to make sense out of the fundamentals behind the discussion, and reading a book on the subject doesn’t hurt. The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch published in 2003 by Hendrickson Publishers is a good one to start with.

Here’s a description of one of those fundamentals right out of the book. “The missional church is incarnational, not attractional, in its ecclesiology. By incarnational we mean it does not create sanctified spaces into which unbelievers must come to encounter the gospel. Rather, the missional church disassembles itself and seeps into the cracks and crevices of a society in order to be Christ to hose who don’t yet know him” (12).

It seems to me that The Connecting Church model is a missional model. It has incarnational inclinations to say the least. Here’s what I mean.

Pantego Bible Church used to host a Fall Festival at the church. It was a mega event with all the trappings: bouncy houses, popcorn machines, face painting, carnival games, food and drinks, pumpkins, hay bales--the whole nine yards. Families drove from near and far--and farther--with their kids in tow to get there. And once they arrived, they bought tickets--games were 1 ticket, food was 2 tickets, bouncy houses were three tickets. You get the picture.

Now don't get me wrong; it was great, and if your church hosts a Fall Festival, it's probably great, too. But we don't host one anymore for a whole lot of reasons. Here's one big one. We realized that the one night of the year when our neighbors were out and about in the neighborhood we were inviting our people to leave their neighborhoods and come to the church. So we moved our Fall Festival into the community. Rather than invite the community to the church, we decided to be the church in our communities. Now we encourage individuals and home groups to reach out to their neighbors by hosting a Fall Carnival in their neighborhood.

Knowing that interested families will need resources, our Children's Ministry team has put together "Carnival in a Can." It's a can--literally a one gallon paint can--that includes 36 door hanger invitations, Scripture stickers for candy, salvation tracts, and an instruction booklet, along with other optional resources: sidewalk chalk, paint and brushes for painting pumpkins, and a craft. This year instead of one mega event on the church campus, fifty events will be hosted in fifty neighborhoods thanks to "Carnival in a Can."
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Good News! The downloadable pdf file on suggested resources for the 30 Core Competencies is now on our website, resources link: http://www.theconnectingchurch.com/resource_by_comp.asp. Sorry it took so long.